My friend Derek Coward posted over the holidays a wakeup call he had about how fat he has become. I’m in a similar boat. I was working out at the gym over the summer, and at some point had my routine broken and stopped going. There was not a week between August and December that I didn’t think about going to the gym or talk about going or even think “I’m going tomorrow.” It just never happened.
On January 2nd, I went back. I weighed myself and got my own wakeup call. I was 249 pounds, which is 4 pounds more than the heaviest I’ve ever weighed myself at. Besides, I have decided that size 38 is the fattest pants I will own. I refuse to buy size 40 because I feel that’s the point at which I have given up. This is my fire break, the point beyond which things must not progress.
I worked out on Friday and Saturday, and then again yesterday and today. I’m 4 for 5 in the new year. I have my routine set of doing long amounts of cardio on one day, lifting weights (via machine) one day, and swimming the third. I’ll do that routine six times through in a week if it happens, but I won’t be sad if it happens at least 3 times. It is the nature of my personality that it is easier for me to exercise a lot than a little. If I do it every day, it is a part of my daily life and routine. If I do it every other day, then it is always a question of whether today is the day or not, when is the day, what do I do? I’m not good at moderation, so easier for me to go all the way than dip a toe in.
I took a photo of me in all my 249 pound glory on Saturday. Conceivably I might post photos of my progress as a way of forcing my hand publicly to keep at it. At the least, I plan on blogging once a week with my progress. I find working these things out in public to be helpful for keeping the self-pressure on. I don’t know about the photos. Even for the intarwebs, it might be too much horrible in one place.
As a point in time, I weighted 247 today. If I have a fault in this, I weight too often. I’m an engineer, I want data. I know better than to over-interpret it. Drink a 32 ounce water and you’ve gained 2 pounds. Pee, and you’ve lost it back. If I can maintain a steady pound or two a week over the long haul, I’ll be quite happy. I’d like to get back to the 200 pounds I was at shortly after grad school. If I get there, I’ll think about going for the 165 that was me at graduation from my undergraduate program. Send encouragement and/or brick bats. Just don’t send candy.
Go, Dave! Good on ya…it’s tough to break back into exercise after a while off. I got lucky in that I started running while in NROTC in college, and never really stopped, so I’m pretty addicted at this point. Cardio-wise, I’m in good shape. I did stop weights last summer, though, and I need to get back into that…I’m in the same boat with you there. If I don’t make it an almost daily thing, it just doesn’t stick.
As for the weighing, you’re dead on IMO that you’re weighing too often. More precisely, the danger is in evaluating it too often. Data is good, but over-analysis will drive you insane. If you weigh in alot, bear that in mind, and just go for the steady reduction.
Good luck…I’m here if you want to chat or have running questions (though I’m no expert; I just plod away. *grin*) Email/chat/call anytime.
Drop the percentage body fat and the shape will follow. (Yes, I am thinking of Funkadelic.) We use a scale made by Tanita to roughly measure relative changes of body fat percentage. Tanita has a bewildering variety of models. I think I spent abot $50.
Look on the bright side: At the rate my weight-loss is going, it will be couple more weeks before I celebrate weighing 249.