Just about a year ago I started making changes to my diet and decided to lose weight. This blog was and is intended to keep me motivated and is a record of what I’ve done and how I’ve done it. I haven’t written much lately but that’ll change. I just told my son that my brain needs exercise too and I exercise it by writing.
I started at 236 pounds January 3, 2013. As of January 11, 2014, I weigh 191 pounds. I’d say those changes were pretty successful. I thought I’d lose these 45 pounds or so much faster and much more easily. However, I have somehow found the self-discipline to not give up. I can’t say I haven’t gotten discouraged or that I haven’t thought about quitting the entire lifestyle.
I will admit that I have not been 100 percent strict to the diet regimen. I ate a lot of bad things in November and December. I was traveling a lot, to a few places I really enjoy, and overindulged. I also overindulged during the actual traveling. Too much junk food, too much…well, too much.
It’s amazing that a week after getting back on the proverbial stick as it were, the results in the mirror and on the scale are starting to get back in line. I am angry with myself that I wasn’t strict during the holidays and my jet-setting. I did keep up exercise as best I could, but hot pastrami sandwiches and pizza in New York and the best apple pie in the history of ever at Christmas were too much to resist.
I also took a little easy on myself with the exercise. I lifted weights as much as possible but I took a little weight off the bar and didn’t push myself as much as I should have. I was looking at my Nike+ running app today and I was very surprised at how little running or walking I’ve done since I started lifting weights. I definitely need more cardio in my life. I’ve taken on some running goals the past 12 months and I have recently set a new one for 2014.
When I started walking for exercise a year ago, I had a hard time walking three miles in under an hour. It felt like I had a grand piano on my back. I can now run three miles without stopping in the 32-36-minute range and it only feels like I have an upright piano on my back.
I kind of wished I started taking measurements last year. I really would like to know how many inches I’ve lost off my waist. I know clothes sizes are much different for me and I got some items at Christmas that are actually the correct size. It’s amazing how much better I look wearing clothes that actually, you know, fit. I’ve gone from 40-inch waist pants to 34, from XXL tops to L. I think I was up to 18-inch neck dress shirts at one point and I’m now back to 16-16½. I have totally shrunk out of one suit jacket. It looks like it’s hanging on a hanger when I wear it.
I’ve written on many occasions about being confused about what’s happening or how my body works. I am still very confused. Water-weight, what happens when you eat sugar, the correct balance with protein/carbs/fat, what gives energy, where energy comes from, what promotes fat burn, what builds muscle, which workout yields the best results…ugh. WHY THE HELL AM I DIFFERENT? What did I do to myself, what did I do to metabolism? Why does it seem that even when I “eat right” it doesn’t have the desired effect? Unless I go to extremes with my diet, I put weight back on. I’ve been tested, I don’t have a thyroid problem. And don’t tell me muscle weighs more than fat. I know that but trust me, I’m not all muscly.
Still, the Daniel Craig weight-lifting workout is still doing worlds of good for me after all this time. I like my shape better when I do this for three weeks at a time or so (have to switch it up from time to time). But I really need to run more and more often. I set out to run three miles non-stop last year and I can now do this on a pretty regular basis. I have to stop going a month between runs though (I do like the recumbent bike however). I have already done more in a week than I did the last thee months of last year.
What does all of this mean? What am I babbling about now? I am still 10-15 pounds away from my ultimate goal of 180. At that point, the diet will be adjusted and I’ll be able to eat “regular” food again. Soup for lunch has been a big help because it’s low calorie and very filling but I’m tired of soup.
It all means I need to get serious again.
I had been faithfully working out at least four days a week (five on non-travel weeks) even when my schedule was tough. It became very easy to not walk or run once weight lifting became my primary form of exercise.
Well…
It’s on like Donkey Kong now.
Like I mentioned, I’ve run/walked more in the last week than I have in three months. I have switched some things up with the weight on the bar and some variants in the workouts. It’s time to go to the next level – get to my target weight and get shredded.
You can see it in the photos below, I look and feel so much better than I did a year ago. I looked 14 months pregnant and I sure felt like I got run over by a truck every day. But, now it’s time to get to where I want to be.
Even though I was exercising, I forgot something that I had posted on Facebook after a workout. I wrote that if you are not out of breath, sweaty and sore after, you were doing it wrong. This past week I have definitely been out of breath, sweaty and sore after every workout and every run.
I still don’t understand my own body. I don’t understand why my weight fluctuates the way it does. I don’t understand why my body and food don’t get along.
One of the things I have been pondering lately is how bad I must have really been when I started that it has taken this long to get to where I am. If that made any sense. I guess I’ll have to look at the “before” pictures again. I still see the fat guy in the mirror. I still get torqued when the scale ticks up a pound or two. I try to trust the process, I try to trust that I’m doing the right things. My body fat and BMI numbers still say I’m technically obese. But hey, I’ve been doing this for a year, I’m not about to stop now. I just need to stop being lazy, know the difference between pain and injury and kick some ass.
Go hard or don’t go at all.
Stay with me folks. Hopefully, the next set of pictures will show some stunning changes.
Get the Knaak 