My Weight Loss Journey Has Ended

At the time of the last blog entry, my runs were averaging around ten minutes per mile. Part of this was because of the training that I was putting myself through. While my shoulder was injured and I was looking to lose weight, I decided to do the maximum that I could do decrease calories as opposed to being able to run faster. So twice a week I would run five miles, and twice a week I would do sprint days while doing lower body weight lifting. My running did improve, but very slowly.

Now that I'm happy with my weight (more on that later), I decided to knock the dust off an old Higdon training plan. I'm only doing the first two weeks of the program, which are the same except for the sprint day and the long run (which I'm keeping at five miles for now). The first run of the week is three miles, and when I did it last Monday, I found out that I can run much faster when I'm not saving fuel for the last two miles. So I averaged about 9:30 per mile. The next time I ran three miles I averaged about 9:15 per mile. On Saturday, I ran five miles with a finishing time of 46:03. That's just a millisecond over 9:12 per mile. I should have no problem going below nine minutes on my next three mile run (tomorrow). Knock on wood.

One of the reasons why my five mile run was so good was that I have made Saturday my designated "cheat day" on my diet. I used it as an excuse to carbo-load. I ate pancakes for breakfast and had a small pizza for lunch. It was more starch than I had eaten in a month. I'm back to eating low carbs for the rest of the week.

My goal is to eventually run five miles in under forty minutes (less than eight minutes per mile).

As far as my strength training goes, I started doing drop sets to increase my upper body strength quickly. Drop sets methods vary, but for me it was taking the most weight I could do with one rep and doing that; then, reducing the weight and doing as many reps as I could. I continued doing that until I was either bench-pressing ten pounds, or I had reached a weight so low that I could lift it more than 20 times. It's worked very well for me.

I found out that I hadn't lost a lot of strength in my back. Apparently carrying a three year old and an infant around is a pretty good back workout. :) So this week I'm going to start training to do my first chin-up. I've never been able to do a chin-up or a pull-up in my life, not even when I was a skinny kid. It's always been something I want to be able to do. I like the way this plan is looking, so I'll give it a chance.

I've also decided that I'm not going to run a full marathon next year. I'll still do the Crim race with my wife, but there's a lot of stuff I want to be doing aside from running a very long race. I might change my mind down the line about that eventually, but for now I want to increase my strength, and if I can find the money for it (not happening right now-my ass is broke), go back into martial arts.

As far as the money issue goes on martial arts, I'm not going to let myself make any excuses on that, either. I used to be a black belt in Tang Soo Do. I still know how to do most of the moves in my head. There's no reason that I can't practice on my own until I can get the money to go to classes. I'm going to have to start making time for training. When I get the money I'll expand into MMA so I can increase my grappling abilities, but for now I'm more than capable of doing what I learned fifteen years ago.

Now for some really good news!

Last week my wife and I left our kids with her mom for the weekend. We used this as an excuse to have some alone time. We even checked into a hotel like we used to do before we got married. The room had a full body mirror, and I kept staring at myself in the mirror, completely naked. I was completely stunned with how good I look! I just kept looking at my front, then turning to my side. I struggled to walk away from the mirror every time I saw myself in it.

There's many things that give you good feelings, but none of them are nearly as effective as looking at yourself in the mirror naked, and loving how you look.

I guess this means my weight loss journey is at an end. I'm not dieting anymore to lose weight. I'm eating healthy to maintain the body I already have. This is a new experience for me. I either binge-ate whatever I felt like eating at any given time and didn't care if I gained weight, or I was on a diet and trying to meet a weight-loss goal. As of now, the number on the scale doesn't mean anything. I will still workout and eat right, and for that I will lose body fat and gain muscle, but as far as the number on the scale goes, I really don't give a shit.

This isn't to say I'll never weigh myself again. I'll still do that from time to time to make sure I'm not slipping up too badly. I just don't have a goal to move the numbers on the scale in any particular direction. If I gain ten pounds and it's all muscle, that's great. If I notice that my stomach is bulging a little, the scale will show that too, and it'll mean I have to be more careful. But my goal isn't to be thin. That's accomplished. My goal is to get stronger, faster, and better than I was before. The scale doesn't show any of that.

Confessions, Good News, and Other Stuff

Jesus, I haven't written since July.

Well, that's no surprise. Between May and September, I didn't work out at all. I also ate a lot of junk food. It's why my last entry talked about my kids but not about fitness. I wasn't even trying to get fit.

I wrote a long time ago that even if you're injured, you can still do something to get in better physical condition. So if you're injured, you should avoid giving up and find something that you can do.

I didn't do that. I gave up. I had a jacked up shoulder, but I didn't run. I did nothing, and I ate a bunch of unhealthy shit. I knew I was gaining weight. I could see it, and so did my family.

So, one day in September, I stepped on the scale. It said 292. I gained 42 fucking pounds, and I was almost back in the 300 club, a place I promised myself I'd never go back to. So I went to a place called the Medical Weight Loss Clinic to lose weight, and I started running again. I worked my legs on weight training days even though I couldn't lift with my arms.

I wanted to blog about going back on the diet and working out again, but at 292 pounds I was too ashamed. I was angry at myself for letting my body nearly revert back to where I was pre-surgery.

I'm now down to 256 pounds. Just six pounds away from where I peaked.

Medical Weight Loss Clinic gave some good pointers, but I still had to cheat on my diet because no matter how many times they swear differently (and they did), they have no idea how to deal with athletic people. They didn't know how to deal with a guy that burns anywhere from 1,100 to 1,500 calories in an exercise session. So I ate extra meat, protein shakes, and occasionally had to carbo-load to keep my blood sugar from hitting rock bottom. .So I'll be quitting this diet next week and start working on carb cycling. A lot of athletes swear by it, so I'll give it a shot, because...

My shoulder is finally healed up! Yay!

After waiting for months for my shoulder to heal on its own, I decided to get an MRI and saw a sports medicine specialist. The reason for my injury was a calcium deposit that had formed on the tip of my humurus, right where the bone meets the shoulder. So the doctor used an ultrasound to find the deposit, stabbed it with a large needle until it was no longer attached to my shoulder, and used another needle to suck it out. After a few days of recovery, I had full range of motion and no pain in my arm.

Now that my arm is healed up, I'm going to be working out even more than before.

My fixed arm also changed my priorities. When all I could do was work on my lower body, I decided I wanted to do a full marathon next year. Now I'm questioning that. My wife wants to do the Crim next year and I'll run that with her, but I don't know if I want to run a marathon when there's a lot of other stuff I want to do. I want to try powerlifting, martial arts, and work on being able to do my first chin up. If I can do all that and train for a full marathon, great. But I don't want running 26.2 miles being the end-all-be-all of my physical fitness.