I’m here. It’s just been a busy year. Not much to report. In a week or so, we’ll be headed back to the place where the picture in my header was taken. I’m in need of some big sky
Honestly, My focus this year has been on working on me more than anything, and by that I mean taking better care of myself physically. I’ve often thought that if you’re going to carry a gun to protect yourself, you also need to keep yourself in some sort of decent physical shape. What’s the point in carrying a gun, if you’re going to have a heart attack when things get physical?????
I realize that not everyone is in the position to just fix the problem. There are folks who have physical ailments which may prevent them from taking care of certain weight related issues. I don’t think that’s the case for most of us. Most of us choose not to. I’m fortunate. I don’t have any health issues other than my cholesterol is a bit elevated. But my family does have a history of diabetes, and some family members have had heart issues. I’m not quite 40, but I realize that my window of opportunity to correct this problem, because I WANT to, is closing. I would rather do it now at the time of my choosing, rather than because the Dr. is going to tell me I’m dead in 5 years if I don’t.
I’ve always been a bigger guy, and I’ve never felt like my size has prevented me from doing anything, but had a couple incidents last summer and fall that got my butt in gear to fix the problem. Nothing health related, but just little things that made me feel like my size was starting to have an impact on my being able to do things. That sucks. And I have no one to blame but myself. I lifted that fork every time and stuck it in my mouth. No one else.
I had been working out at a gym for the better part of a couple years, but my results have been less than meaningful mostly because I really didn’t know what the heck I should be doing. I’ve tried running, lifting weights, and a combination of the two, but just wasn’t able to make anything happen. When my contract expired, I took advantage of an opportunity to hire a trainer to show me what I needed to be doing.
I won’t tell you that it has been easy. It hasn’t. After I burned through my initial sessions with the trainer, I found out he was leaving for another gym and wanted me to come along. I really hadn’t seen any results, and the amount of money it was going to cost me was more than I was willing to spend. But we negotiated prices, and he asked for one month and that I do the things he asked me to do outside of the sessions. There were a couple times I thought he was full of crap and I was wasting my money. And it probably took a month before I saw ANY results other than just extremely sore muscles. Fortunately, I can be a stubborn ass when I put my mind to it, so I stuck with it. I really wanted just a routine that I could go do. “30 minutes on the treadmill 3 times a week, and then do these machines at these weights. And then when you reach this point, do this… etc, etc, etc.” Well, that’s what I had been doing on my own, and it didn’t work, for me anyway. Thankfully my trainer stubbornly refused to give that to me. He instead introduced me to Crossfit. It may not be for everyone, but it certainly fit with me, and the kind of challenges I like.
It’s been 5 1/2 months and here are the results
I’m down almost 50 pounds, with perhaps another 25-30 to go. There has been very little change to my diet, other than cutting out snacks, and just making better choices in the things I do eat. It’s just been a matter of being more active, and having more productive and challenging sessions at the gym. Desk jobs will kill you, especially if you combine it with stress and poor eating habits and no real physical exercise. If something is going to kill me, it’s not gonna be a desk, and certainly not with out a fight. My trainer has worked very hard to equip me with the knowledge of proper lifting form so that I can function properly on my own in a gym and not get hurt.
I realize losing weight is a hard issue for a lot of people. Don’t look at it like you have to loose 50-60-70-80-150 pounds. You only have to lose 1 pound. And when you’ve lost that one, move on to the next one. Just like you gained it…one pound at a time.
So that’s my story so far…. thanks for checking in!
