I started this year weighing in at 214lbs. I weighed the same last year and the year before. The difference between Jan 1, 2006 and Jan 1, 2007 was the type of work I was doing. In '06, I had a lot more muscle on me, due to the nature of heavy labor. When you can lift and carry your own weight for fifty feet, that's really something. I was just plain tough, but I wasn't very agile and my stamina wasn't very good at all. Well, and I still had my gut.
This year, I have a partner in crime. I didn't in 2007 because she was pregnant. I'm leading the charge, getting both of us back to eating fresh vegetables and fruits, in that order. Our previous rut of boxed and canned foods is being forced to go by the wayside because that crap isn't healthy.
Goodbye Tuna Helper, hello grilled Salmon.
Goodbye Campbell's soup, hello homemade soup.
The soup side of things isn't something I'm going to miss. Since any canned soup has to be heat-processed to make it last for years on a shelf someplace, the cooking turns the contents bitter. To counteract that, a load of salt is added. Read the label.
I've also found I am somewhat MSG-sensitive. I'm not allergic or whatever; I'm just not tolerant of large amounts of the stuff if I expect to move around at all. This wasn't a problem for a long time, but it is for anyone who desires to eliminate obstacles that lead to procrastination. I've seen plenty of that from myself.
I'll give a bit of a timeline regarding my weight and fitness level, focusing on summertime because that's the only time I really paid attention:
1995: 115lbs Insane cardio stamina, agility and speed. Strength wasn't too bad, either. I was accused of wearing shoulder pads when the new school year started because my shoulder muscles were just plain massive after spending most of the summer on my bike. Only time in my life I've had a sixpack.
1996: 135lbs Got talked into taking karate classes, but my bike wasn't being used much. I was driving at this point, anyway. I figured if I was going to have to pay insurance on the car whether I used it or not, I was going to use it. Bad move.
1997: 174lbs I was working a steady summer job with part of my payment being the ability to eat as much as I wanted. This was my absolute downfall. I was a picky eater previously, but no longer. I enjoyed food and lots of it! I probably took in 7000 kcal a day sometimes.
1998: 184lbs Started college and started a job to pay for gas to get there and back. I became a reactive eater from all the stress. The massive amounts of caffeine I took in were my only appetite suppressant. Driving 140 miles roundtrip for school is never any fun.
1999: 168lbs Worked a medium labor job that really tested me physically. I lost a lot of weight while eating quite hearty foods. Breakfast was the key each day. Shocking the hell out of my system each morning before breakfast helped, too. Two hours of hard work before loading up on biscuits and sausage gravy or pancakes or French toast assures every single bit of energy will be used.
2000: 174lbs I started that year weighing about 200. A friend pointed out that I was fat like he was. I hadn't noticed it, but it was plain as day. I knew I would have to do something about it. The point was driven further into my mind as I was shopping for energy drinks and a girl I knew from high school came up to me. Jamie Smith was her name. More about her later on. I started the Body For Life program and it worked, but the workout regimen was just plain brutal. I decided to use my daily work as my workout and just follow the dietary method. All of that drew to a close just before Thanksgiving when I learned my temp job was ending.
2001: 185lbs Moved out on my own and gained weight. My job was a good workout, but I was eating a lot more than I should have been for what I was doing. This worked against me in a big way. I had theorized my body wouldn't let me go over 200lbs, but I would the next year.
2002: 195lbs I was only 195 due to being forced to ride my bike the 5 mile roundtrip for work. It's torture to try going fast on a BMX bike for more than a race. I wished I had any bike with more than one gear to speak of. I wouldn't get that wish, but I would get a car when the weather turned cold.
2003: 187lbs I wasn't focused on eating because I was spending so much time with my girlfriend. I wasn't working out or working hard in the physical sense, but that would come later that year.
2004: 189lbs I was two pounds heavier than I was the previous year, but it was a different weight this time, owing to heavy labor beating me down. I had 16% body fat. I would sink into reactive eating when the rigors of a rotating shift schedule I needed a Palm Pilot to keep track of would start affecting my marriage.
2005: 194lbs Same body fat, but I was gaining weight due to the job burning me out. Logic had left the minds of the powers that be and I was back to working graveyard shift again, due to the fact that I was the best employee behind the guy who had been doing the same job for eight years and would have to get the newbies up to speed.
2006: 180lbs I only reached this low of weight due to a form of temporary anorexia. After quitting my hellhole job to work in California, I still had my insane metabolism, but no intake. I was burning fat and muscle. The skinfold on my stomach reached 1". This all went to hell when I became a reactive eater again under the stress of not having seen my wife in a month, having to suddenly do a different job I had thought I would be eased into over time, and the fact I was unable to dedicate myself to my craft due to family obligations despite wanting to disappear into my safe zone like I always did when learning a new skill in a short amount of time. It was hell. I reached 210lbs before I left with haste to return to a clean slate of sorts. I would later start and maintain a fitness routine until contracting Salmonella poisoning and losing my momentum.
2007: 210lbs Hard to leave the house when your wife is in the latest stage of pregnancy, it's hotter than Hell outside and you just have nowhere to go. Even more difficult when you have a newborn to take care of. Add to that the fact I was working a sitdown job and my fate becomes easier to understand. I would take up World of Warcraft as a timekiller, signing up for a six-month prepay. Yeah, that one had me damned.
Upon moving to the new apartment that didn't suck balls, I would later find a used treadmill with a bad belt and have it sit around while I figured out what to do about the screwed up belt. I would give that treadmill up shortly after Christmas in favor of a different one (much newer) that had been sitting in someone's garage for a couple of years, meaning it had very little wear on it. Your failure is my fortune.
2008: A story yet to be written.
I remember seeing a T-shirt with the saying "The older I get, the better I was." and thinking it wasn't necessarily true for anyone. The male body stops growing around the age of 21. I recently saw a video of myself at age 20. I looked young, but had all the disadvantages that came with it, like acne. I look old enough that I sometimes don't get ID'd when buying my Guinness, but I can chalk that up to the premature gray hair I got from my Grandpa and the fact that fat people look older.
If you need an example of fat people looking older, look at LPGA champ Cristie Kerr. She went from looking frumpy to looking like a hot teenager. Awesome! Have a look.
These images are the property of their copyright holders, by the way. The left one is an AP photo while the right one is from LPGA.com.
Bravo, Cristie.
So, anyway, I've seen this kind of transformation before in real life. A girl I knew from way back in Jr High and on up through high school did the same thing. She had been somewhat fat the whole time I knew her and then, the same day in 2000 when a good friend said I was fat like he was, I crossed paths with her. She called to me and I turned around, expecting the person I saw to match the mental photo. No. Dead wrong. All I could think was "Wow." She seemed a lot happier. I can fully understand that.
Now I'm in a situation where I need to make the same kind of change. I'm sure everyone gets the itch for a change of scenery at some point. If you're fat, you want to be fit. If you're married, maybe you end up not wanting to be (I've never been able to understand that whole thing). I'm coming up on ten years since leaving high school and that means the reunion is coming up this year. I'm sure a lot of my classmates are doing the same thing I am in order to put their best foot forward. I wonder how many will succeed? I'll likely never know since I don't plan to attend.
My overall reason for this endeavor is sleeping in her crib at the moment. She is carrying weight on her shoulders the likes of which have never been seen before. The goal is to give her all the tools she needs in order to make the burden she will have to carry as relatively lightweight as possible. And that starts with keeping her body in check since, after all, it's one per customer there.
I originally wrote this as a draft on Jan 5, 2008. I post it now for the sake of full disclosure. I fell off that horse and that signified something else was afoot that I just wasn't seeing. Read on.
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