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Hello Blog Readers!!
I’m sure everyone is ready to hear about the competition and my strategy for losing 19.4 lbs. and 10.3% of my body weight in 6 weeks. Never fear, as I will absolutely talk about the past 6 weeks and how I truly believe they changed my life forever. A lot of people have said to me over the last couple of days how I should be so happy we did this competition. Of course, they are right. This competition and the chance to win $600 doing something I needed to do anyway, was the kick in the ass I needed to get going in the right direction. Though, I probably would not have had to do the competition had I just listened to my wife all along. Had I listened to her, I certainly wouldn’t have had as much weight to lose. We have a joke in our house that if I just listened to her, I wouldn’t have nearly the problems I find myself having. Sadly, most of the time this is less of a joke and more of a true statement. I will get back to the competition in a minute, but first, a few things…
It’s funny really. My wife has been blogging
about healthy living now for almost a year. In addition to that, she has truly
lived a healthy lifestyle. She works out, she eats well, and she is conscious of the
decisions she makes in regards to her health. I’ve watched her put all of her
food into her phone for the day (as we watched TV at night) to determine how
many cookies she could have. Meanwhile, I would eat cookies until they ran out.
Have you ever eaten so many cookies you had to get more milk? You literally had
to stop eating cookies to get a refill on milk because you had ALREADY EATEN SO
MANY DAMN COOKIES?
Typing this out makes me wonder two things. How did my wife
stay strong when despite being vocally supportive of the changes she wanted to
make in her life I provided no REAL support for her? And, How did it get to this
point? The first one is a tough one. How does one stay on a healthy path when
their partner is pulling them off of it whenever possible? Carolyn only needed to mention 5 Guys burgers or B-Dubs wings and we would be there. It is
amazing to see that despite all of this, she has been able to start hitting her
goals. I can only imagine how much quicker it would have been had she had more
support from me.
My second question is how had I gotten to
this point? I was once pretty athletic, I loved the gym, and I didn’t eat like
an absolute moron. Sure, I wouldn’t say I ate healthy because that would be a
lie, but I understood portions. I was running businesses at the young age of 21 and working a lot, so going through a drive
thru wasn’t uncommon. Then one day, portions stopped mattering. Furthermore, what little
free time I had wasn’t going to be spent at the gym. Drinking with my buddies was much more fun than running on a treadmill. So it went on like that. Instead
of a burger and fries it became a burger and a side burger. Then it became a burger
and a side burger AND fries. Then it became 3 tacos and 2 burritos when we went to
Taco Bell. Why not? They are little! I’ll get the ones with chicken! And we all know anything that has chicken in it is healthy. I work hard
and I should enjoy myself!
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| Not sure who's photo this is, but it sums up the above statement quite well. |
I ignored all warning signs because who wants to pay
attention to those? I couldn’t run a mile anymore. Even when we went to the gym
and lost weight for our wedding I didn’t do any cardio. I didn’t need it I would
say to myself, "I want to get built! Cardio makes you lose muscle mass!" So the
fact that I couldn’t run wasn’t a sign of anything bad, so I thought. I had been getting regular chest
pains (absolutely heartburn) and I would wake up in the morning gagging. My stomach
was always upset, my clothes fit like shit, I literally lost my chin. No worries, I
would think. This happens with age. Even when my doctor told me that at the age
of 28 I had elevated sugar levels, I dismissed it.
Carolyn tried to help with
some tough love. As I would open my 2nd cheeseburger she would
mention how sad it was going to be raising our children alone. That may seem
drastic, but it was true. I thought, "I wasn’t that big right?" Even at my largest, I was right at 200lbs.
That’s not enormous for a guy who pretends to be 6ft tall? Right? She certainly had
a point. If I take after my Dad's side of the family, it
isn’t a question of whether I will die of a heart attack, but when. Should I
really be tempting fate like this? Then, for no other reason than the prospect
of having $600 extra dollars, I decided to give change a shot…
I weighed in for our competition the day
after returning from our trip to Snowshoe. This annual trip is my favorite of
the year. What a great group we have going each year, it is so much fun. But, it
also probably the most unhealthy 5 day binge one could possible be a part of. I think I
literally drink every minute I am awake while there. I f you see me in Snowshoe, come up and
say hello. I am sure to give you one of the extra beers I have in my pocket.
I won’t even begin to describe the food we eat since Carolyn has already done that in
previous posts. I weighed in at 187.6lbs in our initial weigh in. I was actually
pretty happy about that since I was certain I would be back in the 190’s. Since the
wedding, I have kind of hovered in the high 180’s to mid to low 190’s.
It’s worth
pointing out that at my wedding, I was in the high 160’s. This was due to a
combination of not eating and stress and was in no way related to some type
of positive change I had made in my life. This was proven when I returned home from
the honeymoon and I was over 10lbs heavier.
Anyway, I immediately assumed that to win this
competition I would need to lose 10% of my body weight. This was a winner take
all competition, so anything short of that would simply not do. I
decided that I needed to do two things: run a lot and listen to all of the crap
Carolyn has been saying about food and portions. To defend myself, I love fresh
food. I love to make things from scratch. Though she may not admit it, a lot of
the pictures on this blog came from food I made while Carolyn was on her way
home from work. What the pictures don’t say is the AMOUNT of the food I would
then eat. I recognize that meals made from scratch are better than those
handed to you through a window. What I didn’t realize was HOW MUCH better they
were.
Carolyn downloaded the MyNetDiary app to my
phone right away. She wanted to make me conscious of what I was eating. Boy did
it work. I had no idea. I recommend this app to anyone looking to make a
positive change. Knowing just how bad something is for you is key to training
yourself to not want it. I now know that my daily Snickers bar was adding 260
calories to my intake. 260! It also helps you set goals and track how you are
doing in achieving them through your food. Nutrition has got to be like 70% of
any weight loss program. It is THAT important. At first, lowering my calories was
tough. I had cravings that before I would just eat to satisfy, but now, I had to work
through them. I started to find that going to bed at night and knowing I was
under my calories for the day was a much better feeling than eating a candy bar
at 230pm.
I also started running. A few days a week, at first, just to get some
cardio in. It was brutal. I couldn’t go a mile. I couldn’t break 10 minutes. I
couldn’t keep up with my wife. It hit me how far I had fallen when we went for a
run one night and she was ½ mile ahead of me pretty much the entire time. She
would have to go into cul-de-sacs just to waste time so that I could catch up.
All the while, Franklin would be running beside her, looking back every few minutes
and probably thinking, “Looks like Daddy is about to die”. He was right. I was
dying. Sadly the only thing that would provide me with motivation was the
thought of winning $600. I powered through it. Then, a funny thing started
happening. I started to lose weight. Eating well and running daily seems to be a
magic formula for weight loss!
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| March, 2012 - just after starting the competition |
I started to get faster and stronger. My
breathing was easier. I was almost able to keep up with my wife and my dog. I
ran a 5k with my wife and our friend Layne and they barely beat me (I consider this
to be a win). Then I kept running more and more. 10 miles per week, 15 miles per
week, 20 miles per week and I was loving it. I felt worse when I didn’t run than
when I did. The pounds just started coming off, 183, 181, 178, 176, 174, 172, and I kept getting smaller and smaller. No
more heart burn. No more gagging. When we went out with friends, I ate human
sized portions. I only had a few beers. I have always been worried about the
social aspect of change. My entire life I’ve been Mike the funny guy who drinks
beers and says funny stuff and does funny things. What if I wasn’t that guy
anymore? Turns out, it wasn’t the beers I drank that made me funny, it was the
beers that others drink!
172 lbs soon became 170, then 168. I ran a 10k the week before the final weigh-in and I finished (by my count) in 51 minutes. 51 minutes for over 6 miles? I couldn't
believe it. I remember driving home that day and realizing something. I had
already won. Sure, the money would be great, but I didn’t have to win cash to
know I had achieved victory. For the first time in a long time I made the right
decisions for my health. I remember thinking that day that I hadn’t joined a
competition. I had changed my life.
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| Last week, 3 days before the last weigh in |
Shortly before the last week of the
competition, a couple of my best friends and I, decided to train
for a marathon. Me? A marathon runner? I guess we will see. But why not? If I
have learned anything these past 6 weeks it’s that doing the right thing is hard
sometimes, but if I really want something there is no reason to think I can’t do
it. Six weeks ago I couldn’t finish a mile. If and when I finish this marathon training, I
will have logged almost 900.
I’ve learned that I am capable of more than I once
gave myself credit for. I have learned that I love running. Oh ya, and I’ve learned I
should have just listen to my wife all along.
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| Ahhh... true love. Thanks to Tereasa for this gem. |
Thanks for reading this long story. Sorry
about that, but I just had a lot of thoughts to get down. Maybe if I promise to
shorten it I will get to blog again sometime and I can let you know my progress
on the training…
Yay Mike! So happy for you!! You are looking smoking hot BIL!
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