Thanks a lot for not telling me…
It seems like for better part of a decade (or two) I have been a little on the rotund side. I remember when I was a kid, I was actually rail thin. We used to go to Sears to get school clothes because I was a tad rough on them. Sears used to sell these jeans called ToughSkins. They had extra patches built into the knees and they were supposed to be indestructible. It seems like it took me two months to get holes in the knees of ToughSkins where regular jeans would only take me a week or two. Had Sears ever seen the patches my mom had to iron on my jeans to cover the holes I put in my ToughSkins, they would have been almost as embarrassed as I was by my mom’s choice of patches. Good ole ToughSkins. Anyway, the reason I bring up the ToughSkins is they used to have this funny way of calling fat kids fat. Their sizes were – Slim, Regular and Husky. I always got a kick out of that – Fat Kids = Husky. For the record, I was slim.
That was until I became ‘Husky’ myself. I hate you Sears!
So, under the guise of full disclosure, I am going to break down my weight struggles and what I have done to get on the road away from husky. First, a little history. About the time I got out of the Navy in 1992, I was probably as thin as I am ever going to be in my life. I was 6′ and about 155 lbs. I ate and drank whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and never gained an ounce. Between 1992 and the move to San Antonio in 1997, I discovered computers. Let’s just say my lifestyle became a bit more sedentary. Suddenly the 10-15 cans of soda per day and the 3+ drive thru meals a day began catching up with me.
This was me in the Navy.
The last time I can even remember being close to the ‘Mendoza Line’ (less than 200 lbs.) was in the late 90s. I had been trying to get back down to 200 lbs. and was about 215 at the time. I got down to about 210 by working out, then I got dog sick with the flu and got down to 205. Of course, as soon as I started feeling better, I ballooned right back up. For the better part of the last 15 years I would say I have been in the 230-235 range. Sure, I’ve had short stints where I would make an effort to lose weight and I would lose 5-10 lbs before putting it right back on. Here is one of MANY pictures of me looking less than svelte. I don’t know why my son is gnawing at that wine cork, I can only assume he takes after his wino mom in that regard.
You’re probably asking yourself why you’ve bothered reading this far and questioned whether or not there is even a point to this post. There probably isn’t a point. Having said that, I decided to get in shape this year. I made up my mind that I DID NOT want to be the ‘fat dad’ and that if I was going to do something to embarrass my son, it wasn’t going to be because I was fat. I plan to embarrass him a lot, just not so much with my appearance. With that goal in mind, I began a diet and exercise program back around Valentine’s Day this year. I’ve had respectable results and because I didn’t make many really drastic changes, it has really been fairly easy to stick to.
The Benchmark – Feb 14, 2012 – I estimate that, between the 10-15 sodas a day, the 2-4 fast food meals per day and random snacking, that I was putting away about 4,000-5,000 calories a day. I was 235 pounds at 6 ft. tall. I couldn’t run more than a minute or so without stopping at a distance of roughly a 1/4 mile. That was the absolute max.
Today – April 24, 2012 – I have completely quit drinking soda. I have not had a single drop since Feb 14th after more than 20 years of 10+ cans a day. I am consuming somewhere between 2,500 – 3,000 calories a day now. Here is the caveat with the ‘diet’, I am under no obligation to avoid anything other than soda. If everyone wants to go out for italian food, no problem, I just get right back to the diet for the next meal. Not a big deal. The diet honestly isn’t as much of a diet as it is trying to avoid fast food and cutting down on the portions of what I do eat. I still eat pretty much whatever I want, just less of it. I also still break down, once or twice a week instead of 2 or 4 times a day, and eat fast food. I am not gestapo about the diet, it is just kind of a rough blueprint I can live with.
I am also training to run in the Beach to Bay relay marathon again in May. I ran a leg in the B2B last year, which means I mostly walked it. My leg was 4.8 miles and I finished in 1 hour 8 minutes with a pace of 15 minutes per mile. This year my leg is 4.3 miles and I have a goal of 45 minutes. I have been running 3 times a week since late Feb. I used a program called Ease Into 5K. It started me out on an interval of running for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds. It slowly raised the running increments to the point that I am running 15-20 minutes now and walking 3 minutes. When I first started the program, I was completing 1.5 – 2 miles in the 30 minute workout. I am now running 3-5 miles in just under an hour. My average pace at the moment is right around 12 minutes a mile. I have about a month to trim at least a minute per mile from that pace.
Some stats to date… When I started this routine I was 235 lbs. I’ve been weighing myself as soon as I wake up every morning. The lowest I’ve been is 207 and I was 209 this morning. I’ve been pretty consistently losing about 3 lbs a week. I had been wearing size 38 jeans but let’s be honest, I should have been wearing size 40 if not size 42. I am now on the last hole on all my belts and in need of replacing them. I’m comfortably wearing size 36 jeans now with a little extra room in them. I am probably a couple of weeks away from size 34 but I have no doubt I will be there before the race in late May.
My goal was to be at 210 lbs. by Beach 2 Bay, I’ve already beaten that. I had a 2012 goal of 190 lbs. before the end of the year. I have no doubt I will be at that weight by B2B. Once I hit 190, I don’t really have a desire to lose much more. I am sure it will happen just as I am sure there will be times when I gain some weight. My ultimate goal is to get, and stay, below 200 lbs and stay fit. I plan to keep running after B2B but I also plan to mix in some weight training after the race too.
I feel really good.
So, there is my really embarrassing story. I plan to mix in some updates here from time to time just to keep me honest and to keep you in the loop about my progress. If you’ve thought about getting in shape yourself and you have any questions about what I’ve done or if you just want to talk about your own goals and accomplishments, by all means shoot me an email. I would love to hear some inspiring stories.
