I know I have not been posting to my blog for a while. Most of the posts I have made to Social Media have been superficial selfies. This really has not been my intent. The challenges over the year have made it really hard for me to figure out how much I want to disclose and how I want to write about it.
This is the year of my life that everything fell on me and forced me to make decisions to better my life. Between health issues, work/career issues, and family issues – there has not been much free time to deal with the greater community as a whole. The reality is I have made it a top priority to get my health in order. And when so much of the local community events involves being in a bar surrounded by alcohol and loud music – it can sometimes be hard to find the motivation to go out. The act of going to Pride this year was a big decision for me since I really have felt distant for the past nine months. In the end I glad I went.
The reality is I have made it a top priority to get my health in order.
I think it is worth talking about how I ended up in this state over the past few months.
Just over two years ago, I got down to 191 lbs. But then the work stress started going up and I slowly regained weight and stopped running and cycling regularly. No one really noticed or said anything, and I went into denial about it. When looking back that the data, it was clear how much I was telling myself a lie. I stopped weighing myself daily and didn’t even let the BIA cycle of the scale finish when I hit a peak of 220 – I didn’t want to know the body fat percentage.
Over the holidays I decided that I needed to do something when I no longer could fit in to the Rev’it leathers, my Dainese leathers were getting tight again, and I could no longer zip up the green and black race suit. And looking back at last year – I fell into so many American Fat Logic traps. These traps for me included: I was getting enough exercise; the weight is muscle (Given how I stopped letting the scale finish a body fat reading I knew it was a lie); My diet is healthy.
The ironic part is, getting a Costco membership in February helped get my diet more healthy. I kept around more frozen fish and chicken that could be quickly de-thawed and cooked resulting in me cooking way more often at home even after I commute back from Santa Clara. It also was forcing me to plan a bit more. I will have to go in to this in another post since I never associated warehouse clubs with getting more healthy before.
Starting in March, I got more serious about running. Forcing myself to get out a minimum of 4 times a week and do at least a 5k daily. Near the end of the month, I tripped on the awful repaving job they were doing and bruised my ribs. This provided the catalyst for change. I had to slow myself down to avoid pain – so I compensated with adding some distance. Before I knew it, I went from 5k being my minimum to 4 miles to 5 miles being my typical short run.
But that wasn’t enough to really kick off the weight loss, which became more important after the round of doctor appointments that happened in March. I noticed I was really starting to have problems scale my distance up and had issues with energy through the day. I started supplementing with protein bars and noticed that immediately helped. Then I decided to try out some calorie tracking applications. I found out that I was not eating enough since my cooking was too low in calories to sustain the activity level I was seeking. It’s taken me a few months to figure out what the macro ratio that works for me.
Even with the family issues that have arisen during this period, the progress has been really showing. Just seven weeks ago, I fell below 200lbs. This week, my scale now reads below 190lbs. Rash Guards that used to be tight on me at 220 are now fitting right or even a bit loose today and I am pretty sure I have not been that light since Middle School. I can now sustain running 28 miles per week and almost hit my goal of sustaining 30 miles per week. More impressive is that my tempo pace is starting to go below a 8:00 min/mile pace. And I am doing something that I never thought I would ever do (since cycling was my primary endurance sport) – sign up for a half-marathon.
I am going to write some more posts on the various things I have learned and found out over the past few months, including my disgust with this trend of glorifying unhealthy eating and lifestyles. There have been times I have debated about doing some spandex clad cooking videos. Maybe I should do some since I think people overestimate the work required to cook at home healthy food. But hope that sheds some light on what has been going on in my life.
