The long and the short of it … who are we kidding? It’s the long of it.
Alrighty then, here goes. My first post that isn’t the lame ‘Introducing my new Blog’ post.
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Oh, I’m back. What you don’t know is that you lost me for twenty minutes there as I tried to Google dozens of random phrases in order to hopefully pull up the name of a speed reader guy I remember from my childhood because that’s how this blog post sounds in my head.
And now you know where a lot of my time goes.
Moving on.
Feb. 4th 2014
I decide I’m tired of being fat. Sure I’ve decided before (I may or may not have had a Pinterest board titled ‘2013 The Year of the Weight Loss’ and I may or may not have just changed the year for the last couple of years), but this time felt different.
I downloaded a countdown app and it told me I had 101 days until I turned 40. I vaguely remembered that I once assured myself that I would not be over 200 pounds when I turned 40.
Ruh roh.
This is a picture of the scale on that day.
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| 101 days and 35 pounds. Let’s do this.#sbturns40 |
35 pounds in 101 days. Well then.
It was an ambitious goal – technically a little too ambitious, a person should count on an average weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week so I’d have to maintain peak performance throughout in order to be successful. Thankfully (?) I was so completely stationary at that point that it would be entirely possible to accomplish a slightly elevated rate of weight loss – as that is the norm for when you’re obese, inactive and just starting a weight loss regime.
I posted that first photo to Facebook and the flurry of comments ensued. Not all on Facebook either, people were stopping me in the street. Small town life is a lot different than big city life, I like it. A lot of people thought I was brave/crazy/out of my mind/insane (you get the vibe) for putting my weight out there like that.
Let’s be honest, only one person really cares about how much I weigh … and I already know the number.
I decided to go public with the journey for a few reasons.
One, as motivation for me. If I think others are watching then I’m more likely to follow through.
Two, I do have a fair amount of knowledge in the fitness department … I just haven’t put it to good use lately. It turns out that even people that know better can get fat and lazy.
Three, if I could motivate even one other person, all the better then – but don’t be fooled, this is for me, beyond all else.
So the daily scale posts began and they showed a general trend in the downward direction.
To start with, the only thing I changed about life were my eating habits. I feel it’s really important to look at this as a long term project and goal. Sure, I’d given myself the under 200 by 40 but in reality this is bigger and longer than that. For the first couple of weeks I didn’t change my activity levels at all but I stopped eating out, reduced my portions and generally tried to stop eating overly processed foods.
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| Changes like Wor Won Ton soup at the arena instead of fries. |
Feb. 11th 2014
I got a new toy. The Fitbit. It’s a bracelet I wear 24/7 and it tracks my movement … or as it turned out, my lack of movement. I wore it for the first week without changing anything and was alarmed to learn that I could go all day with little more than 1500 steps when a realistic goal for an active lifestyle is 10,000 per day. How I got fat was starting to become painfully clear.
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| It’s like the odometer on a new car. |
By week three I had to start kicking it up a notch and really address the fact I was too stationary. It was still cold and icy outside so I started in the basement, on the treadmill.
Remember how I said I had knowledge of fitness? Yeah, my basement has all the equipment … treadmill, high/low row machine, thousands of pounds of Olympic weights and a squat rack. I reiterate, even those that know better can get fat and lazy. It happens.
My initial goals were set at 6000 steps per day. I did this after my first few days of coming nowhere near the recommended 10,000. I decided to adjust my expectations so that I wouldn’t feel like I was failing. I can always readjust them later. It’s important to make yourself feel good about the process.
The Fitbit moved me into a whole new world of charts and graphs and comparisons that appeals to my technology geek side. Plus, I could connect with other friends with Fitbits and we could compete for the most steps. Yes, competitive people get fat too.
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| Graphs and stats, oh my! |
And then the weather broke. Finally I could go outside for exercise. I love the outdoors and although it was still too icy for my preferred trail walks, I could at least walk the sidewalks. Suddenly that 10,000 step goal was within reach.
It was about this time that I received a blessing in disguise. My car needed some major work. For almost two weeks I didn’t have the car. In the past I would have begged a ride here and there or just taken Jason’s truck. But not this time. Instead I walked to work, I walked on my lunch and I walked home. I went for walks in the evening and I started walking to and from the grocery store.
And I walked the stairs. Cue the ‘duhn, duhn, duhn’ sound effect. (seriously, click on the link, it adds to the flavour of the blog experience)
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| I repeat, ‘duhn, duhn, duhn’. |
I can’t lie, the stairs could kill me. If you follow me on Facebook and I’ve stopped posting for a while, maybe send someone here to look for me.
I have made a deal with myself, I will not pass these stairs without at least one trip up and down. I hope (?) to graduate to two trips soon. But as luck would have it the weather has saved me from making a hasty decision in that department.
That pretty much brings me up to current. I’m sitting at 55 days and 20 pounds. So I am pushing the boundaries of the under 200 by 40 possibilities. But I don’t much care as long as I’m going in the right direction.
This is the scale this morning:
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| 220 is a number I haven’t seen in a very long time. |
My next blog post will likely be a recap of my insane decision to register for Mud Hero in August. I can’t wait to find out what was going through my head when that happened!
Take care all, and thanks for reading.
Sarah
And just for good measure … ‘duhn, duhn, duhn’
