It's Time To Lose Some Fat
So this is a tough post to make today. Not so much in writing the words or typing, but the fact that I'm puting this on the blockchain so that I can be held to some level of accountability for what I have to say.
The back-story
Like many people, I used to be in good shape. I was an athlete well on my way to high-level college and possibly Minor League baseball (How that fell apart is a different story for a different day). I played pretty much every sport you could play and excelled at most (I could never shoot a basketball to save my life, though).
I had a 6-pack, I was popular enough, I am smart enough where things looked like it was going to be easy for me.
But then things changed.
I lost my shot at baseball in my late teens and went into a period of alcohol addiction, where I wasted my 20's. I was also in a relationship where our main comfort was eating tons of food. It was a bad combination. I went from being 190 lbs to over 300 lbs.
I was able to end the relationship and was fortunate to grab control of my life again, losing a bunch of weight and getting down to 215 lbs. I was running and training for half and full marathons, and I felt fucking great.
That's when I made a decision to move from St. Louis, MO to take a travel job in Texas. Great for the pocketbook, but not so much for staying active. I didn't know anyone and didn't know where to run, so I stayed home and played video games instead. That combined with the new job that has me driving most of the day, well, it turned out to be a disaster. Most of the food I can find in small towns are complete fried crap.
I didn't realize how much weight I had really put back on until I saw some pictures from the meet-up @isaria and I had in Florida with many of our Steemit friends this past March. I half-assed attempting to start losing it again, but it was half-assed.
This Week
So my job is a Home-Health Physical Therapist Assistant. I go to people's homes and help them learn to walk, or get stronger for surgeries, or help them learn how to balance again. Since it's home-health based, 98% of the people I work with are relatively healthy, there's no real worry that anything is grossly wrong.
Monday the 17th, I wake up to a text informing me that one of my favorite patients had passed away. That felt like hell. Tuesday comes around and I show up for an appointment to find that a 2nd patient had passed that morning. Again, it was like a punch to the stomach. Wed and Thursday went by and Friday, I learn that a 3rd had died.
3 in one week.
3
So What?
Last night, I was having the Minnow University radio show with @isaria and @aggroed, and we talked about my burn-out and slightly touched on the depression I was/am feeling this week. Aggroed pointed out, that times like these are when people tend to make big changes. He is right, I was already mulling over that I felt like something needed to change, and during the second half of the show where it changes to the Peace Academy, I had a bit of an a-ha moment.
It's time to get off my ass, get back on the damned platform and get back into shape. (I also need to point out that @crimsonclad was accidently part of this by posting a picture of her with her newly gained half-marathon medal, which made my jealousy meter jump)
So that's what I'm doing today. I'm making that commitment to change, starting with losing the weight that I had gained, with other changes that are brewing as I write this.
The Plan
I'm going to use Steemit to track the progress while I go, so it will be right here for everyone to see. As far as workouts, I'm going to get back to what worked wonders for me before, which was a combination of DDPYoga, Running, Dumbell Weights, and of course, the diet.
The diet will be the hardest part, but I'm thinking that I can make Keto work with my job since I will not have access to work, but I should be able to find small stores that sell meats and cheeses to get me through the day.
So, The Numbers
Weight: 280
Goal: 210
And here's a nice little graph with my measurements..
There you go.
Each day, I plan on writing a little something about the journey and what I did well with and what I didn't do so well with, follow along and join me if you wish. It could be a lot of fun.
TL;DR
I whined about being fat, I'm going to stop being fat.
Please Consider Voting For My Witness: Use the witness page https://steemit.com/~witnesses scroll until you see this box and enter
swelker101 !
The Shane Intensifies!
I'm trying to de-intensify!
I'll hug you either way. Goes to run around the yard and de-intensify as well.
The Clay hugs are a fantastic motivator. We should make this a thing.
Sounds like you need Lisa Simpson's debigulator!
lol that made me laugh out loud
Nice job! I'm proud of you Shane. I'm swimming and or biking everyday. I'm usually in the pool for 45 min for an intense workout. The women at the pool taking an aquarobics class call me aquaman. I ride around on a recumbant trike. There's a rail trail nearby. I've been doing 26 miles on my bike. It's good times!
Fine work sir!
You're a lovely person
Go for it, brother! The body is pretty resilient; I'm sure you're going to start seeing results pretty quickly, given your athletic history.
I'm a philosopher/personal trainer and I began a series of articles recently that you may find insightful and/or motivational. I don't get into specific workout plans or diets, but offer an overall perspective on training and personal improvement that can inform individual decisions.
If you want to check them out, I'll link them here. But in any case, I'm excited for you as you come out of your layoff; and try not to make the same mistake I do and debilitate yourself with soreness after the first one or two workouts! Hahaha
Having trained a lot in the past, your muscles will probably be able to handle a bit more than is good for them at the outset. I'll be following your journey - I wish you great success, and hope you take your body further than you ever have before! Have fun!
Thanks. Being in physical therapy, I'm both blessed and cursed with the knowledge on how muscles work, and how we always have more in us than what our body wants to let on. That can definitely work against me. I'll check your posts and see what I can incorporate into the routine.
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
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Your TL;DR made me laugh.
I'm very proud of you Glomspurt!
I had voted you please vote me back
stop that
Good luck!
It takes courage to be so damn open bro..
And congrats on taking these measure back into your own hands. Its wont always be easy, be it is as sure hell of a try.
(I understand you eye openers while working in surgery. Sometimes is feels like everybody is dying that week. Those weeks really suck, like really)
Im gonna put you on follow and see your progress man, Im curious!
Good luck!
Thanks, I sat on the post for a couple of hours before finally hitting that post button.
This post has been resteemed from MSP3K courtesy of @isaria from the Minnow Support Project ( @minnowsupport ).
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Really good article about coming to grips with your weight. I've certainly been there. At the risk of inserting a shameless plug, you might like my articles on low carb recipes for you journey. Posting these things helps me stayed disciplined while helping others.