My Story - June 2010 to Present

Pasted from my blog at: http://insanitytripping.blogspot.com/2011/02/day18-my-story.html

Tonight I wanted to tell my story. We all have our starting points when we start a diet and/or exercise plans. There's some little catalyst that sparks our determination to make a change and to make this change stick. I know this had happened to me on a number of occasions, but that might be getting a little ahead of myself.

Let’s start at the beginning. Growing up, I never struggled with weight. As a matter of fact, I was such the bean pole as a child that my mother wondered if I was destined to grow up looking like a skeleton. I always loved games at recess and PE usually didn’t bother me because I could run forever without getting tired. I could run a mile in about seven and half minutes. I even ran one or two 5K races while I was in Junior High. High school was pretty much the same circumstance. Not super active, but certainly not overweight.

It was in my early 20s that things started traveling in a bad direction. I served a religious mission to the beautiful islands of Hawaii. Many have made the comment that this would have been like a two-year vacation, but if you are at all familiar with LDS missionaries, you know that their time is anything but a vacation. Okay, they’re not working typical jobs 40 hours a week, but rather they are out in the public about 10 hours a day and studying, eating, and otherwise preparing for that public time when they aren’t sleeping. But remember, I was in Hawaii, land of the Polynesians.

The Polynesian people are remarkably devoted to taking care of their missionaries. Whenever we went to the home of a family that was a member of the church, they were almost overly generous in the sharing of their food. There were times that I felt that I wasn’t eating to live, I was living to eat. There were three months that I was in a state of almost perpetual sickness from being full. Another fact of the Polynesian diet is that it consisted largely of meat of some variety and rice. It wasn’t uncommon when visiting certain homes to be presented with a full rotisserie chicken for both myself and another for my companion and a heaping bowl of white rice.

Now please don’t make the mistake of thinking that I am in any way disparaging these people. My time spent among them is still some of the most cherished time in my life and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything in the world. The people had amazing hearts, and I can’t see somebody today with the features of a Tongan, Samoan, Fijiian, New Zealander, or what-have-you without immense affection stirring in my heart and feeling something of a bond to them.

To carry on with my story, in those three months I gained about 20 pounds, and I still have the stretch marks to prove it, thought they are now greatly diminished. I came home from my time as a missionary in 2003 and my weight gain continued over the next several years.

I feel that it should also be mentioned that I have also struggled with depression to some degree since my senior year in high school. As my weight continued to escalate (I wasn’t really keeping track by any means other than having to buy ever larger clothing), my self-image conversely deteriorated. Perpetuated by the depression, I found myself in some pretty low places.

This brings us up to the spring of 2010. It was mid June and I was trying on some fishing waders that a friend at work had let me borrow. The previous fall, I was able to squeeze into those waders, but they were now to the point of feeling like they might burst at the seams if I tried to actually fish in them. This was the turning point for me. I found myself disgusted that I was so far out of whack with my weight and decided that the very next day I was starting a new plan. I decided that I was going to limit how much fast food I was eating, and I was going to start riding my bicycle on a regular basis.

I still remember that first ride of the year. It was exhilarating to feel the wind in my hair as I flew down the hill that leads from my apartment. It was a sunny day and life was good. Then the work began. My ride was only about four or five miles, but the problem with going downhill at the beginning of a ride means that you are eventually going to have to ride back up it to get back home. I huffed and I puffed my way home as I climbed that hill and the familiar feeling of nausea was unmistakable. I knew what was going to happen and, like a drunk who can’t hold their liquor, I bowed down to the almighty toilet. I didn’t have to wait long before the gush of all the water I had consumed on my ride along with a little bit of the remnants of my breakfast made their way into the bowl about to go the way of the clownfish, Nemo.

I had been in this situation before, but was determined that this wouldn’t be the first and last day of my attempt to lose weight. I later heard of a website called SparkPeople.com and was drawn there for its food tracker and nutrition information. This was when things really started to happen. I was given a recommended calorie intake and did remarkably well in staying within those confines. Along with my biking, I rekindled my love of mountain hiking and discovered a new hobby, geocaching. For the rest of the summer, I was out and about several times a week enjoying the mountain trails of Cache Valley.

Once the cold weather set in, I discovered home fitness DVDs. I started with Jillian’s 30 Day Shred and found it to be a wonderful workout. What I loved most about this workout was how it improved my running endurance. I found myself taking a familiar path and, instead of having to split between jogging and walking, I was able to jog the entire circuit with a few intervals of running thrown in.

It was about halfway through August when I discovered MyFitnessPal.com. I found the food and exercise trackers there much more user friendly with a more inclusive database of foods and have been using it ever since. The message boards provide the chance to give my own words of encouragement and also bolsters me on the days I am feeling less than optimal in my own quest for overall health.

I haven’t been running since mid to late December because it’s just been too cold, but I have continued with the home workouts on as close to a daily basis as I can manage. Counting calories and working out can be a major challenge on some days, but the days that you dig inside for that extra bit of determination are the ones that are most worthwhile. Those are the nights your head hits the pillow with the sense of satisfaction of having accomplished something you didn’t think you could, and there really is no better feeling than that. And being 41 pounds lighter for the experience has brought a sense of pride in myself that few other things in my life ever have.