Week 1 - The Plan to a Path Forward
Weight: 140 kg
Mental State: Positive
Life: Not Together Yet
So this is the first of many updates on this journey to getting my life together.
First lets start off with an assessment of where we are today. I’m weighing 140 kg which is about the most I’ve ever weighed, even tho I’ve hit this weight before a couple of times. Considering I’m about 6’, this is probably what the medical field would call, uh, a pretty serious situation.
Nutrition-wise, I’m not like hugely addicted to McDonald’s or Pizza. My biggest two issues I would say are snacking and portion control. Like psychologically, I just feel like I need to see my plate full of some type of side or I know I’m going to be hungry. I also seem to get hungry when I’m bored, which in these days of quarantine, is a common occurrence. I’m also fortunate enough that I can use part of my work’s health benefits toward a nutritionist but I think I’m going to avoid that until COVID19 dies down. We’ll see how the situation continues.
Exercise-wise, also not great. I’m a pretty sedentary person and can spend countless hours sitting down behind a computer screen. There was a while back when I was 30 when I was going to the gym 3 times a week and working with a personal trainer (I was weighing about 120 around that time). It was a struggle to drop any weight. I remember that the most weight I dropped after months and months of going to the gym was during the 3 weeks I travelled through France shortly after my 30th birthday. I was walking all day across new cities and mostly just having brunch at a little before noon and eating again at around 6. So, very active and less calories were probably the “secret” behind that temporary success. Unfortunately, credit card debt forced me to stop my gym membership and when things bounced back, they did so in a very severe fashion.
Psychologically, I think I waver back and forth and being very strong willed and determined to lose the weight and then sometimes I give up and think “Maybe this is just what my life is meant to be, and there isn’t a point to making myself feel bad.”
And now, the important question: what’s the plan?
Right now I downloaded Couch to 5K. It’s a very popular app so I’m sure everyone knows it but if you don’t, it gradually increases the intensity of the daily runs until you’re able to run the 5K as advertised in the title. The first exercise is 8 runs of 1 minute with 2 minute intervals between them.
Friday May 22 was the first day I did the exercise. I was able to do 2 runs before i knew that I would need more of a break ahead of run #3. In the end, I did four of the eight runs, and that’s including an additional minute or so before the last two.
Because I wasn’t able to finish the first day of exercise, I decided that the right thing was to re-do it. Today I was able to do five of the eight runs without adding any resting time. Obviously, I still haven’t completed it so tomorrow, I’m giving it another try. I’m hoping I can do all eight runs soon so I can start moving on to the next day.
So that’s the plan for the exercise. Food-wise, I’m hoping to cut down on the carbs and calories. Eventually cut out most sugars and go back to a vegan diet. But we’ll see.
However, the one place where I’m doing well is in the mental department. I’m excited. I’m happy. I feel proud of even that miniscule jump in ability from Friday to today. Sure there’s more growth that can happen, but for the first time in a long time, it feels possible.
So here we go!
