Tuesday 6 September 2011

Vacation - day 1

Today is the official start of my last week of vacation for the year. *sigh*
However, I do have some fun stuff planned so I can't be too sad about the end of summer (which I always consider to be finished when school starts, despite the fact that it has been MANY years since that was of any consequence to me!); off to see a baseball game with all the guys from work on Thursday and then off to Niagara Falls for some poker and strippers with my love on Friday and Saturday!  WOOHOO!
We will also be dog-free for a couple of days which, for you people who have kids, is almost the equivalent of being child-free for two days...in other words, AWESOME!  I love the dog but she is a lot more work than the cats and not just because I`m a cat person. Dogs require a lot more constant attention and if you don`t give it to them, like kids, they tend to get in trouble. They also need more exercise, which is good and bad...bad because I`m lazy and would generally rather sloth around than take the dog for a walk but good because contrary to my nature, these days, I am *trying* to get off my ass more.
So, to that end, on Saturday and today, I`ve taken the dog for a 2 km walk. Nothing too strenuous, but enough to get the heart pumping and the sweat flowing (especially Saturday, which was MUGGY!) and I figure for vacation, that`s pretty good! At work, I`ve been doing around 7 or 8 km on the interval setting on the stationary bike, or about 1.5 km on the treadmill at a 2 incline and 4km/hr speed. Keep in mind that a) I'm just starting and am really out of shape and b) I'm doing this before work so sometimes I'm restricted by time since my drop-dead stop time has to be 7:25 a.m. or I don't have enough time to get showered and ready for work at 8.
When I get back after vacation, I'll slowly start pushing the intensity and length of time up but I want to be careful not to do too much and get too sore and discouraged. I am in this for the long haul but I know I have to work within my own limits too...I know me and it doesn't take much for me to lose interest or feel like it's going to take too long or be too hard. There are lots of reasons for me to stick with it this time but there always have been and there are also LOTS of obstacles, not the least of which will be the commute once the weather starts to get bad.
I'm going to do something now that I've NEVER done, something which is intended to hold me to this commitment I've made...I'm going to reveal my starting weight. I'm doing this because if I do what I say and stick to this, this should be the LAST time I ever see that number; it should sit here on this page and dwindle in my rearview mirror as I drive off into the sunset of smaller numbers. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way obsessed with this number or any number in fact...the commitment I'm making is to eating better and to exercising at least 4 times a week. I figure if I do that, the numbers will take care of themselves so I'm not planning on weighing myself, or reporting it here, very often. However, there's no way around the fact that weight will be a decent indicator (at least for the first while) of how I'm progressing.
So, with no further ado, here it is, as of this morning when I got up, after a pee and before any food or exercise:

280.6 lbs.

I'm 5'9" tall so by any standard, I am morbidly obese. What a horrible tag, and yet it's true.  I have been for most of my adult life so really it's about freakin' time for me to take control of my life in this final way. I have all of the tools and I have all of the reasons so now it's just about doing it. We'll call that my official starting weight, although I have been exercising for a month now with reasonable consistency...since I wasn't sure I was going to stick with it, I didn't weigh myself before I actually started. I guess I could get the number from my doctor when I see her in October since she is the reason I have started this at this time...
Over the past two years or so, I had been being really good...not exercising, just watching what I ate really closely and I had lost, and kept off, 40 lbs. Then I met my fiance and my mom got sick and there were just any number of reasons why I didn't maintain the good habits I'd established. Which resulted in me gaining back 20 lbs. of the 40 I'd lost when she checked at my last appointment in March. This really pissed me off because it seemed so stupid so I decided I ought to do something about it...eventually! In July, the opportunity presented itself in the form of an office move from right around the corner from my house to 20 minutes away (if traffic's good but traffic is never good!). Now, to avoid rush hour traffic, I get up at 5:45 a.m. and get ready, take the dog out and head out to arrive at the office around 6:45, so that I can exercise for half an hour before work.

So, apparently in these long haul deals, it's helpful to have short-term and long-term goals to keep you motivated along the way so here goes: my first short-term goal is that I want to be back to the weight I was before I put the 20 lbs. back on by the time I see my doctor again on Oct. 20/11. Let's call that weight 270 lbs. which is totally reasonable as that's just over 10 lbs. in six and a half weeks...completely doable! And let's set a first longer-term goal too...by the new year, I'd like to crack 250. Again, doable because that's 30 lbs. in total between now and Jan. 1/12, which is 16 weeks from now.
If I manage that, I will be the lightest I have been in...actually, I am not sure the last time I was 250 lbs., but I think it would be safe to say it's over 10 years at least. Definately worth working for...

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