Last year was an interesting year for me, what with the root canal, wisdom tooth pulling, and cataract surgery and all.
But last year I also saw myself beginning to rebound in weight.
There were plenty of excuses I gave for this; I was too busy, Jon was no longer my neighbor, I wasn't THAT much heavier etc. etc. Well, like most things, there's some truth to all this, and some things that are just me ignoring the elephant in the corner.
Addressing the first of these, I really WAS busy. The combination of the wisdom teeth and the cataract surgery sandwiching my preparations for midyear seminar is what really did it. During that short 2.5 month period, due to a pressing need to catch up on work, I left work more times after 6 than my previous YEARS combined. Needless to say, my diet rapidly degenerated into whatever I felt like eating at Mini-stop, or even worse, grabbing myself a double quarter-pounder at Micky Dee's.
Jon, who wrapped up his last year on JET, moved away from the apartment. While still living in Fukuma, the idea of biking to his new place after work, working out, then biking back to my place, didn't really seem to jive. So gone were my days of going to the gym 4 times a week.
Well, the time after mid-year and before I went back home for the holidays was a party-filled affair, with more than it's fair share of beer and other liquors. And going home for the holidays was of course a treat, but I also fell into the vacation mentality, indulging my every fast-food whim.
Thus the result of about 8 months of neglect, in which probably 80-90% of the damage occuring in the last 3 months of that time, was an increase in weight from my all-time best of 85 kgs to 96 kgs this January, or about a 24 pound increase for those of you who are metric-phobic.
I knew I had gained weight. Any of my recent Facebook pictures proves that. Returning to the limelight were the all-stars, my gut and my double chin. Like I do every year, I made a resolution to lose weight.
I made this same resolution last year, but I pretty much didn't go through with it. After all, I was still working out. In a very real sense, I didn't need to watch what I ate as much.
But by August, with Jon gone from the apartment, my motivation to go to the gym dropped like a stone. I was still eating like shit, and so the inevitable creeping back of that band of fat around my torso and legs became evident. Shirts were tighter around my chest again. I went up a belt hole. My airsoft gear needed to be readjusted.
Fucking hell.
Well, I'm back in the saddle again, as it were, and dieting pretty hard. Though the gym hasn't made a return to my life, I now walk to school and back every day. I've also limited myself to a 1700 kcal diet (or as close as I can get to that), with, again, a cheat day on one of the weekend days.
Recording what I eat has also returned. But rather than a notebook I carry with me, as I did during 2008, I now track my progress on www.livestrong.com. Yes, this is the Lance Armstrong website.
Well, I'm happy with the results. Again, motivation is a huge factor, and this is one area where, for me at least, using the website is of real benefit. My morning routine involves me weighing myself first thing. I then head over to the computer and input that data into the website.
Well, what can I say. This is working! Not only that, but seeing a measurable amount of progress helps me out when that Big Mac looks REALLY good.
The initial loss is probably the most recently acquired fat, and the shock of going from a 2700 - 3500 calorie a day diet to a 1700 calorie one. I theorize that this is my "Canada" fat. I'm now chipping away at the, September to December fat, and on average going down about 200g a day.
My immediate goal is to get my weight down to 85 kgs, my personal best, a goal I'm hoping to hit before the end of February. My mid-range goal is to get to 80 kgs, hopefully by the time summer rolls around. Ultimately, my end goal is to get my BMI to under 25, and take myself out of the obese category.
Let's see what happens...
3 comments:
Kudos, sir.
Nice dispatch and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you for your information.
I know what you mean. Last year, I also had two root canals done, my dad in the hospital which I had to fly back two times, my alt neighbor and exercise partner no here, as well as the stress from work. Hopefully, I can overcome this plateau. Thanks for your post.
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