So I've been poking at nerdfitness for the past couple weeks and I've finally decided to join. Steves message about small changes over time, focusing on where you are going and how to get there, eating real food, and no excuses really resonates with me. It fits with my experiences and everything I'm learning and studying about complex systems, cognitive science, and personal and organizational transformation. So to introduce myself to ya'll, I'd like to tell you where I was, then where I am, and where I'm going. Where I was Since an early age I'd been fascinated by technology. I loved computers, and stated playing with BASIC when I was 8. I didn't really like sports much. I played basketball and roller hockey throughout jr high and early high school, but I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma at 12, so I could never push myself for fear of an attack.*By the time I was 17 I weighed over 280 pounds. By high school graduation I was pushing 300. I knew I had to change something. I was lucky enough to get a great job while still in High School doing computer programming. That turned into a full time position, so I moved out my house and bought a small place a few miles from work. I started making myself salads to take with me, and would try to get up and move around. By 19, I had dropped 40 pounds, nearly 3 pounds a month. I knew this wasn't enough, so I started riding my bike to work. Then I started running around the block. At first, I had to stop every corner and walk. But soon I got to the point where I could run around the block, then around two blocks, three, then up to a mile without stopping. After a while I'd dropped to 230 pounds and just completely stalled. So what did I do? I decided to start training for a marathon. After all, more running == more fat burned, right!?! The following year I ran a pair of half marathons (top speed: 2:15), several 10ks, and a bunch of 5ks (top speed: 24:48). My body weight had dropped to 210 and my body fat was ~25%. People had a hard time recognizing me. But I needed to go farther. I kept up the marathon training and dropped all races from my schedule. This past August, I ran the Grand Island Trail Marathon. The track was grueling. It started you running up hills, and in the middle had you running on the beach. It took me 5 hours to complete, with a pace of 12:01 (1 second over my goal pace). I was king of the world. Me, the 300 pound fat kid from high school had just run one of the most intense trail marathons in the continental US. And finished. But then... I stopped. My experienced running friends told me to rest for a month after running the marathon, and I just never started again. Part of the problem was I didn't know what was next. The other was my schedule changed significantly, since I'm a consultant who travels wherever the job takes me and my gigs changed in September. All of a sudden I had overhead to running, finding a park with good trails, snow started coming, finding a gym, etc. I thought that maybe I should go for speed, you know, push my 5K time down. But I didn't like it. It was boring. Speed work was quick, short, and far from satisfying (you know what I'm talkin' about ladies). Distance, on the other hand was wonderful, relaxing, listening to a lecture from open course ware while pounding dirt at a nice pace. The last race I ran was in October of 2010. It was the CRIMs nice hilly 10 mile course. By March, I had bounced back up to 210 pounds with a body fat percentage of ~25% In April I moved to Taiwan for 3 months, where I walked all over the place and ate reasonable sized, well cooked, real-food meals every day. Body weight dropped to 184, but I lost any muscle I had, as my body fat is still ~25% Where I am now So now I'm looking to push on. I want to lose the body fat, not sure what my big scary goal is going to be (maybe abs by Christmas? One hand stand pushup?), but I know I need to push on and do something else. The bodyweight exercises in the NerdFitness book have inspired me, and the fact that i can get a good set done in ~20-30 minutes is refreshing. So yea. This is my story, hopefully it inspired some of you other big guys (or gals!) to know you *can* lose it, no matter how much you have! Remember, you're always in the middle of your path, and set backs can happen but you can overcome them. I will be.
