As I promised, I'm going back to the beginning of my fitness journey to give a little background.
I suppose its all started somewhere back around 1997 maybe. I weighed myself at one point as saw that I needed to lose weight - that might have been the first time I hit 299, I don't exactly remember. I immediately went on the Atkins diet and did quite well. Back then, low carb diets were even more controversial than they are now and my family (wife and mother-in-law) gave me a ton of grief about this depsite the fact that I was losing weight.
I've always had weight issues. When I was in junior high school 8,9,10th grades, I wrestled and was always in the 176 weight class sometimes, if I recall. I put on a lot of weight prior to getting married in 1990 but lost that through Weight Watchers and really got small then - down to around 175-180, I think.
But, again, around 1997 or maybe 1998, I was back up to near 300 and on Atkins and getting grief but it was working. So I lost some weight and figured I'd had enough of the harassment so I need decided I needed to do something else. While on Atkins I was also rollerblading a lot so I was getting fit - or maybe that was earlier - I don't remember. Anyway, I took up jogging/running because it was something that I always wanted to do. I entered my first 5k in August of 1999 and throughout 1999, I had a great year of running and continued to lose weight and probably got down to around 190-195. Throughout the next few years, my weight went up even though I kept running. In 2002, I did a half marathon but my weight was at its highest - around maybe 220-230 possibly.
That half marathon went exactly as I had hoped and I hit the goals I had set but it was some of the slowest miles I've had. I did not really race after that. Maybe a couple 5k's but they were hard. I tried to keep running but at times was reduced to walking because my weight kept going up and up. I'm not even sure exactly why. Its not like we at a lot of fast food, I had stopped drinking soda at some point in the early 2000's, it was very strange. Up it went though.
Move up to 2013/2014 and I'm still jogging/walking and recording that all in MyFitnessPal but in July 2014, my niece asks me and my daughter to go with her to the new Retro Fitness to get a free training session. I end up signing up for the gym and signing my daughter up for training as well. I've never been a gym member but felt that it might be a good idea. I also did it because my daughter would benefit from the experience - she was very shy and didn't get out much and didn't exercise much so I figured this would be good. It was actually.
I also was very self-conscious about being at the gym. I'm not an outgoing person. I felt extremely uncomfortable at first but as I learned my way around, I felt better.
One odd thing is that I was at one of my lowest weights of recent times when I started - I was around 250. When I started at the gym, my weight immediately shot up to 260 and then 270. All told when I hit my 5 anniversary at the gym, I'd struggled to drop weight a couple of times, managed to get back to 260 but then had shot up to 300.
At one point during some training with a trainer, something must have aggravated arthritis in my knees because that started a downhill trend that has had me out of the gym for 6 month stretches because I can't walk and because my lower back hurts as well. My knees are not actually injured to a point that surgery would fix something - multiple doctors have looked at them and the only report back is that its arthritis: lose weight, get synvisc shots, take painkillers, etc. That's a terrible answer.
First it was a stretch of 6 months out of the gym, then back for a couple of months and then out again. I'm ready to head back again now - or at least I thought I was but the classes at Orange Theory Fitness might be aggravating them again.
At one point, I noticed the new OTF being built and researched it and found that it might be something I'd be interested in although I'm not really a class type of person. I had been looking at a self-improvement videos telling you to leave your comfort zone so I, stupidly, listened to that advice and joined at the pre-construction rate to get a really good deal. It turns out that I'm just an idiot that should have known better. I know who I am and I know my limitations. More on that in the next installment.
I suppose its all started somewhere back around 1997 maybe. I weighed myself at one point as saw that I needed to lose weight - that might have been the first time I hit 299, I don't exactly remember. I immediately went on the Atkins diet and did quite well. Back then, low carb diets were even more controversial than they are now and my family (wife and mother-in-law) gave me a ton of grief about this depsite the fact that I was losing weight.
I've always had weight issues. When I was in junior high school 8,9,10th grades, I wrestled and was always in the 176 weight class sometimes, if I recall. I put on a lot of weight prior to getting married in 1990 but lost that through Weight Watchers and really got small then - down to around 175-180, I think.
But, again, around 1997 or maybe 1998, I was back up to near 300 and on Atkins and getting grief but it was working. So I lost some weight and figured I'd had enough of the harassment so I need decided I needed to do something else. While on Atkins I was also rollerblading a lot so I was getting fit - or maybe that was earlier - I don't remember. Anyway, I took up jogging/running because it was something that I always wanted to do. I entered my first 5k in August of 1999 and throughout 1999, I had a great year of running and continued to lose weight and probably got down to around 190-195. Throughout the next few years, my weight went up even though I kept running. In 2002, I did a half marathon but my weight was at its highest - around maybe 220-230 possibly.
That half marathon went exactly as I had hoped and I hit the goals I had set but it was some of the slowest miles I've had. I did not really race after that. Maybe a couple 5k's but they were hard. I tried to keep running but at times was reduced to walking because my weight kept going up and up. I'm not even sure exactly why. Its not like we at a lot of fast food, I had stopped drinking soda at some point in the early 2000's, it was very strange. Up it went though.
Move up to 2013/2014 and I'm still jogging/walking and recording that all in MyFitnessPal but in July 2014, my niece asks me and my daughter to go with her to the new Retro Fitness to get a free training session. I end up signing up for the gym and signing my daughter up for training as well. I've never been a gym member but felt that it might be a good idea. I also did it because my daughter would benefit from the experience - she was very shy and didn't get out much and didn't exercise much so I figured this would be good. It was actually.
I also was very self-conscious about being at the gym. I'm not an outgoing person. I felt extremely uncomfortable at first but as I learned my way around, I felt better.
One odd thing is that I was at one of my lowest weights of recent times when I started - I was around 250. When I started at the gym, my weight immediately shot up to 260 and then 270. All told when I hit my 5 anniversary at the gym, I'd struggled to drop weight a couple of times, managed to get back to 260 but then had shot up to 300.
At one point during some training with a trainer, something must have aggravated arthritis in my knees because that started a downhill trend that has had me out of the gym for 6 month stretches because I can't walk and because my lower back hurts as well. My knees are not actually injured to a point that surgery would fix something - multiple doctors have looked at them and the only report back is that its arthritis: lose weight, get synvisc shots, take painkillers, etc. That's a terrible answer.
First it was a stretch of 6 months out of the gym, then back for a couple of months and then out again. I'm ready to head back again now - or at least I thought I was but the classes at Orange Theory Fitness might be aggravating them again.
At one point, I noticed the new OTF being built and researched it and found that it might be something I'd be interested in although I'm not really a class type of person. I had been looking at a self-improvement videos telling you to leave your comfort zone so I, stupidly, listened to that advice and joined at the pre-construction rate to get a really good deal. It turns out that I'm just an idiot that should have known better. I know who I am and I know my limitations. More on that in the next installment.
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