I also had a reveal moment last week. My parents came to visit me here in Toronto for a week. I saw my dad in July at a family wedding in Pennsylvania, but I hadn’t seen my mother since last Christmas. And even though I was already well on my way at this time last year, I was 110 pounds heavier. So I don’t know what I was expecting, when I picked them up at the airport, but I was more than thrilled to know that she didn’t recognize me and at one point wondered why my dad (who I saw first, coming out of the arrivals area) was hugging a strange man. Knowing that I look like a completely different person is something that I’m learning to get more comfortable with, but I have to admit that I still have moments where I wonder if I’ve really changed.

Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/yd59o3d

In my previous post about spinning, I talked about what it’s like to do a ride with a group of other spinners. The energy is palpable, and sometimes the shared sense of dread can be kind of intense. But at the end of the hour, you take a look around and see the satisfaction and pride on everyone’s faces that you had accomplished something — that somehow today, you worked harder than you did the day before, and you’re a better person for having done so. That’s such a huge part of what drives me to go to a class 4 or 5 days a week now — yes the workout is fantastic, but the sense of community is close to spectacular.

Over the past year or so, I had also taken up a kickboxing class — a weekly meeting of some people at my gym who hammered out some amazing kicking and punching sequences on a couple of WaveMaster bags. The class was fantastic, but over the past few weeks, I haven’t been totally feeling it. I’ve gone, I’ve punched, I’ve kicked, I’ve sweated. I’ve done everything the instructor told me to do (and then some), but I wasn’t feeling that great at the end of it all. And it is only in reflecting upon my spinning classes that I have begun to understand why.

Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/yf7qqyc

Last Wednesday, I went out to for a belated birthday celebration with my friend Jonathan, his boyfriend Elliot and Jonathan’s cycling amigo, Andrew. We went to comedy night at a local bar, had lots of beer, ate pizza and nachos, and had a fantastic time. I stumbled home late that night, got a little bit of sleep before rising early to vacuum, sweep and prepare the house for private showings that day. I also didn’t have much of an opportunity throughout the week to cook my meals. It’s difficult to begin whipping together a culinary wonder when the phone rings and an agent is ‘in the neighbourhood’ (i.e. outside the front door) with a potential buyer. So, let’s just say that the eating regimen got put on hold as well. And I didn’t get as much time in the gym as I would have liked.

All of those factors combined, and yesterday, when Seb weighed me before our workout, we realized that I had put on just under three pounds.

Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/yzflzhm

…

All the people in the diet world strive for the following situation:

“Man, those chips look good. I’d like to eat those…. wait… wait… I don’t need these. I’m not that hungry. This will not help me lose weight, and I won’t feel any better.” And you move on without eating.

This is still so far from the truth from me that I don’t make it past the first sentence. The food goes from my hand to mouth before I realize what I’m doing, it seems. It’s like I’m not even in control of my own body sometimes. Instead of a quote, I get a picture:

When I am at home, I can limit myself to what I keep around me. At work I’m forced to pack something good, or take the time to drive to a location to pick something up (salad bar ftw). These things eliminate my biggest threat to weight loss.

Impulse.

I cannot lead a healthy life just avoiding impulse… delaying the ineveitablew. I have to face it. When people ask me “do you still eat out, can you still keep snacks in the house?” I respond “I do, and I will. I have to learn to live with these things”. Do I act on my own advice? Hellz no.

Coming into this, it was obvious Impulse would be the hardest part of weight loss, and it is proving itself mightily. Slowing down is a necessity. I don’t face any demons, I stick my tail between my legs and surrender before I even realize a battle has begun. Losing 40 pounds seemed so easy, and it kind was. But temptation will always be there, and I must learn to face it down and not avoid these decisions. An alcoholic can kick the habit if they live on an island with no booze.

Learn to ask myself those question I put above: slow down G. You don’t need those goddamn (delicious) cheeze-its!

On my way to the gym yesterday (185 pound squat and 195 pound deadlift FTW) I realized its time to prove myself. I deserve the weight I lost. I didn’t cheat the system, come hell or high water, I’m gonna get fit or die trying….

Eventually I decided that enough was enough and I got my ass in gear. On the way out I swung open my door which hit my shoe. Unfortunately, my brain thought there was enough clearance to move forward and I ended up walking straight into it. My forehead got nice and red within seconds. I looked in the mirror and thought to myself, “Yep. That’s going to leave a mark.”

I sighed and soldiered on.

(Read more @ www.ronbarker.ca)

The problem, however, is that I haven’t gone to the gym since. Well, not routinely. I’ve gone a couple of times but certainly nothing blog-worthy. The last time I went, I was on the verge of becoming sick. I remember waking up from a short nap pre-workout only to feel as if I was coming down with something.

Sure enough, the following night and it felt like I was hit with the Sick Truck. I battled a pretty nasty cold/flu for a couple of weeks that even saw some difficulty breathing. A trip to the hospital proved fruitless as the expert medical opinion was “Go home and take some Advil.” For the record, it did nothing to help me breathe.

Other things have happened, both good and bad, but they don’t exactly warrant a mention at this time. If anything, they’re just serving as distractions as I try to get to my point.

(Read more @ www.ronbarker.ca)

I lost SEVEN pounds this week for a grand total of 40 pounds in 10 weeks. That’s as much as this big assed rat carved out of cheese! SWEET IRONY!
(photo redacted)

Anyways, after my gain last week, I’ve decided on a new weigh-in routine! I’ll go over the good, bad, and room for improvement.

The good:

• Lifted 3 times
• Planned on the camping trip and had food ready in advance
• New delicious birthday cake was sitting at home, and planned diet accordingly
• At very good lunches and breakfasts all week

The bad:

• Didn’t walk 2 miles every off day, and could have. I always walked at least 0.5 miles though
• Ate way more cake than I needed to
• Annihilated a bag of cheetos at uriahs

Going to improve:

• Walk 2 miles on my non-lift days
• Plan for 6 hour car rides this weekend, have healthy food ready
• Keep snacking to a minimum
• Don’t devour snacks at Erik’s wedding

See the rest and a photo of a giant rat carved out of cheese after the jump

Alison drove in yesterday from out of town for today’s run, so she stayed at my place. We work early today, had our coffee, tea and breakfast of champions (steel cut oatmeal with raisins, walnuts, and some peanut butter), and watched the start of the marathon on the news while we contemplated what awaited us. As the newscaster spoke of the 20,000 participants (marathon, half-marathon, and 5k), and the approximately 30,000 spectators, we both started to get a bit anxious. You see, we’ve been training in the peaceful seclusion of a trail system running along a river by our office, so cranking through a run in front of a crowd wasn’t something either of us were quite prepared for. But there was no turning back. A few final adjustments to our attire (the weather was pretty great, about 16 degrees Celcius, overcast), we headed out to catch the shuttle bus to the start line.

The race was to begin at 10:20am, and we arrived at around 8:15 or so with plenty of time to spare. As we walked past the finish line towards the shuttle, the announcer proclaimed the fact that the leaders of the marathon (who had started just over an hour earlier) were now at their 19th kilometre, and were well on track to set a Canadian record. In fact, the winner did set a record today, coming in at 2 hours and 8 minutes — the fastest marathon ever run on Canadian soil. Incredible. As we strolled along the last kilometer of the course, the magnitude of it all began to settle in. And that’s when I started a long-line of what was to become a series of ‘nervous pees’ over the next hour or so.

Read the rest and see pictures at http://tinyurl.com/y88qrpy

Rewind 19 months… remember, I was 435 pounds and could barely crank out a 10-minute walk on a treadmill at the gym. I never thought I’d get to a point where I was preparing for a 5k run, and thinking that this is but the first step in may more runs to come. What I once thought was unimaginable is now close to being very real, and I’m pretty excited by the possibility.

Read the rest at http://tinyurl.com/ye2uc4y

I saw the number, had my tizzie, and I’m over it. Here are things I can, and will do better this week:

-Get 2 miles every day I don’t lift (only been doing 0.5 miles, a stroll, not an exercise)
-Drink more water on the weekends
-NO MORE than 1 piece of bread when I eat out
-Use less creamer\sugar in coffee
-Make better choices eating out
-Learn to say no

However, some positives:
-I went 4 days without my meds, and water retention is a side affect, possibly affecting my loss
-Every time I lift my body recovers and bounces back in hours, not days.
-I can feel definition around my neck, shoulders, and hips already
-I can do 25 squats now, without my legs falling off
-I’m feeling better about myself

What dissapointed me about the week is I thought it would be a huge loss based on my escapades with the scale at the Rec Center (max 440) fighting really hard to give me a reading.

Live and learn I guess
G.

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