Once again, in the
early months of 2012, if I lost weight, I did it in ways that were
probably unwise and absolutely unsustainable, mainly beating myself
up at the gym. I generally felt like crap. It wasn’t sustainable.
Before reading “Racing Weight,” from when I started recording my
weight daily, February, to when I read the book, I lost about 5
pounds, from around 206 pounds daily to more like 201. Not bad, but
I’m not sure the misery was worth it.
In the wake of
reading the book, from mid-March to mid-April, although I thought I
had gotten it, I admittedly had a harder time actually taking the
steps of applying and committing to these lifestyle changes. I didn’t
completely understand all the suggestions and balancing them out –
for example, I overdid it on carbohydrate on days when I didn’t
plan to exert much energy. As a result, I plateaued in the upper
190’s, weighing in on 198.8, for example, on my mid-April birthday.
Still, progress.
When I decided to
actively apply the book’s lessons more actively, I felt better
about my life, more fulfilled, spent less wasted time at the gym, and
focused on the activity I enjoyed doing – running– while making
major weight loss leaps. I felt driven to keep going. Most remarkably
to me, I rolled back the routines I hated at the gym, and it seemed
to have no effect; if anything, omitting those workouts helped!
Between early the
parts of May and June, I tried being actively mindful about exercise
and diet, enjoying the process so much more than ever before. I felt
hopeful I could continue and not quit this time.
The first week of
May, my average weight stood at 195.3; as of the first five days of
June, my average weight, recorded for the first five-days of June was
187.4. On June 5th, I weighed-in at 185.2, the least since
middle school.
Even beyond using
weight as a metric for success, in terms of running, particularly,
during the spring and summer months of 2012, I continued to make
progress. On Jamie's recommendation, as I sought a means to help lose
body fat and get running faster, in mid-March I started trying High
Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Too intimidated to try it on the
street, I did sessions on an elliptical at the gym. I’d go all-out
for ten reps of 30 seconds, with 30 seconds of rest between each. The
hardest workout I’d had since the start of C25K, HIIT similarly
never got easy, but my stamina and tolerance for it increased. Soon I
did 20 reps, or ten reps of one minute, and so on. I’d kept up with
my long-runs and felt good about things. Coupled with diet
mindfulness, it turns out HIIT had a major impact. Thanks to also
completing long-runs, I could routinely hit a mid-ten-minute mile
pace for medium-length runs, and hit a mid-nine-minute pace during
shorter training runs.
I went into the
Wrigley Start Early 10K in late April hoping for a Personal Record,
around a ten-minute mile pace, but didn’t honestly expect massive
improvement. The course was identical to that of the Polar Dash 10K
from three months ago, and the conditions were sure to be better, but
the race still would hurt as much as any to get done. I kicked up my
effort at the end though, telling myself I could worry about pain
later, and went as hard as possible for a good portion of the race. I
recorded a time of 59:32, a sub-60 time, and a pace of 9:36 per mile.
What’s more, I absolutely obliterated my previous time, improving
by 7 minutes and 47 seconds from three months previously. I felt
ecstatic. So far, that’s been one of the proudest moments of
success I’ve experienced.
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