A slight bump in the road...

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post - you can see the split picture showing a salad & a declining slope of activity - that was my post-Disney recovery period, and it was GREAT to get back to my daily lunch salads!

Today we're looking at the two yellow graphs. One shows more than six months of rock-steady weight loss. It's an amazingly consistent angle downwards.

The other graph shows the last 30 days, and while it's still generally trending downwards VERY nicely, it shows more variations. The most frustrating one is the 'Disney Bump' at the bottom right. It looked for a few days as if I'd GAINED weight at Disney, regardless of staying on-plan & walking a million miles! Today I'm back down where I expected to be, but it shows the frustration of weighing-in too often.

I need to just relax, and be better about trusting what I'm doing, as long as I follow my plan, my body will continue to catch up.

Onwards...!

The Disney Challenge

My first 120 had two major hurdles (Thanksgiving & Christmas) that showed me I can succeed on this plan through ANY challenge!

I knew my second 120 would also have a very serious challenge, but one of a very different sort:

Disney World.

...during Spring Break, no less! I knew I had to plan ahead, and my success would depend on that.

What I didn't plan on (stupidly?) was the sheer volume of physical activity. The first day, in the Magic Kingdom, I walked 19,000 steps. Other than lunch, I was on my feet ALL day! I swear, standing is tougher for me than walking, and the LINES... oh, my. Then there was nearly two hours playing in the pool afterwards! Guess how well I slept that night...!

Day Two @ Epcot - 16,400
Day Three @ Hollywood - 11,000
Day Four @ Animal Kingdom - 11,600

Each day at a park was followed by at least an hour in the pool! It felt GREAT, and was the perfect way to relax & recover, but MAN, that was one exhausting week!

Big Wins: you'll notice the picture showing my bottle of water, the edge of the airline tray table, and my airplane seatbelt. This picture was a HUGE win for me, in two ways. First, I did NOT have to ask for a seatbelt extender for the first time in at LEAST a decade! Secondly - I was not only able to use my tray table - I had space between it & me!!!

The second really big win was me staying fully 'on plan' the whole week. I took Whole 30 approved snack bars, so I'd have 'emergency rations' in the parks, and almost every breakfast & dinner was cooked in the condo unit. The few meals eaten in the parks really minimized my exposure to off-plan eating, and by utilizing salads, burgers w/out buns, or omelettes, I stayed on the straight & narrow without going crazy, and without impacting those around me...

It was a great time, and once again I proved to myself that I can be successful through a 'health-adverse' situation!

...and no more airline seatbelt extenders!!!! :)

Not backing down

In the picture above, let's look at a few things:

Top left is a split frame of me NOW, and in April of 2012. Can you see a difference?

I'm still quite the 'Fat Bastard', but that picture shows a solid 90lb weight loss.

The picture below has two heart rhythms. Notice how the lower one is much more regular, symmetrical, the top one more erratic? Those were taken 24 hours apart, and show the difference that is A-Fib. A-Fib really sucks, but I guess that within the scope of heart issues - this is the end of the spectrum where you want to be! Look back up at my Fat Ass in 2012, and tell me I'm not damn lucky to have MUCH worse heart issues!!!

So, looking at those two pictures on the left - they represent what I'm thinking today - I've come WAY too damn far in my health & fitness journey to let this damn A-Fib derail me.

The pictures on the right show just some of what I'm committed to - eating right, and hitting my 10,000 steps a day. I will also continue with my Aqua Fit, my bodyweight exercises, and riding my bike.

Today was 'Weigh-in Tuesday', and I'm 10.1lbs less than I was exactly a month ago. I'm just 11lbs from an exact 100lb weight loss, which will be my halfway point on this health & fitness odyssey.

I've had too much success, and learned WAY too much to allow myself to spin-out and self-destruct.

Nope. Not gonna happen.

I'm continuing onwards, and while I may be slow, I am undeterred.

Good News / Bad News

Well, they say you can't have the sweet without the sour. This was proven to me Friday morning when my heart went back into A-Fib.

I always knew I'd not have a totally smooth road all the way through my whole health & fitness recovery. I'd thought about what those potholes could be & how I'd not let them derail my progress, but I wasn't expecting THIS!!!

Stupid A-Fib.

It's not life threatening, and it's very manageable.

Yay...great...

:(

Two years ago I had knee surgery & A-Fib - and after spending 4 days in the cardiac wing, these were the root-cause of my motivation that has gotten me HERE, today, as I was not prepared at this (relatively) young stage of life to face being on prescriptions for the rest of my life.

(Yes, these help my heart, but they all have side effects & unknown downstream issues when one looks at 20 or 30 years on these drugs)

Never mind how they make me FEEL.

Ugh.

Thursday night I was feeling better than I'd felt in 20 years. Seriously. I felt physically strong, mentally clear, vibrant, and downright sprightly. I really cannot overstate how freakin GREAT I'd been feeling these last few weeks!

Aqua Fit was going very well, my 10,000 steps a day was rockin', and I'd added a daily routine of 6 bodyweight exercises that felt GREAT and were showing tremendous progress.

The weight was melting away...

What I forgot was that a key contributor to A-Fib is STRESS. I'd been majorly stressed for WEEKS about the mess at work, getting my vacation covered, and finding out I'd have to work nightly while on vacation. My upwards reporting chain seemed to not give a damn, and I had to figure it all out myself, and in the end I was able to mitigate the risk to Baxter, but I'd have to work nightly on vacation. I was PISSED, but I need to be the 'go-to-guy' so that this damn job will pick me up full time.

Big 'ole pile of Stress!

Then Thursday I got even more pissed when I (felt) I got ripped off at the car stereo shop. Maybe it was a musunderstanding and I should have asked more questions, but I was PISSED.

Angry. Stompy-stompy.

...and then via text conversation later Thursday night, with follow-up on Friday morning - I was insulted beyond belief by someone who should be my biggest advocate. "Insulted" isn't even remotely strong enough - I felt I'd taken a spear to the chest.

Which, literally, I did. While sitting there Friday morning & getting text confirmation that they weren't trying to be funny, they were 'totally serious', I felt my chest tighten & my heart began to run away...

...right into A-Fib...

I felt like freaking out & crying all at the same time. Within a few hours I'd spoken to my Cardiologist & was back on my awful old meds.

I'm constantly out of breath & sweating. Bounding up the stairs in my sprightly manner will now take me down at the knees when my breath can't catch up.

I'm so very, very upset...

I was doing SO well, and feeling SO great!

At this point I'm now wearing 2xl clothes, and no longer tied to the awful Big & Tall stores. (I'd hit 5x in 2013)

In the included pictures you can see me wearing a green coat this morning. I stole this from my Father in '96, and it's not fit this well since then.

I have a beautiful new bike I want to ride this Spring, but yesterday when I rode it the first time, it felt like I just couldn't get my lungs to keep up, but I know it's the damn A-Fib.

I'm just 11lbs away from my 'century' loss, and halfway point. I should be celebrating, but I'm terrified, pissed, angry, and upset.

...but I'm determined to keep eating correctly & walking my 10,000 steps each day. I just might be slower & more out of breath, but dammit, I'm not giving up...

Ten Essentials

A challenge was recently issued to me.

Based on a series of articles posted on GQ.com called "The Ten Essentials", I was asked what my list would be.

I delved into the GQ articles & I thought long and hard about so many things that have special places in my heart.

I thought about what I'd call "essential" to me, and eveything that implies. Family heirlooms, bits of personal history, coveted gifts, hard lessons learned....I quickly realized that I had at LEAST ten items, in at LEAST ten categories!

The question quickly became - how could I possibly ever distill that down to just ten individual items?

Not exactly what was originally intended, I came up with a 'Ten of Ten' photo essay, based on my initial thoughts:

Day #180

So...exactly 180 days ago, I changed my life...

I know that sounds awfully pompous & self congratulatory; but, to me, it's astounding, incredible, and hard to believe.

I never thought it'd happen, quite honestly. I had beaten myself up for so many years, and been told by SO many people how I was just lacking discipline, & willpower, and that I was just being lazy.

It was awful.

The cravings were just so damn powerful, and every-time I tried to excessive my willpower I was up against astounding sugar crashes, feeling awful, lethargic, 'hangry', and often downright sick.

Nobody, including this Former Marine, can stand alone for very long against something SO big & powerful.

Finding a way out has been transformational. Being free of cravings, sugar-crashes, and the 'hangries' has been simply amazing.

I have a long road ahead of me. I'm roughly 40% towards my goal, and I know I'll be hitting plateaus & slow-downs in my weight loss. While I have lost an astounding amount of weight (84lbs total, 48lbs since Oct 2nd), I still have 116lbs to lose until I hit my goal weight. I'm still a VERY fat guy, but I now have a weight loss tool I've never ever had before...

Hope!

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Whole 30 Team, and my Sister for finding the W30 & coaching me through my first 30 days back in September.