Daily Prompt: Beyond the Pale.
When was the last time I did something new?
Holy crap… that’s a tough question.
I mean, I do little new things all the time. I play new games. I try new recipes. I even try new exercises. But as for something completely new? That’s a rough one.
I know that most of the Daily Prompt posts are usually short. People write them in an effort to dig up support from the community, a half hearted attempt to get more viewers, subscribers, and regular readers. The unfortunate part of all of that is that it is exactly what I said… Half-Hearted.
So, I figure that while the topic is bland, I’ll give it some real effort and come up with something substantial to write about.
The last big thing that I tried that was new was working out for the purpose of losing weight.
sure, I had tried to lose weight in the past but it always consisted of just getting rid of soda in my diet. That was a big deal because I was killing off easily three liters or cola in a 24 hour period. That’s a crap ton of Beetus Juice.
I figured that I was so much heavier than I should be that I wouldn’t be able to scam my way through my semi-annual weigh-in’s at work any more. It came time to actually do something about the weight.
I was weighing in at 199lbs. For someone with my size frame, I was required to have a maximum weigh of 186. Those 15 pounds were going to cost me my job, my way of life, and possibly have very negative affects on my family. So, it was time to do something.
My wife and I went to the gym.
That seems like the right answer, doesn’t it? We bought a membership and started going each day. I would do an hour of weight lifting and she would do 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weights. This seemed to be working for us… kinda… except that we weren’t losing any weight.
*Cue the montage here*
-We went to the internet.
-We started using MyFitnessPal.
-We got our hands on Fitbits.
-We picked up some at home equipment.
-We USED the at home equipment.
-We educated ourselves.
-We eliminated any and all Fatlogic from our lives.
*End Montage*
We found that when we were controlling our caloric intake and followed the simple rule of “Calories In < Calories Out”, that losing weight became easier.
We coupled those tools of MFP and the FitBit and tracked our efforts on the home gym equipment. We were able to see exactly what we had to do in order to meet the goals to lose weight.
I started getting skinnier. My wife went from a size 24 dress to a size 18. That was huge.
We were looking and feeling great.
No excuses. Smaller portions. A little exercise. And the idea of “It’s my thyroid” or “I have a cundishun” being eliminated from our lives ensured that we were quickly becoming healthier.
6 weeks later when I stepped on to the scale and I was weighing in at 176lbs, I was feeling freaking AWESOME! I looked good, and I could run a mile if I wanted to.
I had learned to work out to lose the weight and I have figured out how to make positive changes in my life to make myself feel better.
I have picked up the unexpected side affect of no longer having ANY pity or sympathy for people that argue about weight loss being impossible, or that they can be “Healthy at every size”, or that believe that I have some sort of “Thin-Privilege”. I call Bull-Shit on that entire fat acceptance movement.
I made the change and I’m willing to help anyone out there that wants to do the same.
Simple diet. Simple effort. And the willingness to be honest with myself is all that it took.
So, I did something new. It worked better than expected. And I couldn’t be happier with the results or more willing to help others do the same.
-RH
Twitching with Rage 