Last night was March 15th. I turned 42 on March 13th. On my birthday I went back to the Doctor and had blood drawn. I got my results on Monday, March 15th. That night I rode my bicycle for 15 miles. It took me a little more than a half hour to ride that distance. My average speed was over 25 miles an hour. For over 30 minutes I rode at 25+ mph.
When I got off the bike, the odometer read 1,003 miles. Since January 1st I've ridden one thousand and three miles on my bike.
Now, let's rewind:
After Thanksgiving, when I last weighed myself, I was 227 pounds. I had visited the Doctor a few months prior and was told in no uncertain terms that I had to radically change, or I was going to either have a stroke, or a heart attack. My bloodwork and blood pressure were alarming. So bad in fact, that my Doctor wanted me to carefully monitor my blood pressure for 30 days, and if it didn't change, I was going to have to be put on Blood Pressure medication.
So I did what anyone else would do when confronted with that. I got depressed and ran from it. I never monitored my BP, I never watched what I ate, I never changed my habits, and I slipped into a very deep depression. Deeper than I was already in as a result of the changes I was going thru that I wasn't telling anyone else about. Shortness of breath, dizziness, light-headed, etc.
As a result, I weighed 227 pounds following Thanksgiving vacation. Alarmed, I decided that I was going to do something about it.
As soon as Christmas was over.
I mean seriously, how fucking stupid AM !?
So I took my vacation. I enjoyed Christmas. I ate everything I could and never bothered to weigh myself again. I'm sure I was north of 235 by this point, but I'll settle for the last weight I can confirm which was 230.
Let's recap where I am at this point. Operating from a 6 month old blood workup, I can safely say the following:
My blood pressure was, "Alarmingly high". I don't remember the exact number, but it was around the 160/100 range. Yeah, fucking deadly.
My total cholesterol was 380. It's supposed to be UNDER 199.
My triglycerides were 580. They're supposed to be UNDER 149.
My HDL, which is supposed to be OVER 39, was 31.
I weighed 230 pounds.
On January 1st, I reset the odometer on my bike. My goal wasn't that lofty. I told myself if I could *average* about 5 miles a day on my bike, that'd be about 1500 miles for the year and that's a nice amount to ride. That would be about 5 miles on most days, and on the weekends maybe a couple 10 mile rides. Seemed reasonable... The first ride on that day was for 4 miles. My average speed was just over 11 miles per hour. I was dead. I tried to follow that up with some situps and I was able to do 5.... yep, five of them.
I don't know why I didn't get discouraged, but I didn't. I can't answer that question. Why I kept at it, what was motivating me early on, because honestly, I can't remember. It was hard. It was cold as hell in the garage, it wasn't EASY to ride on rollers, and the overall experience was somewhat lacking. I was alone, riding in a garage... it wasn't very... um, fun?
But I did stick with it. I noticed very quickly that I could push myself a little bit more every time and slowly started adding more distance to my ride. I wasn't concerned with ANYTHING else. I just wanted to add a little more to each ride. At first, I started adding quarter miles. "Yesterday 5, today 5.25" I'd say. Then I'd have a sense of accomplishment, I suppose. Something tangible to take away from that day's ride. Then I started adding half miles. Then miles. By February I'm riding upwards of ten miles at a stretch, and now I start wanting to go *faster*...
While all of this is going on, I'm starting to keep track of what I eat. Only barely at first. Trying to remember what I ate to jot down in my Moleskine that I'm using to track cycling. Not really knowing how many calories, etc. Then I got "Eat This, Not That" and I felt like I finally had the missing piece to the puzzle. I started shopping for groceries and taking that book with me. ALL of my purchasing decisions were driven completely by that book. Frozen Pizzas? No more, I'll make my own healthier whole food alternative. Which salad dressing? What bread? Which peanut butter? What's a good lunch meat? Every decision I made was driven by one desire, and that was to eat simply the "healthiest version" of that particular food, and that book helped me make that choice EVERY time.
As I started paying more attention to my diet, I noticed I started wanting different things to eat. Sometime around early January for instance, I had a Sprite. It was the first one I had drank in a week or so. I took two sips. I've never had a soda since. I don't eat, nor do I desire ANYTHING with High Fructose Corn Syrup. I eat oatmeal every day, and several times a week eat it twice. When I *crave* food, more often than not what I crave is a bowl of oatmeal with fresh strawberries sliced up in it. One bowl of that and I'm in heaven for the next several hours.
Speaking of time... the other thing that I started doing, and I believe this is just as important as what you eat, is eating ALL the time. I used to skip breakfast, then go eat a huge lunch that (I thought) would "fill me up" until dinner. I'd wonder why I got tired in the late afternoon and always wanted to take a nap. Now, I wake up, eat a VERY big breakfast at 8 AM or earlier, eat again at 11, then again for lunch at 1, then make sure I eat something at 4 to hold me over until dinner at 6, then I eat something with heavy protein in it around 8. I don't eat anything else after 8:30. Ever. But guess what? I don't need to. I'm never hungry. Ever.
So that's what I did. I changed everything I did. I only tried to do ONE simple thing. "Just do everything right". All I wanted to do was make the RIGHT decision, every time a decision presented itself. It was as simple as that. I had no cravings. No "desires". No need to cheat. No reason to lie. I was only competing with one person. Me. If I let someone down, it was me. If I lied to someone, it was me. It boiled down to two simple things. I'm not saying EASY things. I'm saying SIMPLE things. Discipline and Self Control. That's it. I know it *sounds* hard, or something, but honestly. It's not. It's simple, straightforward, and anyone with a medical degree will tell you EXACTLY what you need to do. You just have to get off your ass and do it.
So what was the result?
Well. Here are the numbers. Straight facts. Laid out:
Total Cholesterol was 380. It's supposed to be under 199. Mine's 179. I lowered my total cholesterol by over 200 points.
Triglycerides were 580. They're supposed to be under 149. Mine are 101. I lowered my triglycerides by 480 points.
My HDL was supposed to be over 39. It was 31. Friday, it was 45. I raised my good cholesterol by 14 points.
My blood pressure was 110/62. That morning, my resting heartrate was hovering just above 50.
I weigh 171 pounds. I've lost 60 pounds. Over one quarter of my body is gone. Last night I did 105 situps without breaking a sweat.
I've ridden over 1,000 miles in less than 3 months. If I just keep it up at the rate I'm currently riding, I'll finish 2009 with over 4,800 miles under my belt. I only wanted to average 1,500.
The Sword of Damocles is gone.
Jeff, for the win.
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