Saturday, January 30, 2010

The Last 20

Once upon a time, I used to rock climb. I would go to the climbing gym at least twice a week, and I would head out to the cliffs almost every weekend for the entire summer.

It took me a long time to start getting good at climbing. When I say good, I don't mean I was a top-end climber. In fact, I was far from it. I started off below-average, and I took a long time developing my skills and strength to what could pass as slightly-above-average. And throughout all this time, I was overweight.

With time, that extra weight I was lugging around was putting extra stress on my fingers until the day came where climbing hurt. And it hurt a lot. I saw my doctor, and he couldn't diagnose anything. But it hurt to bend some of my fingers. While almost all the pain and stiffness has subsided, two of my fingers remain difficult for my to bend as a reminder of the abuse I put my body through.

I came to realize that one of the contributing factors of my fingers getting messed up is from my weight. I've never been obese, but I certainly am larger than most. And I was especially larger than most when it came to rock climbing. So I decided to do something about it by starting to run. My weight is down a bit now, but it is nowhere near what it "should" be. I realize that the "should" is a subjective term. But somebody with my frame doesn't need to have as much jelly around his gut and butt as I do.

I've been running for well over a year now, and I've lost around 10 pounds. My diet is not especially poor, but it is not especially good either. I've been trying to watch what I eat, but the occasional bag of chips or chocolate bar does manage to sneak its way in. I keep wondering if these occasional snacks are what is keeping me away from losing the rest of my excess weight. It's actually kind of depressing to look at what I would have to change to become a "healthy" weight.

5 comments:

  1. Hey Man,

    As it happens, I'm trying to loose some weight this year. Have recently been diagnosed with a degenerative disc (on top of having injured my back), so I figure now's the time.

    Now from what I've read, the best strategy for fat burning seems to be "interval training". Which basically means instead of a big long haul, kill yourself, recover (almost), kill again, recover (almost) again, kill, recover etc. And it explains why you never see fat soccer players.

    Of course the other thing about researching weight loss on the internet, it's almost like trying to research what's hot in porn on the internet. Pick your answer and you'll find it.

    Another thing I'm doing is using an iPhone app to track calories. It's not something I want to do forever, but it's good to find a baseline and then detect the true culprits in my diet. In my case I've discovered that my breakfasts are too small, and too much carbohydrates at dinner. Of course it's also shown me that I have to be pretty puritanical about no refined sugar, but no surprise there.

    Well anyways, good luck, and let me know how it goes.

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  2. Sorry to hear about your back. :(

    Yes, I agree with you about researching things online. You pick an answer and find it.

    I've been using the "Lose It!" application on my iPhone to track my weight. I was originally using it to track my calorie intake, but there were too many things it was dead wrong about. In the end, I had a massive net calorie deficit and somehow managed to gain weight (an impossibility).

    I'll take a look at my breakfasts. Mine are probably too small too. I've been off coffee since December, and sugar will have to be the next thing to get cut out.

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  3. Have you tried cutting out (or drastically reducing) red meat consumption and eating a lot more fresh vegetables? I've never been overweight but I did find I felt a lot healthier after I started eating more veggies and less meat.

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  4. I very rarely eat red meat nowadays. When I do eat meat (at least once a day), it's usually poultry.

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  5. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/phys-ed-why-doesnt-exercise-lead-to-weight-loss/

    Check out this article, which deals with the link b/w exercise and weight-loss.

    ReplyDelete