Are you trying to kill me? (time to change)

First day of September 2011 I was told to meet at Gold's Gym on Van Winkle, Salt Lake and wear my gym clothes because I would be doing a workout and weigh-in pictures. From the last post, you know that I weighed 392 lbs and I was in terrible shape. I met my competitors and team and thought, "All of these guys weigh less than me, so I need to work extra hard to beat them." My first initial thought was it will be cool to start doing an elliptical for a nice workout. Nope, I was so wrong.

The workout was a quarter mile run (there and back) with a 25 lb weight over our heads, then another quarter mile no weights, 25 lbs in left hand, then no weights, then right hand, carrying the weight with elbows bent, then no weight and it ended. The run consisted of us going from one of the Gold's Gym Parking lot to the next. This was such a terrible workout and it was outside in 85 degree weather. The distance was a killer. A lot of the time I ended up just stopping in the shade and trying to breathe. I thought I was going to pass out and die. It took me 55 minutes to do that workout, and other people took about thirty. I honestly thought they were trying to kill me in the middle of that workout; I did not think I could complete it, but I did. I had my team cheering for me and had Emily there for support too. I had quit diets, workouts, exercising, eating right all my life but I was not going to quit on this. My confidence in myself was not as high because I knew I could do better. After completing this workout, I realized that I could do more than I believed I could. I realized I could change.

I met with my trainer Preston a few days after that initial workout and we laid out a plan. The first goal: I needed to know what I was eating and track it all. I would encourage everyone to do this. This was a huge wake up call. I have an Android phone so I downloaded an app. I found I liked Calorie Counter because it is free and you can use the camera as a bar code scanner for your food very easily. My Fitness Pal is good, too. Preston started me off on a few goals a week and if I completed it then he would have me move on to a new goal. The early goals were: no soda, only drinking  water; weight training 30 minutes a day; cardio for 30 minutes daily; get the body moving every day; stay under 35 grams of fat; then heart rate goals to get my heart rate to a certain target level while exercising. Each week the goals changed as I achieved them, but the principles stayed the same. Each week Preston would teach me new workouts and I was getting a huge education on fitness, health, and living better. After a few weeks, I felt like a new person. Now keep in mind, I was working out 6-7 days a week and did not have too many days off during the 12weeks of competition. I wanted to change and was willing to do whatever it took.


I don't want to prolong this story too much and realized it could keep going on but I need at least a couple more blog posts to tell it. I also want to detail, in the future, what influenced me to not stay motivated, what to do when you are about to give up. Building a network of supportive people helps, as does getting an education on being healthy.


Here are some myths and truths I learned:

• If I lift weights a lot I am going to look like a bodybuilder. I have been doing about 8 hours of weight lifting a week for 5 months and do not look like a competitive body builder.
• If I don't eat enough I will lose weight. Now it might be possible, but I had two weeks where I was working out 2.5 hours a day and eating 1200-1500 calories a day, and I did not lose any weight. I cut back and worked out 1.5 hours a day and ate more calories and I dropped weight again. I was in starvation mode during that time because my body could not recover and I did not take in enough calories.
• I wore my shoes out on the outside because I used to walk so poorly on the outside of my feet. My posture was also terrible because I walked on the side of my feet.
• Could barely bench press 45 lbs when I started.
• Stopped eating red meat, ate chicken and fish instead.
• Stopped eating potatoes and potato chips. Ate raw carrots, fruit, oranges, apples, fiber bars, and some low salt nuts for snacks.
• Stopped going out to eat at fast food and restaurants.
• Stopped drinking soda, had some light lemonade a few times.
• Cut out a lot of bread.  One of my favorite snacks was toast loaded with butter, so sometimes I would have toast with peanut butter to get more protein.
• Stopped drinking skim milk because at times I would drink half a gallon a day. I used to eat half a bag of Doritio's and half a gallon of skim milk on a Saturday. I replaced it with almond or coconut milk and now I drink lactose free milk for protein shakes I make after workouts. My sinuses have cleared up a lot and I breathe better.
• Breakfasts used to be McDonald's, or fattening eggs with cheese and toast loaded with butter. I now eat plan oatmeal with fruit.
• I do eat some bad foods occasionally, but I don't like hamburgers too much anymore, and I tried a hot dog a few months ago and I thought I would I was going to die because of the stomach pain. Before I used to eat 2-3 hamburgers a day and number of hot dogs. I once had 6 corn dogs with no problem.
• I stopped eating Miracle Whip for the most part and now just eat mustard on my sandwiches for a condiment.