January 11, 2014
One of my big issues to tackle with 2014 is my weight. No, I’m not the big fat fatty I used to be, but I am not anywhere near where I could or should be.
I have a lot of excuses why… but the short is I need to lose weight. To succeed at getting faster (and less abusive to my body) I need to lose total weight. This is an interesting challenge and is a big focus for 2014. If I’m going to tackle a 140.6 distance race in 2015, I need to be lighter because I sure am not getting any younger!
I have met with many nutritionists over the years. For several years I tried to exercise my way out of a bad diet. Eventually, I started to make the connection between how I ate vs how I felt. So I started removing things from my diet. Goodbye Fast-Food 10-15x/week. Goodbye diet coke. Goodbye unnecessary sugars (never was a sweets person so this was easy). There are many demons left, Pizza being the biggest, but we’re slowly getting there.
My biggest problems is the nutritionists I have worked with to date, bless their well meaning hearts, was they all seemed to fall in 3 camps:
#1 – Want to sell me tons of product because they are certain that the lack of X is going to solve ALL my problems (and maybe cure cancer too!)
#2 – Want to give me eating plans copied right out of a book (even if it is their own book)
#3 – They don’t have kids they don’t have a small business and they are maybe only 5-10yrs out of college.
I have a problem with this. I’m a freak and I’m smart (I have tons of humility too!). That’s the problem. I am a complete and total information gathering nut. Which means:
#1 – I don’t want to BUY stuff to fix my problems. I want to LEARN stuff so I can fix them myself.
#2 – I can’t cook and it is probably in everyone’s best interest we understand that. I have, literally, had (3) toasters catch fire on me since I’ve been married. I was never taught as a child and I have a complete blind spot here. I get kicked out of the kitchen when I make faces and cover my nose and exclaim “WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!!?” to something I’ve been eating for 20 years, I just had no idea what it looked like/smelled like before it got to the table. Man some of that stuff looks just nasty. Tastes good when it’s done though!
#3 – If you don’t have kids, aren’t married, never run a small business, and are young enough to be my child – you just don’t have a clue about how to help me modify my lifestyle. I’m a pain in the tushy because I know more than you about most things and I have trouble taking you seriously.
With not running in 2013, the weight started coming back. I qualified for the Aquabike Age Group Championships at Rev3 in Aquabike and let me tell you, Knoxville is hilly. And fat guys are slow on hilly courses. This is a bad combination. I need to focus on this issue of weight.
So working with my Doctor and talking to him in more depth (including my list above). We’ve had this discussion before but never at this level of detail. Even though I am very healthy, the more total weight I can lose the better for my long term cardiac health. So, he (again) gave my the number for a nutritionist he thought might work.
I contacted her, discussed my deal and just laid my soul bare and what my needs were from her:
I did NOT want a bunch of canned nutrition plans.
I was NOT going to day 1 start cooking so don’t bother with a bunch of recipes.
I was going to need someone to GUIDE and COACH me on eating.
I eat out a fair amount. Sometimes for work and sometimes because of work (just day and clear my head). We need to figure out better strategies for what goes in me.
I want to be at 225 by 5/18/14. 215 by 9/15/14.
We met, talked a bit more, and walked out of there with a “plan” on how to eat MON-FRI with work.
Biggest change? When I eat what. It’s radically different.
Second Biggest change? Tons more fruits, veggies, and dairy. I knew this, but I just didn’t know how to place it in my day (back to the first comment)
We’re on day 5 and going well so far.
I’ll update here over time and let everyone know how it’s going.
What are your biggest tips? Post below!