100 Pounds Down / Breakthrough Run / How The Hell Do I Celebrate This?

Weight: 228.2 / # of Days till Run the Gates 5M: 20 / # of Days till Mud Run: 62 /# of Days till Rock and Roll Half: 125

Seriously what the hell just happened? It’s not often I don’t know what to say (as evidenced by the fact that I ramble on and on every week in this blog) but I’m really a loss for words right now. I’ve lost 100 pounds since I started this up. A hundred pounds. That’s like a thing that you see on TV, with celebrity trainers, fancy pants gyms, and dedicated dietitians. I’m just some dude who got sick and tired of being fat and has been changing the way I eat and got to running.

I’m not going to lie, I tried to write this post in my head easily a dozen times over the past few months knowing that eventually get here. But I’m still sitting here driving to work, talking into the headset, and not exactly sure where to go from here. (For those of you who don’t know, I do a lot of my blogging while driving to and from work. Not to give a plug to Apple here, but their new speech to text thing on the iPhone 4S is been a lifesaver for me. I have a pair of headphones with a microphone built into them and I basically just sit here and talk it out) It’s really bizarre feeling honestly. I mean  obviously I knew what the endgame was for this, but now that I’m literally within striking distance (and by “literally within striking distance” I mean I fully expect to be at my goal weight before the end of this week) I just never anticipated it coming like this. If you would’ve told me that I would be where I am now literally six months after I started, I would’ve told you were outside of your mind. But be that all as it may, here I am literally 100 pounds less than when I started and I have got to admit it’s an amazing, extraordinary feeling. It feels like I did something really good for both for myself and my family, and that fees really damn good.  I’ve had a few people reach out to me to tell me that what I’m doing is incredible and they really respect me for my dedication and things like that, but to be honest for me it’s easy to be this dedicated when I have the reason that I’m doing this waking up next to me every morning or staring me in the face every single day and saying “Da-Da”. Yes, I’m doing this for me, but I’m really doing this for Jenn and Tessa. That’s what this is really about, and I love you both so much.

Okay, now that the “extra commentary” piece is done, let’s get into the regularly scheduled blog. Starting with the weight.

Holy shitballs, I lost 100 pounds. 100.6, if we are splitting hairs here, but we’re just going to call this the big 1-0-0. Proud doesn’t even begin to cover what I feel right now. I guess the best word that I can think every now is really amazed. I know I say these last 10 or so pounds have been a real bitch, but I don’t know if that’s really true or if it’s just a mental thing that I kept expecting it to be this long hard trial that I have to endure. I’m not “done” done, but I’m pretty damn close. Like I said in the previous paragraph, based on recent history, I fully anticipate being where I need to be and hitting my goal weight by the end of this week. I knew it was really aggressive trying to do this and hit my goal weight by my six-month anniversary (which happens to come this Friday) but I really feel like it’s an attainable goal at this point. As long as I keep doing what I’ve been doing, staying diligent and not cheating with the food and being as active as I possibly can I really feel like I can swing it. Not much left to do except to just do it now.

On the workout front, I had a pretty awesome one yesterday afternoon. We all went to the Lake near my house and I ran four real, outside miles yesterday. Not treadmill miles,no.  Four real, actual outside miles. It was not pretty, but i got through it. I held a respectable pace (to me at least) of a 10 min mile, but let me tell you, I was breathing HARD at the end. So hard I was getting funny looks from people as I passed them, but whatever. It’s funny, I guess I’m so used to running the 5K distance at this point that I really didn’t get tired or start getting messages from my body that it wanted to stop and walk for a while until just after I had passed the 3.1 mile mark. It’s like my body recognized that familiar distance and was like “ok, time to stop now”. Oh no body, not today; today it’s time to keep pushing. I got through it and it didn’t kill me. Four real outside miles done. That is super encouraging, breakthrough for me, even. Afterwards, once I got myself composed and my breath back a little, I got to walk down the path and there was Jenn and Tessa having a little picnic as I ran. Dude, every run should end like that, it was pretty great stuff. The reason that I keep harping on the difference between “outside” and “treadmill” running is because quite frankly, running outside still scares the crap out of me. I’ve had a lot of success on the treadmill, and outside is where I have run into my failures. I’m not going to let that stop me, but it does play into my mind when it comes time to get out there that it’s something else I need to overcome. Whatever, bring it on. 4 ugly miles this week done, with 5 ugly miles scheduled for next weeks long run. If ugly is what it takes to get it done, then ugly it is…

As you can imagine, passing the 100 pound threshold was a pretty big deal in our house this weekend. It was definitely time to celebrate a little. But what do we do? In the past, we always celebrated with food. (Let’s not do that this time) Actually, we can, it just has to be different food. When I worked in Center City Philadelphia, there was this one little lunch spot I used to hit all the time that I loved and I miss dearly. Much more than I miss the job, if we’re being honest. It was a little Korean place called Giwa. They make a dish called Bimimbop (I’m positive I spelled that wrong, but it’s just off of memory here, I never actually called it by name, when I ordered I just called it “sizzling bowl”) but it’s basically a stone bowl that they put right onto the fire to make it smoking hot, and then they fill it with rice, veg, egg, and some chicken or beef. Holy god was it good. THATS what I want to celebrate with. Korean Hot Pot, I’m coming for you. Outside of my new lunch plans, Jenn gave me the green light to order a new pair of running shoes as a little reward to myself. Just a little treat to reward myself for the hundred pounds. The world was my oyster, I had carte blanche to order anything I wanted, regardless of cost. What do I get? A $200 pair of super new and advanced running shoes? Oh no, I get a new pair if the same shoes I have now. Seriously, why mess with a good thing? I am really excited, partly because I’m a big dork, and partly because these are super cool and obnoxiously, in-your-face blue. I love it. I’m also going to do 2 more things in addition to the shoes to celebrate for myself: the first is to get the tattoo that i have wanted for years and years now: I will be getting two sparrows tattooed, one on the inside of each ankle. These things are loaded with symbolisim for me. Way too much for me to go into now, but im sure I’ll get into it later on, and the other, and  in a much less “mark your body forever” vein is that i am going to order one or two running shirts, once I get over my anxiety over which size to get, that is. Appropriate celebration for 100 pounds, right? I guess, but it works out well for me.

I’ll elaborate more on all that in posts later this week; I think this is more than enough for today. (plus, I’m now sitting in the parking lot of work trying to wrap this up)

But to sum up, I’m sitting here with a drastically different body and a drastically different outlook on pretty much everything (food, how I want to live my life, etc.) it really does make you stop and think about everything. I am no longer the guy who has tons of potential and is big on ideas/planning but short on action. Now I am trying to be the guy who sets his sights on something and just gets it done. That is what I deserve and that is what Jenn and Tess deserve.

Thanks again to everyone, for reading these posts and for all the support. I really am a lucky guy to have a network of family and friends like I do. I recognize not everyone is as fortunate.

Until later this week, take it was and have a good one.