The New Truth

Hey Casual Readers and Friends! So how about we go in a completely different direction? We take a departure from thoughts of Afghanistan, and we take a look at something new.

Still with me?

Ok. I joined Weight Watchers. Three weeks ago. Now I have already dealt with the questions from various sources, and of course it makes me feel like I have to justify myself. So I will write out my reasons, not as a justification because I have no need to vindicate myself.

For the past, sheesh, eight years (off and on) I have hovered between 190-200 pounds. I have carried this weight relatively well – and there are periods when I haven’t! My face has been rounder at times; my 36-inch waist pants have ranged from loose to tight. My 32-inch pants have ranged from tight to obscene! Those who have known me a long time will know I have never been a slave to fashion and I have worn my clothes on the potato sack side of loose, so being “a little chubby” is easy to hide.

Here are the beginning stats:

14 August – 188.6. This is lower than 190 because of Afghanistan.

And in no particular order are my reasons:

1) Kara and I have a scale, it is a cool scale that is able to measure weight, body fat, hydration, and a couple other things. I currently, at the start of Weight Watchers, had a body fat percentage over 30%!! This is after a six-month tour in Afghanistan, which saw me going to the gym four to five times a week!! Granted I still made poor food choices, but I should have sweated something off right? Back when I worked at Bridgetown Junior High School the gym teacher there measured my body fat, it was 35%. So considered my weight and appearance haven’t fluctuated that much I have been consistently over 30% for the past decade!!
Healthy range is any where from 18 –25%, a good fitness level 14-17%. Given these numbers it is reason enough for me to do something. Given a bunch of calculations, which I will put in later, at 20% body fat I should get down to about 155-160 lbs.

2) My dad has a fair number of health problems, most of them exacerbated by his love-hate relationship with food. I understand that I have a genetic predisposition to these health issues. But I’ll be damned if I will help them along.

3) One of my big reasons is Kara. She is obviously one of my more favourite people. And she has struggled the last while. She has been through a lot with me away, being a single parent of two small kids. The situation has made it hard for her to build and develop a “no-fail” environment. Especially when in some ways it would mean a complete upheaval of the status quo! But in the past few years she has had tremendous successes and of course some backsliding. I know for a fact that before when she was in WW and I wasn’t I drove her absolutely crazy when I would ask her “How many points for..?” Usually the point value would shock me and then I’d eat it anyway. Leaving her glaring at me for being an asshole. I never really got it.
Or even worse instead of being her support mechanism I would actively (though not truly consciously) sabotage her with pizza and alcohol and, nachos and, and…

So now the two of us have made a commitment to this. We are both happy with this decision. There is still a bit of playful tension as I do have more points than her, which causes some friction considering we eat together most meals. But our partnership in this has led to our current 30 day “challenge” - No Alcohol For 30 Days!! (I say current 30 day challenge because I foresee more) This No Alcohol Policy was inspired by two horrendous binges we shared since my return, which sabotaged her weight again. This is a bit of a sacrifice, since I went six dry months. But it had to be done if we were going to really commit to this.
This Policy will require will power and planning, for example my boss is having a meet and greet and his house this weekend. It will not be a drunk fest but there will be casual drinking. And we will abstain. We can have fun without booze.

Anyway if Kara and I can succeed together it makes the lifestyle changes we make more likely to stick because we both bought into it.

4) Running – I am not sure if this is a reason because I am competitive, or because I am tired of sweating out bacon fat when I run!
Running is both an incentive and a method for my weight loss. One of the ‘lightest’ periods in my life that saw me in the 170s is when I trained for the Fredericton Half marathon and the Cabot Trail Relay Race early in 2006. Even while eating whatever the Hell I wanted I dropped pounds.
Now I have set a goal of running the Moncton Legs For Literacy Half in November. So I can use the training for this as a method to shed pounds and stay active. But also if I control my eating and slim down then my running will become easier and faster. (fingers crossed LOL).
Plus I consider myself to be a professional soldier, and my fitness level has to be at a ‘superior’ level if I am doing my job correctly.

5) The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) – I can see the confused looks now. NO! I am not training to be a cage fighter, at all. However, I am a big fan of watching the UFC. And in doing so on my return home I had an AHA!!! moment. The vast majority of fighters who are my height fight in the 155 lb category. Granted the majority of these fighter are elite athletes, both very muscular and less than 10% body fat. But if you consider the fighters who are my weight they were either short and the size of the Incredible Hulk or they were at least half a foot taller than me!!
I have no illusions of being an elite athlete - but I have a vision of being athletic.


So there. Those are my reasons at the time of writing.

I have now weighed in three times, which means I have been really following the plan for two weeks. What are some of the things I have learned?

1) I ate too much shit
2) I ate too much of it.
3) Simple things like grabbing lunch at the mall can be an absolute nightmare if you are trying to stick to your points and you don’t want to ruin your count with a point laden (yummy tasty) hamburger/ pizza/ plate of deep fried Chinese food/ ice cream.

(lengthy pause here as I count to ten recounting trip to mall yesterday...)

4) Portion control.
5) Losing weight and being healthy can be relatively easy. Once you acknowledge the problem, and engage fully in the solution. Sounds tres Dr. Phil, but you can’t change what you don’t acknowledge. You have to be conscious, awake, and aware of what is going on in your life.

I will continue to update as time goes on. I am sure my thoughts on “easy” will go out the window once I go back to work, or something comes up so you can laugh at me, cheer me on, or say I told you so then…

And just for shits and giggles.

14 Aug 188.6
21 Aug 187.6
28 Aug 183.8

Total two week loss 4.8 lbs. With no huge sacrifices, meaning first week I drank two nights all night, and the second week after the No Alcohol policy I had a couple huge cinnamon buns and nachos, and pizza…

Comments welcome.

Until next time....