(Photo: Hiking. Beautiful trail with some amazing Bristlecone pines. I ended the hike at Raintree which is thought to be the oldest and largest Britstlecone pine in the Spring Mountains, I think the estimates are that it is about 3000 years old!!!!!)
JUMPSTART JUNE INTRO
This shit got so unexpectedly long. Sorry about that haha.
Jumping in on week 2!
Hey Fitblrs! JD here. I’m a former workout-o-holic that “let himself go” after moving from CA to NV. The change in weather, social network, work life, and routine did a number on me.
Over the last ten years I’ve gained and lost a lot of weight (I don’t have records of my weight so this is mostly from memory). I was in the mid 170s when I first moved here. I was very confident when it came to my physique and appearance. I was very vain (obnoxiously cocky would be more accurate–half of my MySpace pictures were of my abs), but all that changed very quickly.
10 pounds gained by year’s end. Then 20. I went on a diet somewhere in there and was doing really well until I injured my knees on a drunken night out with friends. I didn’t have health insurance so I toughed it out. No more working out. That’s when things really quickened. I set 200 lbs as my “upper limit” (as if my body were listening in). When I went past it, I went on a diet, then gained it back. I adjusted my “upper limit” to 210. I went back on a diet and got down to 183 (felt “fat” still), then gained it all back and then some. I think my highest weight was a little over 230 (50 pounds gained in the span of 1 year) then lost 20-30, then gained most of it back. By December of last year I was back up to 226 lbs. In January I decided to start a Tumblr. I wanted to do a body transformation type blog initially where I lost like 10 pounds each month so that 6 months later I’d be tanned and ripped haha.
A lot of my Google searches around the time were: “how long to get abs? ” “how long to lose 50 pounds? ” luckily I changed that mindset because that’s the cause, I think, of all my ups and downs. I’ve slowly started to focus on NSVs and athleticism. I’m very far from where I’d like to be, but am enjoying the process much more. I feel like as long as I keep going I’ll get there, but the 12 week transformation nonsense is not clouding my judgement anymore.
I do want to lean-out much more, but I’m not going to attach a number to that at the moment. I may flip flop on this, but right now I want to shift the focus (this by the way, doesn’t mean that I don’t have body image issues that I need to work on--I’m never going to live in Los Angeles ever again man!!!)
OK that should suffice for “quick introduction,” if you want more you can check out my about me (which is mostly of the last year before I started my Fitblr)!
On to goals. I love swimming and my goal for the year was to swim an open water race (10K). I don’t think that’s practical for me this year, so I’m making that next year’s goal since it’ll involve an out of state trip and a can be quite expensive. I will however try to do a local triathlon in October! My stretch goal is to do the Olympic distance, but I will be very happy if I can complete a sprint.
So my JumpStart June 2016 overall goal will be to do some bench marking to see where I’m at. I’m also going to do a lot of research on training programs, exercises, drills, etc. The “deliverable” for the month will be a training program for the months of July-October. The other goal for June is to get back on track with my sleep. Some weeks I’m in bed by 9, some by midnight, sometimes as late as 4AM. It’s no wonder I sometimes feel sluggish. So time to reset the clock.
In terms of accountability people in my life, I think Fitblrs in general help keep me accountable. The simple fact that I’m sharing my progress on here helps me think about my goals and how I’m doing. It’s worked out really well for me. But of course I draw a lot of inspiration from people on here @theunstuffedpepper and I talked about being accountability buds, but I think we had some pretty nebulous goals at that time, at any rate she’s been a constant supporter of mine and that’s been soooo helpful, thanks Val. Also, one can’t speak of Val, without speaking of Val, @fatgirlgetsfitatlast is such an inspiration and has always been checking in on me and pushing me to get those workouts in. I’m very grateful to have you two ladies around. But the fitblr fam is getting larger by the second and inspiration abounds, this post is getting too long, and I’m feeling I’m about to get mushy on ya’ll so I’ll stop now since this isn’t an Oscar’s acceptance speech. But know that you guys all make this feel like a real community!
Thank you so much @mybigfatfitlife and @deartreadmill for hosting. I really needed this!