35th Birthday Update
I began working to lose weight right around my 33rd birthday in 2017, so my birthday always provides a nice milestone every year of how things are going. Combined with the “New Year’s Push,” this actually helps me to stay motivated several months into the year. (If I could only find a milestone in Q4….)
I started 2019 with relatively low expectations, coming off of a 2018 calendar year where I only managed to drop 25 total pounds. I had also stalled out in my weight loss by the end of 2018, with a see-saw battle and no significant losses the last 8 months of the year.
Kicking into High Gear
After a relatively slow start to the year, I decided in March to dedicate myself to a stricter diet. In full, my routine became:
- Paleo principles: Cutting out daily intake of breads, sugars, dairy, beans, and almost everything but meat, eggs, fruit, and vegetables
- Intermittent fasting principles: Confining my calorie intake to only a few hours per day, usually in the afternoons
- Strength training: Focusing on 5 complex movements rotated over three days per week
- Cardio: Doing a 5K once a weekend, usually outside, and progressively increasing the amount of jogging within the 3.1 miles.
- Physical therapy: Getting treatment, re-learning stretches, and learning a balance exercise routine
With these adjustments, I decided to aim for “250-lb birthday,” and today I actually hit that goal on the nose. This puts me at a 23-pound loss for the year, from my January 1 weight of 273. My total weigh loss since my 33rd birthday is 94 pounds.
My total weight loss since my 33rd birthday is 94 pounds.
Not Just Weight Loss
You may have heard me mention before that I put such an emphasis on weight loss because I had a cardiologist tell me plainly in 2015, “Your weight is your number one risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, and a bunch of other diseases. You need to do something about it or your going to see more and more problems.” Unfortunately it took two years for this to sink in, but my broader journey to better health currently focuses on doing what I can to get my weight down.
As my routine above spells out, sustaining weight loss through several plateaus has required me to adopt healthier habits in other areas. I keep several sanity checks in place, too, like:
- Eating at least 1500 calories per day
- Keeping reasonable weekly weight loss goals (usually a 1 lb/wk average)
- Using exercise progressions when strength training, especially on exercises like squats where my balance causes problems
- Straight-up cheating on my diet on a weekly basis
Weight loss emphasis notwithstanding, I’ve had a great 35th year in terms of other milestones as well:
- I did a 5K race in 44:09 in November
- I jogged a mile without stopping this month, in 10:15.
- I can go 5x5 with bench press at 170, overhead press at 105, and rows at 165
- I can deadlift 225 lbs
- I went hiking 3 times and didn’t fall
- My BMI is so low (< 36) that weight loss surgery is no longer an option
New Tricks
I’ve also talked before about the emphasis I’ve placed on psychological factors in weight loss. I’ve had some new observations here recently that I believe have also played a role in my breakthroughs.
First, it’s OK to feel hungry. When I started limiting my eating to a few hours in the afternoon, feeling hungry in the mornings was the biggest thing I had to get used to. Now I think of this morning hunger (I’m talking an empty and growling stomach here, not weakness or headaches) as akin to soreness after hitting the gym.
Also, my biggest impediment with cardio this year has been a lack of confidence, not a lack of capability. I started to really see this when trying to add jogging to my cardio workouts. I realized that I had the stamina to jog for several miles on the treadmill while struggling to make it a quarter mile when jogging outside. Once I knew that I could do it (even slowing down my pace outside a bit), I actually did. I went from a quarter mile max outside to a full mile without stopping within a single month.
Finally, my wife Christine is also now chasing her own weight loss goals. She has always been incredibly supportive of my weird eating and exercise habits while trying to lose weight, but this year she’s been right there with me on weigh-ins, Paleo meals, going for walks, and other things. Having a close friend going through this much cauliflower with you really makes a difference.
In Pictures
Putting a Bow on It
Overall, I managed to rejuvenate my weight loss efforts over the past couple of months of this year. I know that the next plateau is coming, and I’ll need more changes to adapt when it hits. I also know that the 8–9 months of stalling didn’t go to waste — I’m leveraging the muscle gained and lessons learned in my recent progress.
I have many new faces to thank this year, like my gym buddy Garrett, running buddies from the 5K race last year Richard, Brenda, and Karen, and my physical therapists from Results Physiotherapy in Madison.
I’m looking forward to another great year of being alive and doing things I’ve never done before! Thank you for taking the time to read this and support me.
