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Archive for the ‘Gym Stories’ Category
Crazy Fat People Thoughts – Seeing The Bigger Picture in The Smaller Picture
August 22nd, 2011 | Added to Gym Stories, Sustainable Living | No Comments »
Some of you folks might remember a few weeks ago when I wrote the first “Crazy Fat People Thoughts” entry on JerseySmarts.com. The point of that entry was twofold. First, I was commenting about how I have a variety of never-been-worn-before jeans that I can now wear since I’ve been losing weight. Second, I was making a statement that most fat people do weird things or have habits/issues that range from minor quirks to extreme issues. While I’m lucky because I don’t think I have any major issues, I definitely have weird little quirks – like buying jeans that don’t fit me. This entry is about another one of the weird quirks that I’ve become more aware of lately and why I’m becoming aware of it. I think you’ll find it interesting.
 What happens when this scene does occur, but you still can't see it? Whereas the last entry of this type focused on all of these unworn jeans in my closet, this entry is going to focus on what I see when I look at myself in the mirror. First, some history…
I’ve mentioned many, many times on this blog that I once lost 125 pounds before gaining some 105 pounds back. While I’m not going to rehash that story, I do want to comment on my perception of reality during that time. Specifically, even though I lost 125 pounds and I was getting compliments from everyone I knew and everywhere I went, I didn’t see much of a change in the mirror. Now, before you go and think that I have some type of body dysmorphic disorder (look it up), I certainly knew that I looked different and I definitely knew that my body was a different shape at 260 pounds versus at 385 pounds.
However, for better or for worse, whenever I looked in the mirror I just saw… me.
Was my stomach smaller? I guess so. Were my arms and chest more defined because of the intense lifting that I was engaged in? More or less, I guess. Did I see the same changed person that everyone else saw when they looked at me? Nope.
Maybe it was because I’m a pretty strong-minded person and I knew that even though my body changed, I was still “me.” You see, society seems to think that if you lose a lot of weight and your appearance changes dramatically, then you must be a “new” person. This weird cause and effect is played out in the media and in popular television shows (it’s actually the core root of NBC’s The Biggest Loser). Yet, becoming a “new” person was never my motivation to lose weight when I dropped 125 pounds and it’s not my motivation as I lose weight this time around.
That’s probably enough background, but feel free to ask for more if you’re interested. Now some more present day comments on this topic…
I decided to write this entry because yesterday I hit a pretty big milestone in my current weight loss efforts. Yesterday, I weighed in at 314.6 pounds, which is 50.4 pounds less than when I started losing weight at the beginning of the summer. That’s pretty damn good!
Just like when I lost all of that weight last time around, I’m doing the same things this time around – eating less and working out more. That’s the big “secret” to weight loss. It really is the secret!
And, just like last time around, I’m not “seeing” much of a difference in the mirror. However, because I was aware enough at the beginning of the summer to know that my eye-to-mind connection would lie to me again about what I was “seeing,” I took a measure to prevent myself from believing (disbelieving?) what my eyes saw in the mirror.
I took pictures of myself.
No, you’re not going to see those pictures on this website so don’t ask. However, I glance through the pictures every once in a while to get a view of the pre-weight loss version of my body versus the current version of my body. And truth be told, there is a striking, noticeable difference between the picture of me at 354.6 pounds (after already losing 10.4 pounds is when I started taking the pictures) and the picture of me at 335.0 pounds… but that’s about it as far as my eyes can “see.” I’ve also taken pictures of myself at 330.4 pounds and 326.8 pounds; I have yet to take some pictures of myself at my current 314.6 pounds.
However, here’s the thing – I don’t see a difference in the pictures between 335.0 pounds and 326.8 pounds.
Is there a difference? Well, there would have to be, right? I mean you don’t weigh 8.2 pounds less than you did a week or two prior and not look different. Yet, I don’t see it in the pictures. Sure, maybe I’ll see the difference in the 314.6 pound pictures, but I don’t see the change now.
And that’s the root of this entry because I’m finding it pretty hard to get as excited as I should be about losing the 50 pounds so far. Most folks would be jumping up and down for joy after losing that much weight and while I’m glad about it, I’m not ecstatic about the 50 pound drop. Part of me believes that I’m not excited because, frankly, I’ve been here before. In fact, I’ve gone another 54.6 pounds down this road and will likely retrace those very same steps in the next 6 months. But I’m just not overly elated at what I’m seeing in the mirror.
The analyst in me thinks that I need to heed the title of this entry and see the bigger picture in the physically smaller pictures of my body. In other words, I think that part of my problem is that I need to realize and begin to achieve the bigger picture items that come along with losing weight before my mind will allow me to see the physical benefit of losing the weight. What does that mean? Here’s an example: I go to the doctor again next Friday (second day of September). At that appointment, I will have hopefully lost a total of 55 pounds since I last saw the doctor. That’s an astounding amount of weight to lose. I think, however, in order for me to realize and achieve the bigger picture items that come from losing this weight, I’m going to need my doctor to lower the amount of my medications (currently at 10 pills and 1 shot each day).
I’m pretty confident that a development like that would begin to wrench open my mind’s eye so that it can see the smaller figure standing in the mirror.
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The paragraph above is the end of this entry. Though, since this is a weight loss-themed entry, I thought I would add a few comments on my next goal and the longer-term goals that I have for losing weight. If you’re interested, read on…
The next goal is to drop below 300 pounds. As any big guy can tell you, when you’re losing weight that 300 pound figure looms above your efforts like a storm cloud waiting to burst. Once I break through that level and begin weighing something in the 290s, I’ll be content that this weight loss effort may actually have some longer-term legs. And on those longer-term legs, I’d like to carry myself to 275 pounds by the middle of October – in time for my older brother’s wedding. Again, as any big guy losing weight can tell you – once you breakthrough beneath the 300 pound level, 275 pounds doesn’t seem that far away (and it’s not in the grand scheme of things).
That’s about it in terms of my weight loss goals. Sure, one day I’d like to weigh around 230 pounds (I don’t know about going much lower than that weight, actually), but I’m in no great rush to get there. I could be very happy sitting at 275 pounds for a while just like I’m content taking small steps to get to that weight. If you’re interested in following this weight loss effort, stick around on JerseySmarts.com because I plan to chronicle as much of my thoughts and experiences as I can during this journey. It should be interesting. 
Crazy Fat People Thoughts – How Many Pairs of Jeans Do YOU Own?
August 8th, 2011 | Added to Gym Stories | No Comments »
Before I write my little diatribe today, I thought I would try to comment on the title of this entry. The title of this entry starts with “Crazy Fat People Thoughts” and then talks about pairs of jeans. Please understand, I’m not suggesting that all fat people are crazy or that fat people, in general, have crazy thoughts. However, after being a fat guy for the majority of my adult life, I do have some excellent first hand knowledge of the sometimes crazy point of view that fat people have on certain issues.
For example, I once weighed 385 pounds and then lost 125 pounds to settle at 260 pounds. After a while, I wound up gaining back around 100 pounds. Not good. But to show you how sometimes fat people can be crazy, when I weighed 260 pounds I would look in the mirror and see every bit of the 385 pounds that I used to weigh. In fact, despite the nearly non-stop compliments that I was receiving on losing all of the weight, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I looked exactly the same as I did when I weighed 385 pounds. No doubt in my mind at all – even though I was completely wrong.
 A huge stack of unworn jeans sitting in my closet The point is that I understand the crazy thoughts that fat people have from time to time. And on that subject, I figured now would be as good a time as any to report to you all about my recent weight loss efforts and one of the positive outcomes of those efforts. I began a weight loss contest with both of my roommates at some point in June. The winner of the contest will get free rent for the month of September (a $587 value). The contest ends in 13 days and I’m in second place by a few percentage points.
Since the contest started, I’ve dropped about 42 pounds. That’s pretty significant. However, since I know from my previous experience that I’m prone to having crazy fat people thoughts, I started snapping pictures of myself (front shot and profile shot) in just my underwear at different weights. Unfortunately, I didn’t start at the 363.6 pounds that I weighed when the contest started (or the 365 pounds that I weighed a week before the contest started), but I did begin taking pictures somewhere around 356 pounds. Again, my purpose for taking these pictures is so that I can see for my own two eyes a “before and after” shot of my body before I began losing weight and after the weight has come off.
And wouldn’t you know it, but the pictures don’t lie. I can clearly see a marked decrease in the size of my torso between the 356 pound picture and the 321 pound picture. In essence, I’m trying to use these pictures to trick (or untrick, really) my brain into recognizing a difference when it looks in the mirror. I don’t know if it’s working yet, but I do know that I have picture proof of my body getting smaller.
Along with that picture proof has come a little bit of pride in losing the weight so I did something the other night that I haven’t done in a while – I took out pairs of jeans that I know I can’t fit into and tried them on. That’s the picture above – an entire stack of jeans (rotated sideways so it can fit in the JerseySmarts.com format). Now here’s where the craziness comes into play – most of those 20 or so pairs of jeans have never been worn! And when I say never been worn, I mean the tags are still on these things! That’s one of the crazy things that some fat people do – we buy things that don’t really fit because we know if we lose a little bit of weight then they’ll fit just fine.
Of course, most folks never really lose the weight and thus what they wind up with is either a huge stack of unworn clothing sitting in their closets like you see in the picture above or a huge stack of unworn clothing that they donate to charity (and ultimately get less of a tax benefit on a per dollar basis than if they just didn’t buy these things in the first place). And to wrap up this part of the conversation, I thought I’d let you know that while I did manage to fit into about 6 or 7 of those pairs of jeans, I put the rest of the stack back and will give it another round of testing after I drop another 20 pounds or so.
To finish up this entry, I thought I’d make a brief observation about what I’d “win” if I win the contest. Sure, I get to keep $587 at a time when I could use the extra funds (with my brother’s wedding coming up and his bachelor party, etc). However, even if I don’t win (and, in truth, my roommate’s lead will be tough to overcome), I am still going to reap a financial benefit. By losing weight, I’ll reduce the number of prescriptions that I need to take each day and thus reduce my medical bills. By losing weight, I’ll be able to fit into some of these jeans that are sitting in my closet that I haven’t been able to wear until now – that saves me money by not having to buy new clothes! So, even if I don’t win the contest, I’ll still reap a financial benefit – and that’s enough to make my crazy fat person thoughts dissipate for a little while!
A Whole Series of Observations from My Time at My New Gym
July 24th, 2011 | Added to Gym Stories | No Comments »
Many, many years ago, I spent a lot of time writing entries on JerseySmarts.com talking about the different experiences that I encountered at my gym. In fact, I created a whole category at JerseySmarts.com talking about all of the different people that I encountered or observations that I made while at the gym. You can go back and read about the muscleheads who go to the gym with excessive amounts of gel in their hair, dummy foreigners trying to make out in the pool, the creepy guys at the gym who spend hours in the locker room staring at everyone, and the creepiest guy that I’ve ever seen at any gym anywhere – the naked shaver! You really need to go and read that entry (and the comments that accompany it) to appreciate what I’m talking about on that one.
If you’re really in the mood, you can read about the swamp thing (which, by the way, brought up the memory of this guy and made me almost throw up re-reading the entry), the return of the clod hoppers, the bald creeper who uses the blow dryer to dry himself off after a shower, the lady who sings along with her iPod, the second creepiest guy that I’ve ever encountered at a gym – the mouth-breathing metal head, or the funniest type of person that I’ve ever seen at a gym – the guy with Imaginary Lat Syndrome (it’s an epidemic, folks).
 The inside of a Planet Fitness - not my Planet Fitness, though. I just found this picture on Bing. Once you read through all of that old content (some of those entries are more than 6 years old!), you can even skip ahead to earlier this year when I encountered a little old lady who was wearing an immense amount of perfume while on a bicycle at the gym. She wasn’t annoying, though. Actually, she was a sweetheart – you gotta love a little old lady coming all dolled up to the gym to work out.
Now, as many of you may recall, the gym that I attend now is nicknamed the “Judgment Free Zone” so before I wrote this entry, I had to really think about whether or not I was “judging” the people I would be writing about. And while that process was an interesting, introspective look on how I view people around me while I’m working out (seriously, give it a shot yourself some time – I found the introspection very insightful), I came to the conclusion that my new observations aren’t really negative judgments on these people. What’s more, through this introspection I found that I really didn’t encounter anybody at my new gym who was annoying or worthy of disgust or disdain. Talk about a refreshing change of pace!
However, I did realize that there were at least a handful of entertaining characters that I’ve observed at the new gym and I wanted to share them with you in this entry. So, in my “judgment free” way, here I go!
The Mayor of the Gym. This guy is entertaining to watch. You all know that guy who is the “Mayor” of the [insert local gathering place here]. Usually, my friends and I talk about who is the “Mayor” of this bar or the “Mayor” of that bar. The “Mayor” of any particular place is the guy who walks around and talks to everyone, trying to make friends or strengthening his existing friendships that he made during previous gym visits. Well, as my frequency of attending this new gym has increased, I’ve definitely figured out who is the “Mayor” of the gym. He’s a nice guy, don’t get me wrong. He even gave me a head nod one day, which I thought was nice. But there is something funny about observing a guy who talks to almost every person at the gym in a friendly, fun kind of way.
The Desperate Clod Hopper. Go back and re-read some of my old entries to figure out what a clod hopper is (in short, it’s the person on the treadmill who doesn’t pick up their feet and thus romps and stomps his or her way to a very loud cardio workout). Well, the other day I was at the gym in the late morning and there weren’t that many people there. The gym has some 30 or so treadmills all lined up in a row so when there aren’t that many people there, you don’t need to get right next to someone and workout on top of them. There’s ample space and certainly ample machinery to make the workout fun without awkwardly invading another person’s space.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, but while I was there doing my own treadmill workout I saw a younger guy (probably in his late 20′s) walk into the gym and hop up on a treadmill that was right next to a young woman. Now granted, the girl was hot – I’ll give him that because it’s true. But isn’t there something inherently weird about getting on a treadmill right next to the hot girl at the gym when there are literally 25 other treadmills that you can get on? Reminding myself to be “judgment free,” I thought nothing of it and kind of got a kick out of it. But then it happened – he started clod hopping.
Boom! Bam! Boom! Bam! Boom! Bam! I actually had to look twice to see if it was him who was romping and stomping on the treadmill! Then, keeping with that “judgment free” spirit, I thought to myself, “Whoa. This kid is going to have a hard time getting that girl to give him the time of day after all of that clod hopping.” And then I went about my business, but made sure to go workout on a different side of the gym than this guy because who really wants to hear all of that banging around anyway?
The Ridiculous Blowout Kid. A few years ago, I would have probably gotten really mad at seeing this type of person at the gym. However, when I went to the gym a few months ago and noticed a young kid (probably in his late teens/early 20′s) with a blowout hair cut that was as full of gel and/or grease as I’ve ever seen, I actually had to restrain myself from laughing out loud. Now, now – I wasn’t laughing at him (remember, I’m keeping a “judgment free” mindset). But I was laughing at the sight of a young kid walking into the gym with hair that literally stood about five inches off of his head. Imagine the gross sweat that must roll off of that head! Blech!
The Guy Who Does Weird Workouts, Front and Center. I didn’t really know how to quantify this guy when I saw him the other day, but I figured the best way to report him to you all was to report what I saw. There was a guy at the gym who strategically stood in a part of the dumbbell area that is pretty much the “front and center” of the gym. While he was there, he did the oddest, most bizarre collection of workouts that I’ve ever seen.
Hear me out – I’ve seen all different types of plyometric workouts when I played football. I’ve seen just about every type of endurance workout when I wrestled. I’ve seen almost every different workout that relates anything to sports and athletes. And then I saw this guy. I can barely explain what I saw because it was so weird. For example, this guy was holding onto a curling bar and seemingly try to jump up over his own head while holding it. I’ve never seen anything like that before, but I – and everyone else at the gym that day – was treated to some entertaining workout routine!
The Kids BS’ing Instead of Working Out. The only thing that distracted me from watching that guy’s weird workout was trying to hold back the laughing as these young teenagers (definitely kids out of school for the summer) sat around near the dumbbells for about 30 minutes and doing next to nothing while sitting there. I happened to be on the stationary bike directly in front of these kids so I had a front row seat to absolutely nothing. It was pretty amazing, actually, when you consider that there were people all over the gym and everyone was getting a good workout. Just another example of kids needing someplace to go and something to do with their free time, I guess.
And that’s about it, folks. I have more observations, but they are general in nature. For example, there aren’t any creepy guys crawling around the locker rooms at this gym (thank God), there aren’t any muscleheads being overly aggressive in some steroid-fueled rage, and there aren’t really that many gym-goers to get aggravated about. The people who go to this gym are just regular, average people looking to focus a little bit more on fitness. That’s one of the many reasons why I like going to this gym – it’s fun and it gets the job done in a cost-effective, efficient way.
Some Thoughts on Weight Loss from an Old Comment…
June 13th, 2011 | Added to Gym Stories | No Comments »
Like most folks who are overweight, I occasionally find myself reading online articles and blogs that focus on weight loss strategies as well as telling success stories. A few years ago, I got hooked on a blog called 344Pounds.com which followed a young man named Tyler as he tried to lose an incredible amount of weight. I encourage you to use the link above to visit Tyler’s blog (which has grown into a full blown web community) and click around a little bit to read about how he was able to lose 140 pounds.
The reason why I bring up this particular weight loss website is because I used to comment on the blog entries from time to time. While I was browsing around that blog a few days ago, I found an old comment that I placed on 344Pounds.com about two years ago and I thought that I’d use this space to upload that comment. The comment is, in a shortened form, the story of my weight loss journey.
That's what it's all about - losing weight and ultimately reducing your health risks. Here is the text of that old comment from 2009 which tells my story:
About 5.5 years ago I decided that I had enough of being overweight and tired. I was 385 pounds and 23 years old at the time. I dedicated myself to going to the gym, but not going crazy at the gym (an hour on the treadmill and some light lifting plus an hour swimming in the pool). I went at least 5 times per week. I’ve always had a good diet (no fast food, no soda, lots of water), but my portion sizes were obscene. So I lessened my portions and still ate the healthy food. I went from 385 pounds to 260 pounds in about a year. I felt great.
Then two things happened. First, my gall bladder went (the doctor said it was a result of losing too much weight too quickly). As such, my body had (and continues to have) a hard time processing fat out of my foods. Second, I graduated from graduate school and landed a great job an hour from my home. This means that I am out of the house from 7:30am until about 6:30pm and exhausted by the time I get home.
Slowly, the weight came back on. When I was in graduate school, even though I went to a school that was 45 minutes from my house, I had so much free time that going to the gym was easy. It’s extremely hard to lose weight when you’re out of the house in a sedentary office setting for 8 hours each day with an hour commute on either end of that work day.
Last winter I reached 380 pounds again. At that point, I was disgusted. I joined a gym down the street and went there every day for over a month. Maybe 10 pounds came off. So I stopped going to the gym.
However, due to an active summer and the dietary changes that I’ve made over the last few months (smaller portions), I dropped 50 pounds so that I’m weighing in at about 330 now. I’ve been at this weight for about a month and I’m confident that I can lose another 70 and sit at 260 (which is where I want to be in the short term).
The lesson that I’ve learned is that you have to get into shape when you have the freedom to do so. Because if you wait until you have an executive-type job and a lengthy commute, it’ll be harder than you could imagine.
The quick update is that I don’t weigh 330 pounds now nor do I weigh the 260 pounds (which is the goal weight that I have for myself before I really kick it into high gear). Instead, I’ve weighed between 350 and 365 pounds for the better part of the last year. Shortly after I wrote that entry, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. For two years, I’ve been on 10 pills each day and my doctor consistently monitors how the pills are working in my system. Two weeks ago, he upped my prescription to 11 pills each day. Last week he put me back to 10 pills a day and added a daily shot in the stomach (which I’m not pleased about). The shot is supposed to both help me control my blood sugar and lose weight. Go figure.
By the way, I weighed 364.2 pounds two weeks ago. This past Saturday, I weighed 354.2 pounds. A 10 pound drop in two weeks – a sign of things to come? Eh, who knows?
Everything I said in that entry holds true, though. There is still not a realistic diet and workout plan for people who have a long daily commute or who work two or three jobs. That diet and workout plan just doesn’t exist. And I’m tired of hearing people say, “You have to make the choice. You have to make that decision that you won’t take no for an answer.” I made that choice one hell of a long time ago and my mindset hasn’t changed. I’ve been eating mostly organic food for a decade, no fast food for a decade, no soda for a decade – I’ve got all of the hard stuff down. But, like many other working professionals – after I managed to achieve my major weight loss success I was slapped with the reality of the professional world and having financial and personal obligations to meet.
That’s just the way life works.
Don’t read this entry the wrong way, though. I’m certainly not bitter or angry or anything like that – not at all. However, I do think that along with all of the success stories, folks should be looking at the truth when it comes to those people who have lost weight and then gained it back.
I feel like my story is more typical than people would imagine.
The Biggest Loser’s “White Team” Makes a Phenomenal Statement
April 17th, 2011 | Added to Entertainment, Gym Stories | No Comments »
A few weeks ago on the biggest loser, Allison introduced us to the White Team. The White Team is the team that – as Allison said on the show – was picked as team number 12. Why is that significant? Simple. Only 11 teams make it on to the show. During the March 29, 2011 broadcast, they showed a video of Allison going to speak with the White Team before the season started. She told them that they were team number 12 and not going to be on this season of The Biggest Loser.
Then, as The Biggest Loser loves to do, Allison told the White Team that they could earn their way on to campus by losing the weight at home. Well, the March 29th broadcast was the due date for the White Team to meet their weight loss goals. You can watch the entire episode that I’m referring to by watching the video at home. If you want to see the White Team’s story, then fast forward to about the 8:30 mark. I suggest fast forwarding to the 8:30 mark and watching the show through the story of the White Team, which only lasts about 7 minutes or so.
Now, if you watched the video above, you know that neither Vance nor his mother Leann lost the amount of weight necessary to make their way on to the ranch. But, what I liked most about this little segment, was what the White Team had to say – something that I really feel needs to be repeated over and over again on The Biggest Loser. What both Vance and Leann said was that they don’t get to spend their entire day at home losing weight; they don’t get to make weight loss their “job” each day.
I applaud Vance and Leann for their great weight loss successes thus far in their journey. However, their message of their story is one that absolutely must be shown side-by-side with The Biggest Loser. And that message is that you can’t sit at home and watch The Biggest Loser and think, “I can do that. I can lose 100 pounds in 6 weeks!”
Sure, you can lose all of that weight in a short period of time if you are a contestant on The Biggest Loser or if you don’t have a stifling daily routine. For example, I lost 125 pounds when I was in graduate school because I was working a part-time job and going to school part-time which gave me a lot of free time. But if you have a job (or two… or three), a family, a commute, bills that absolutely must be paid, etc. – then I strongly urge you to watch the weight loss success on The Biggest Loser with measured eyes.
Yes, you should be inspired by the people who are transforming their lives on The Biggest Loser (I certainly am). But remember this: for the vast majority of people who watch the show, even at your best your successes will be akin to the White Team’s experience in the video above. Are those successes something to be celebrated? Yes! But will the weight fall off of you as quickly as though if you were on the ranch? No.
Just trying to bring a little bit of reality to reality television.
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