December 28 would become my Carpe Diem for it was the day in 2009 that I made the conscience decision to do something about the physical aspect of the person I had become. I tipped the scales at 215lbs, my all time heaviest. To put that into perspective, at the peak of my athletic period at 20 years of age, I was 145lbs. I was on a downhill spiral at the age of 37. At a little over 5' 8", it placed my BMI in the obesity range. I was officially “Too Fat To Be Fit”!
The excessive weight was having an impact on daily life. Becoming increasingly difficult to tie shoes and becoming next to impossible to play with my children on the floor or at the park. Although never officially determined, I'm sure my health was suffering as well. Two months earlier a friend and co-worker had congestive heart failure. Within a month, another co-worker also had congestive heart failure. Was I on that same road?
December 24th of that same year, as typical of many men, I was out Christmas shopping for the kids and my wife. I wanted to get a gift the entire family would enjoy and we could play with together. I have never been a fan of board games but I did like the odd video game. I had only heard of Nintendo WII weeks earlier. Five stores later and becoming increasingly frustrated by the non availability of the WII, my last stop was Toys ‘R Us. Almost sure they wouldn’t have a unit, I asked the cashier in the electronics section. I could sense her reluctance, but after a few moments she asked me to wait one moment. “It’s the last one”, she said. “Great, thank you!” I said excitedly. “Do you have WII Fit as well?“ I asked.
So my initial attempt to get back into shape started with WII Fit. Between that and a revised diet that did not contain refined carbohydrates and an increase in water intake, I slowly began to shed the pounds. At that same time, I dusted off the elliptical trainer in the basement and did my first 20 minute workout. It almost killed me! It became quite apparent that the level of intensity had to be reduced significantly. I had read an article on training with a heart rate monitor by Mark Allen. Mark was an accomplished triathlete in the 1980s. The concept was that you work out at intensity no higher than your maximum aerobic heart rate to utilize more fat storage for fuel. The net effect, I was going no faster than a walking pace! In time however and as your aerobic fitness increased, the speed at which you worked out would increase. For the next three months I watched movies on the elliptical trainer from anywhere from 1 hour to 2 and a half hours a day while maintaining my HR between 130bpm and 140bpm. Starting out no faster than a walk and over time I became faster and faster. I was developing my base aerobic conditioning while limiting the fatigue allowing me to exercise longer. In that same time, I shed almost 30lbs.
With a new lease on life, I joined a local gym. I wanted to develop both upper and lower body strength. One to always shy away from the gym scene, I thought it was best to get some personal one on one instruction on the use of the equipment, free weights and most importantly, proper form. Craig would become my Personal Trainer for the next 2 months. During that time, I completed two phases; Hypertrophy and Strength. During the Hypertrophy Phase, 3 days a week for 4 weeks, Craig had me work with a mix of machine and free weights. The idea through this phase was to train both the muscle and mind, keeping the weight low to moderate and lifting slowly. Each week the weight and/or reps were increased to encourage adaptation. The second month included only free weights for the upper body and a mix of free weights and machines for the legs. During this Strength Phase the weight was increased, the times between reps were decreased but the rest between sets was increased. This phase focussed more on strength and muscle development. Throughout this time, the weight loss stopped however my body fat percentage continued to decline and the waist line continued to shrink. The result of loosing both body fat and gaining lean muscle mass.
One aspect I had to contend with was not relying on what the scale was saying and maintaining my patience. I wanted the weight loss, but I wanted to do it right. 7 years ago I had followed the Dr. Atkins Low Carb approach and although I lost a significant amount of weight, it all crept back on when I returned to my regular eating habit. I’m now being mindful of maintaining a balanced yet a caloric reduced diet consisting of whole grains, vegetables, fruit, nuts, meat, fish and healthy fats.
6 months into my new life lease I was ready to get back on the saddle, the bike saddle that is. As I worked downtown in the city, had an hour and a half commute both ways, raising a family of three kids, there was obviously little time left for exercise. My solution was to waken at 4:00am each morning and be on the bike at 5:00am. During the work week I would ride Tuesday and Thursday for an hour and a half or ~40km. On Saturday and Sunday I would ride anywhere from 2hrs (~55km) and by the end of the summer, up to 4hrs (~ 110km). Wednesday and Friday was reserved for upper body strength workouts in the gym. Monday was always a rest day. I had stopped lower body workouts as they were too fatiguing and affecting my ability to ride. By the end of the summer I felt really good about myself. I developed both upper and lower body strength and my aerobic conditioning had vastly improved.
By the end of 9 months, my weight loss had all but plateaued which I contributed to both the increase in lean muscle mass and the additional demands the cycling was taking on me. I was either eating enough to satisfy my daily caloric requirements or I wasn’t eating enough and my body was in starvation mode thereby retaining body fat. Either way, I was satisfied where I was at. At my lowest I reached 172lbs for a total loss of 43lbs.
As the days became shorter, my ability to ride in the mornings all but disappeared. My motivation to ride in doors was not there yet so I returned to the gym more frequently and started to reintroduce lower body exercises. Perhaps the new found strength I had made me overzealous, but I soon found myself crippled in pain and had a considerably difficult time walking for almost two weeks. Although I did not feel the weight I was lifting was overly excessive, the shear number of lower body exercises and reps obviously had a compound effect. I had still a lot to learn about weight training. It would take me time to slowly reintroduce each leg exercise again. By the time my legs started to feel better, I then damaged my right rotary cuff when using the pec deck machine as I overextended my shoulder when returning the weight. That injury had thrown my weight training and motivation off for the remainder of the year. I tried to exercise through the pain but just could not lift the same weight or at the same intensity.
I spend a considerable amount of time reading and researching exercise and nutrition and had come across an interesting advertisement for a book of Chris Carmichael’s called “The Time Crunched Cyclist”. Chris is famously known for coaching Lance Armstrong but was also an accomplished professional cyclist himself having competed in Europe with Team 7-Eleven. The TCTP program is designed to work around busy schedules by applying greater intensities to achieve bigger gains with fewer and shorter rides. In short, it is quite possible by following the TCTP approach; I could once again consider becoming a competitive cyclist, targeting a specific goal or event. After reading through the book I was stoked for the New Year! I really never thought it would be possible to be competitive again as I just did not have the hours in the day or week to follow a traditionally high volume/high mileage cycling program.
My year ended quietly having for the most part maintaining my weight with no major relapses. I did gain 5lbs between October and Christmas but during this time I would expect that. My exercise volume had decreased quite significantly without any major changes to my diet. I vowed to begin the process yet again on December 28th, 2010 to elevate my fitness to that next level.
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