Finding my hero…

As many of you know, I have recently taken up indoor cycling as an amazing way to crank up my cardiovascular training. Things were getting a bit boring on the elliptical machine at the gym, so I went to a spinning class, and got hooked instantly. I wrote about it in a recent blogpost, and since then have grown more and more excited by the prospects of getting stronger and better at this new activity. I suppose that one of the reasons why I get such a great kick out of it is because I feel like I’m part of a community of sorts. I know that many people participate in exercise classes, go through the motions, and don’t necessarily feel any sort of connection to the people around them. But there are many people who do… so let me tell you about why the people who sweat by my side are such an important part of my journey.

In my previous post about spinning, I talked about what it’s like to do a ride with a group of other spinners. The energy is palpable, and sometimes the shared sense of dread can be kind of intense. But at the end of the hour, you take a look around and see the satisfaction and pride on everyone’s faces that you had accomplished something — that somehow today, you worked harder than you did the day before, and you’re a better person for having done so. That’s such a huge part of what drives me to go to a class 4 or 5 days a week now — yes the workout is fantastic, but the sense of community is close to spectacular.

Over the past year or so, I had also taken up a kickboxing class — a weekly meeting of some people at my gym who hammered out some amazing kicking and punching sequences on a couple of WaveMaster bags. The class was fantastic, but over the past few weeks, I haven’t been totally feeling it. I’ve gone, I’ve punched, I’ve kicked, I’ve sweated. I’ve done everything the instructor told me to do (and then some), but I wasn’t feeling that great at the end of it all. And it is only in reflecting upon my spinning classes that I have begun to understand why.

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It is what it is.

I’ve taken a bit of a break from running in the past two weeks. I did my 5km run and am still feeling incredible about my accomplishment. But, the weather has been crappy, and life has been a bit nutty. My landlord decided to put the house up for sale, so for the whole of last week, I hardly got to spend any time at my place because teams of agents and potential buyers were coming through for private viewings and open houses. This surrender of my home really threw a wrench in my week. My friends Liza and Lindsay were a tremendous help with my dog — Rosie was able to go hang out at there house during the day while complete strangers walked through my house (without taking off their shoes), opening cupboards, closets, and one person even used my toilet. Not sure how I feel about that. So, the surrender of my home also meant a temporary surrender of my routine for that period of time, too.

Last Wednesday, I went out to for a belated birthday celebration with my friend Jonathan, his boyfriend Elliot and Jonathan’s cycling amigo, Andrew. We went to comedy night at a local bar, had lots of beer, ate pizza and nachos, and had a fantastic time. I stumbled home late that night, got a little bit of sleep before rising early to vacuum, sweep and prepare the house for private showings that day. I also didn’t have much of an opportunity throughout the week to cook my meals. It’s difficult to begin whipping together a culinary wonder when the phone rings and an agent is ‘in the neighbourhood’ (i.e. outside the front door) with a potential buyer. So, let’s just say that the eating regimen got put on hold as well. And I didn’t get as much time in the gym as I would have liked.

All of those factors combined, and yesterday, when Seb weighed me before our workout, we realized that I had put on just under three pounds.

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Defeat and Determination

Exerpt from this post

…

All the people in the diet world strive for the following situation:

“Man, those chips look good. I’d like to eat those…. wait… wait… I don’t need these. I’m not that hungry. This will not help me lose weight, and I won’t feel any better.” And you move on without eating.

This is still so far from the truth from me that I don’t make it past the first sentence. The food goes from my hand to mouth before I realize what I’m doing, it seems. It’s like I’m not even in control of my own body sometimes. Instead of a quote, I get a picture:

When I am at home, I can limit myself to what I keep around me. At work I’m forced to pack something good, or take the time to drive to a location to pick something up (salad bar ftw). These things eliminate my biggest threat to weight loss.

Impulse.

I cannot lead a healthy life just avoiding impulse… delaying the ineveitablew. I have to face it. When people ask me “do you still eat out, can you still keep snacks in the house?” I respond “I do, and I will. I have to learn to live with these things”. Do I act on my own advice? Hellz no.

Coming into this, it was obvious Impulse would be the hardest part of weight loss, and it is proving itself mightily. Slowing down is a necessity. I don’t face any demons, I stick my tail between my legs and surrender before I even realize a battle has begun. Losing 40 pounds seemed so easy, and it kind was. But temptation will always be there, and I must learn to face it down and not avoid these decisions. An alcoholic can kick the habit if they live on an island with no booze.

Learn to ask myself those question I put above: slow down G. You don’t need those goddamn (delicious) cheeze-its!

On my way to the gym yesterday (185 pound squat and 195 pound deadlift FTW) I realized its time to prove myself. I deserve the weight I lost. I didn’t cheat the system, come hell or high water, I’m gonna get fit or die trying….

That’s Going To Leave A Mark

I woke up early today with the intention of going to the gym and having the rest of my day fall into place. Instead, I lounged around for two hours and slacked on getting ready. At one point, I was convinced that I was going to flake out and skip today. I mean, I skipped [...]

Waisting Time

When we last spoke, I was mired in some deep financial issues that prevented me from going to the gym. My gym membership was a few payments late which temporarily put things on hold. As quickly as that had started, I was able to climb out of that hole and keep my membership in good [...]