Sunday, August 19, 2012

50 Pounds

As of yesterday, I lost a total of fifty pounds, equivalent to that bag of sugar on the left.  It took me just over a year to do it.  That's okay though.  At least I have something to show for my investment of time.  Nothing else in my life has panned out like I hoped, but at least this did, and even though I say "at least," it's probably the most significant.

I looked at my last entry here, and I noticed that it's been four months since I last made an entry, and I said that it was getting time to get back to the gym, although I really didn't get started for about another six weeks.  My back was just hurting too much and I was pretty demotivated.  Once I did start, I became even more demotivated.  There was a lot of pain and it was very difficult to move.  I was so moody that the author from Twilight was thinking about writing a book about me.  If anything, I would title it "Breaking Down."

The good news is that I didn't gain any weight during my hiatus (nine months which includes two months of confinement to my bed and bath, but not beyond) and so I was still on track to hit some kind of mark.

My wife had recommended trying the swimming pool and using the buoyancy to help minimize pressure on the joints and muscles, even though it might be a tad bit humbling for a big guy to saunter out into the pool area with my Impeedo (big person's version of Speedo), but I had put that off for the most obvious reason - this big guy didn't want to saunter out into the pool area with his Impeedo.

But I did it anyway...and it wasn't so bad, aside from the people trying to harpoon me.

I started by just moving around in the pool, eventually learning some aerobic maneuvers in the water, and now can do about twenty lengths of the pool, using a "don't worry...I'm not drowning" stroke.  It takes me about fifteen minutes to cover eight lengths of the pool, or as my daughter calls it, "the slowest 200 in history."

Fortunately, I've made some friends - another big Mexican guy who had lost nearly 100 pounds in the past year just from cruising around in the pool, an elderly Czech gentleman who had a bypass three years ago, and was swimming for his own conditioning and has been an encouragement to me each time he sees me, a very nice lady in her 80s who swims in a two-piece bathing suit (use your imagination) just about every night, an enthusiastic nurse who has a passion for helping people live healthy, and a few young Armenian guys who enjoy the Jacuzzi at the end of their workouts, and are always good for a funny story or two.  These are just a few of the many I've met so far.

When I'm done in the pool, I relax in the Jacuzzi with the other big Mexican guy, the Czech, and some of the young Armenian guys talking about girls (in their own language - the gestures are still the same).

The neat thing about this is that while I walking the treadmill I talked to very few people. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't talk anyway because I was huffing and puffing so hard.  Floating in the water is enabling me to get the same result without killing myself and I'm making a few friends along the way.

That's how it should be done.