Path to Weightloss: 280

It’s been way too long since I last did an update on my path to weightloss so here we go:

First off, “The Biggest Loser” competition at my office has ended. Apparently, yours truly obliterated the competition by losing 12 lbs during the first round (everyone else lost < 5 lbs) and losing another 12 lbs during the second round (when everyone else gained weight). After that point everyone else quit.

Bastages.

Still, just because the competition is over it doesn’t mean that I’ll stop losing weight, right? Well, sort of. See, I’m a fierce competitor. If I actually stand a chance at winning, if I smell blood in the water, I always go for the kill. I don’t look to win, I look to dominate. I don’t do a lot of trash talking — in fact, I don’t generally do any, it’s not my style — but when I set my mind on a goal, I get it done (especially when money’s involved).

Unfortunately, the opposite is also true: no competition, no movement.

Luckily, after the goal had been set, I started to pay full attention to the process. (Remember: without a goal there is no process, but if you seek your goal without looking at the process you will most certainly fail in the long run.) I looked at what I was eating and improved my eating habits by leaps and bounds. The result was once the competition was over, I still continued to lose weight.

Unfortunately, I’ve seemingly hit a plateau. 280-ish. (Actually, it’s more like 277-ish, but I’ll round up to compensate for any scale-related inconsistencies.) Part of it is my fault. My driving force before wasn’t better health nor was it better looks. It was winning the competition, but doing it in such a way so as to be able to lose weight even after it had ended (as I knew it eventually would, though I didn’t expect it to happens so soon).

Well, I won. And I kept losing weight. Just not as fast. Mostly because I started eating more, reintroducing things like bread to the diet. But I was losing weight still… sort of.

I decided at this point that I should start exercising more. It was right there and then that I figured out I’m getting older. I went for a workout session with Mr. Renato, one which, while difficult, was not out of the range of normalcy. Until the next day, that is, when I realized I had just done some major damage to my lower back.

As I said, part of it was my fault. Part of it wasn’t. After a week of pain and visits to the doctor and chiropractor, I found the problem: irritated syatica.

Crap.

This little incident pretty much eliminated any ability I had to work out. Heck, I couldn’t even walk upright or sit for a few days. For three weeks after that I was pretty much confined to bed rest and chiropractic sessions. And ice. Lots of ice. On my lower back. Take that, comfort!

About a week ago, my back started feeling much better. I started doing some light working out again — mostly using the elliptical glide and a bike — but wasn’t able to last for more than 20 minutes without a lot of pain. This was fine because apparently I also got whatever has been going around and by the end of the week I once again found myself in bed, this time with a cough and a fever.

Needless to say, with all these ups and downs — mostly downs — my dietary plan has gone by the wayside, mostly because standing up and cooking has until recently been almost out of the question since it hurt like heck to do so. While I still tried to eat mostly salads and proteins, easy-to-grab things like nachos kept finding their way into my house, and eventually… well, you know. I have The Wife to thank for that. Really. It’s her fault.

Really.

OK, fine, it’s my fault for eating the stuff. And for telling her she could get it for herself. And telling her I wouldn’t eat it, even though I might have been hungry. And then bugging her ’til she gave me some. And then eating her food when she wasn’t looking. “Honey!” I would say, “Hurry back, your food is getting all cold… (and eaten…)”

Damn tasty nachos.

Anyway, so my weight now is lingering somewhere between 275 and 280, which is still pretty good, compared to where I was, but not good from the standpoint of my goal of 200lbs. Simply put, I’ve fallen off the wagon by getting trapped in the same “no time, fast food’s easy” hole that got me into the upper stratosfatassphere. With my back finally feeling good enough for me to do some working out (it’s still very painful at times) and my cold/flu/whatever almost gone, it’s time I drop the excuses and get back on track. I wonder if I can get anyone to compete with?

P.S.
I’d like to take this chance to congratulate Stuart “Syage” Brownstein on his amazing one-year weightloss achievement of dropping almost 100 lbs. He started at 380 and is now at a leaner, friendlier 292. A-fracking-mazing.