Friday, May 4, 2012

I DID IT! -------- First 5K Race - The Krispie Kreme Challenge!


First 5K

My very first 5K was on a walk one evening with my husband.  I wasn't planning to do a 5K but was feeling pretty good so . . . we walked 1.6 miles away from our house.  The only way to get back home was to walk the 1.6 miles back . . . a 5K.  Once I had done that, I knew I could enter a 5K race.

First 5K Race


I can't believe my first 5K was called the Krispie Kreme Challenge.  How appropriate!  In this race, you run 1.5 miles, stop to eat a dozen donuts, and then run the second 1.55 miles.  I did not eat the donuts!

I calculated that it would take me 1:05 to finish and asked the folks at the registration table if that would be too long for them to wait.  They said no and were thrilled that I was attempting to finish a 5K.  I'm editing this blog four years later and I can honestly say, after racing for four years including a half marathon and many Olympic and sprint triathlons, that 3.1 mile walk was the hardest race I've ever done.  I still get choked up when I think about the kindness that the race organizers showed me.

At the half way mark, volunteers were handing out glasses of water.  I wasn't sure what to do and was a little embarrassed.  I was, after all, just walking.  I really didn't need a glass of water.  I wasn't sure they would give me one since I was just walking.  But as I walked by, a volunteer handed me a glass.  I will never forget the feeling I had at that moment.  I had a sense that I was part of something very special, a community of people all supporting one another.  And I was so proud to have been honored with a glass of water.

At about 2 1/2 miles, I was so exhausted and winded that I couldn't talk (or breath).  I asked my family (who had joined me for support) to please not talk to me.  I couldn't handle any distractions.  If I were going to finish, it would be mind over matter.  I had to focus. 

I finished and was probably the proudest I have every been!  When I cross the finish line, the announcer said, "This is Sue Reynolds' first 5K!" and everyone clapped and cheered for ME.  Simply amazing.  My husband and son were so proud.  I got choked up.  I couldn't believe that I had walked THREE MILES in a race!  I came in dead last (other than one person who didn't finish).  But the goal was not to beat other people.  The goal was to finish - and I had.  Woohoo!  Yippee!  Hooray!

That was a special moment that I will never forget . . . and the start of so much fun in races to come!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Parts 3 and 4 - Bootcamp & OMO + Trouble!

So far, this journey has been in several parts.

PART THREE: 
April 2012 - November 2012
Bootcamp and OMO (on my own)

Part Three of my journey is represented by the steep downward slope of my weight from April 2012 to November 2012 (eight months).  For the first two months of this period, I was participating in a bootcamp.

Meltdown Bootcamp:
Pros:  I'm not sure if all bootcamps are like this, but the Meltdown Bootcamp that I participated in was amazing.  It was an eight-week program sponsored by Next Generation Personal Training (NGPT).  While located in my town, NGPT also has an online version of their bootcamp that is available to everyone everywhere. 

NGPT was founded by a young man, Adam Schaeuble, who was at one time overweight.  While NGPT is a business, it is a business grown from kindness and caring.  All of their instructors have also been overweight.  NGPT it the ONLY program that I have ever known that actually understands me.  The vast majority of clients there are people just like me - on a journey to be healthy.  What is special about NGPT is the culture of support both from the staff and the clients.  NGPT taught me three things:  1) what to eat, 2) the joy of facing a physical exercise challenge, and 3) how to prepare mentally for success.  I like to say that NGPT isn't a place that you go (or an online system that you access) to lose weight.  It is a place you go to gain health.  And it worked for me.  As an experiment of one, you'll note that the downward slope of my weight loss during bootcamp is steeper than the slope associated with the other weight-loss programs that I did.

Every two weeks, I was given a different nutrition plan and cardio plan.  They described the nutrition plan as a "low sugar" plan.  I ate five meals a day of proteins, healthy carbs and vegetables.  Meals had to be at least three hours apart.  Every day was different.  Some days, for example, were low carb days.  I also had to drink 120 oz of fluids every day.  One of the things I really liked about the bootcamp nutrition plan was that we were allowed "cheat days" once a week.  On those days, we could eat whatever we wanted.  Cheat days were required so our body wouldn't think it was starving and slow its metabolism.  I have to admit, I was never hungry.  I had a wonderful nutrition coach to whom I sent my nutrition log every night (and from whom I received feedback every night).

The cardio consisted of "high intensity cardio," tabatas and steady state.  We also had to do a certain number of minutes as "empty stomach cardio" before we ate in the morning.  In addition to my nutrition coach, I had a cardio coach to whom I sent my cardio log once a week.  My cardio log was an excel spreadsheet and as I entered my cardio, a letter grade would be calculated.  I always filled it in a week in advance so I'd get an A.  Then, if I didn't follow the plan, the grade would drop so I always followed the plan.

The first "core cardio" class that I attended was crazy hard.  I knew no one.  I had never been to an exercise class before.  But I told myself that I was not going to let my pride get in my way, and many times that night and in the years to come, I found myself saying, "DO NOT LET YOUR PRIDE CONTROL YOU!"  The trainer had us rotate from station to station.  The only problem was that the stations were about 10 feet apart and when an exercise required us to be on the floor, I was in trouble.  I couldn't stand up.  So I ended up CRAWLING to the next station.  Was I embarrassed?  Absolutely!  GO AWAY PRIDE.

The next problem was that I could not do any of the exercises.  At every station, I had to raise my hand and ask for an alternative.  GO AWAY PRIDE.  But, my first instructor was an angel.  After a while, she would get everyone started on the next station and then come over to help me with an alternative.  And when I was on Jacobs Ladder, she yelled across the room, "GOOD JOB SUE!"  Oh my gosh, I was SOOOOO proud!

As I walked out of class on that first night, I could not believe that I was covered with sweat.  I was sweating from exercise.  How cool was that!!  To this day, I love to sweat.  When I'm on the stationary bike, I count my sweat drops.  My record is 184.

Cons:  I can't think of one con.  Some people say the con is the price.  But when I consider what I'm getting for my money (health), I think it's a great investment.

After bootcamp - On My Own

After bootcamp, I decided to develop my own plan using the lessons learned from bootcamp.  Here is my daily nutrition.  I'm lucky because I don't mind eating the same thing every day:

Breakfast:  Yogurt, 1 C oatmeal
Lunch:  Yogurt, 1 slice sprouted rye bread (yummy!), apple, V8 juice (11 oz)
Dinner:  Spinach omelet (7.5 oz egg white, handful of spinach), 2 slices sprouted rye bread
Snack:   Throughout the day) - more of foods eaten at meals, not to exceed 300 cal

For cardio during this time period, I started doing 40 minutes of running or swimming six days a week.

PART FOUR: 
November 2012 - April 2013
Oh no!  Trouble!

One of the biggest mistakes I made after bootcamp was thinking that just because I could do a successful "cheat day" and then return immediately to a controlled diet, that I could also do a successful cheat month in December.  Wrong!  In a month period, I had reestablished bad habits that were so, so hard to break.

At weight-ins at NGPT, I'd promise Adam that I'd have a successful next week.  Usually, I would, but then the following week was a disaster.  At one weigh-in, I told Adam (the NGPT founder and owner) and I wasn't doing well and asked if he had any suggestions.  He told me not to worry and told me, "I will not let you fail."  For some strange reason, those words gave me a lot of resolve.  The next day, I think every staff member at NGPT send me an email just to "see how I was doing."  I realized that Adam must have talked to his staff about me and put me on some kind of "hit list."  Realizing that the entire NGPT staff knew I was failing, I immediately got back on track.  This time, my pride was helping me!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Part 1 & 2 - Weight Watchers + Couch to 5K


My journey has been in several parts.

PART ONE: 
January 2010 - July 2011
Weight Watchers and Couch to 5K

Part One of my journey is represented by the downward slope of my weight from January 2010 to July 2011.  At this time, I was using Weight Watchers (WW) and Couch to 5K.

Weight Watchers:
Pros:  It was good to be able to record everything I ate as I ate it.  I also love to follow my progress (or lack of progress!) on their the WW charts. While I don't use WW anymore, I still subscribe to WW and log my weight every week.
Cons:  While WW helps you with limiting how you eat, I didn't find that it helped me figure out what to eat or when to eat.  With WW, I could eat only chocolate cake and as long as I limited how much I ate, the points would be ok. At least, that was the way it was when I started this journey.  I think WW has changed it's program since then to focus more on healthy nutrition.

Couch to 5K:
Pros:  What a wonderful program!  I went from not being able to walk more than a 1/2 block to running two miles (without walking) with C5K.  I loved that that I could succeed at each week - even week one.  I remember there being one week (week 5?) that seemed like a big increase in running, but I made it!  I did 8 of the 9 weeks of C5K.  In the eighth week, I was doing the program with ease but only running about two miles.  My Couch to 5K was going to end up being a Couch to 2.1 K!  So, I decided to run faster.  Big mistake.  Trying to run faster changed my form and I ended up hurting something in my hip.  Xrays showed nothing major but doctor said not to run until I lost more weight.  Bummer.
Cons:  I can't think of one con.  Just don't try to run fast!

PART TWO: 
July 2011 - April 2012
Falling off the bandwagon.

Part Two of my journey is represented by the upward slope of my weight between July 2011 and April 2012.  During this time, I was not only not running, but with stress at work had adopted a "screw it" attitude about eating.  I would leave work, go to the bakery and buy a dozen cookies, and then eat every one of them - day after day after day.  Not good.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

In the beginning . . .

Hello! 

I've never blogged before and am not really sure how this works.  I'm a fairly shy person and I certainly don't think my words are anything special.  While it's kind of embarrassing to write about myself, I'm hoping that my journey might help others understand that 1) it is possible for grossly overweight people to lose weight without surgery or drugs, and 2) it is possible to transform one's life at any age.  This blog has also given me a chance to think things through as I transitioned from who I was to who I am.

When I first started exercising, I had a hard time finding stories about overweight people being involved in endurance sports, even completing a 5k's.  The few that I did find (all written by men) were incredibly inspiring.  However, I also noticed that while many of the writers started blogs, after a few months, they all stopped suddenly.  I wondered if that meant they went back to their old, unhealthy ways.  I hoped my journey would be proof that it is possible for overweight people to start exercising and stick with it.

I am now 64.  I started this journey in January 2010 when I weighed 335 pounds.  It took me about four years to lose the 201 pounds, and I've been able to sustain at 135 pounds.  I lost the weight slowly, 20-65 pounds per year.  With one exception of one multi-month period, my weight progressed downward each year.  The U.S. government no longer considers me to be obese or even overweight.  And I am now finished loosing weight as my doctor says no more and my coach says that I am at "ideal race weight." 

People always want to know what made me start loosing weight.  I really don't know!  My usual answer to that question is that I wanted to be able to put on my shoes!  That may sound silly, but if you are a lot overweight, you know exactly what I mean! 

You'll notice that the photos in the beginning of this blog all have my head missing!  Ha!  At the start, I wanted to be invisible.  Somewhere along the way, I became so proud of my weight loss and fitness that I started leaving my head in the photos.  It took three years to tell anyone that I was writing a blog, but I finally did it.  Obviously, I've changed on the inside as well as the outside.  This was also a spiritual journey for me.  There's several posts about that throughout this blog.

What it was like 200 pounds ago . . .

Before the
journey started
When I started this journey, I couldn't walk a city block without having to stop to rest.  When I walked from the parking garage to my office (1 1/2 blocks), I tried to time it just right so the traffic light would turn and I'd have to stop and could catch my breath.  I hated it when colleagues suggested that we walk to lunch.  It was impossible to walk and talk without gasping for air (embarrassing).  The worst was when I'd have to walk up a flight of stairs to a business meeting.  When that happened, I always told people I need to use the restroom.  I'd go in the stall until my heart rate came down and my breathing returned to normal.  I even had difficulty rolling over in bed!

It was pretty bad.

While I'm not sure why I started this journey, I know exactly why I'm continuing.

October 2012
The first 5K
that I ran all of.
1.  I love discovering that I can do something new.  I remember one day thinking to myself, "Oh!  I just went down a flight of stairs with ease!"  Another day, I purchased a big bag of mulch and lifted it into the car myself.  And another day I was about to miss a flight and then realized, I can just run to the end of the terminal!

2.  I love the freedom.  If I want to go somewhere, I can just walk!  One day when out walking, I wondered where a road went.  I thought smugly to myself, "I can just walk over there and find out!"

3.  I love the way I feel when I check off another 10 pounds lost.

4.  I love thinking of myself as an athlete.  And while it didn't happen until I was a couple of years into this journey, I love having muscles to flex!  Ha!

More recent blogs:  My YMCA asked me to write a year-log blog for them in 2016.  After that blog ended, I started a new blog called Triathlon 200 at Word Press which is where I blog today.
 P.S.  You may notice that I haven't blogged much lately.  That is because I've signed a contract with a literary agent and I'm in the middle of writing a book!  The working title is Anything's Possible!  :-)