Last year I dropped from 193 lbs to 168 lbs between February and June. Although I would have liked to have lost even more, this is the least I’ve weighed in 20 years. Honestly, I can’t remember when I weighed in the 160’s, but I do remember when my weight had gotten up to 218 lbs a little over 10 years ago. Although I’ve been up and down since then, it had represented the largest reduction that I could remember. I maintained the weight throughout the summer, however adding products containing carbs and sugars in order to participate in several different competitions. It was a summer of many firsts athletically. My first ever 10K run, five duathlons including two Olympic distance, and even a half marathon that was a spontaneous decision. In a nutshell, the year itself was a PR. But once the season ended, going back to eating the foods that got me there wasn’t easy. I tried to stick to the spirit of what had gotten me there, assuming that I may not lose weight but I’d maintain throughout the winter.
While flying home from my annual holiday vacation, I realized it was time to get ready for 2013. I had plans of adding the swim and doing triathlons, and participating in many of the same events as last year, with the expectation that I’d weigh even less and perform much better. January 1st I stepped on the scale at 184 lbs. Now I had spent the day before traveling and eating and I knew that this was a little higher than what I had been at for the last few months. But it represented a rather significant increase too. So I tried to start back on the diet that got me there last year, and this time I had over a month head start. At the end of March, I found myself at 178.8 – happy birthday to me.
At this point, I had been listening to The Fit, Fat, Fast Podcast after being directed there from The Garden Variety Tri podcast that I’d been listening to despite (and not because of) its vegan content. What I was hearing was more on my wavelength when it came to eating. And after listening to the episode featuring Mark Allen, I was really on board in relationship to exercising! Many people plan for races for a variety of reasons and then train for them. I’m the other way around. I schedule races as ways of reminding myself that I should be exercising on days other than just the ones that begin with the letter “s.” So for me, the idea that I could get more out my training with knowledge of proper diet and how to train in a metabolically efficient manner was very exciting.
After having a metabolic assessment done and spending two and a half weeks changing the way I eat and exercise, I’ve made improvements that are hard to believe. I’ve dropped down to 167.6 lbs exactly three weeks from my birthday when I weighed in at 178.8 lbs. Looking back on last year’s weight loss, it took me two and a half months for the same results. I’m eating better foods than I had been and have found that I’m seldom hungry, even when I work 10 hour days. As the racing season approaches I still need to work on fueling requirements, but I’m sure I’ll be able to do it without adding the unnecessary sugars that I used to get through last year. I expect to start the season below my new goal weight of 158 lbs, which represents a 60 lb loss from where I was just over 10 years ago!
Steve E
