Rethinking Life (Page 2)

I will do this.  That is a good question and one I have never sought to answer about myself.  I don't know why I do the things I do.  My other hobby is woodworking - see link to pictures in my blog if you're interested - and I tend to have these marathon sessions of working in my shop.  Once I get started on a project, I tend to live in the shop.  I'll stay out there till late a night and go back in before work...I've atually take a vacation day from work to finish up a project.  And then I won't go in my shop for weeks.  Why am this way?  I have no idea.  Perhaps if I could identifty the root cause of my tendancy towards excess, maybe I could slim down.  But then, it is this very nature that drove me to do marathons and an IM in the first place.  Well, it's worth some introspection.  Thanks

~Mike

Mike - I know you are frustrated and disappointed right now, but having read a lot of your posts over the years, I think you love endurance sports too much to give them up without a serious fight.  Running, biking, and swimming are a big part of you.  You obviously are good at setting goals and reaching them, so whatever you decide will be the next phase of your life you will pursue diligently, and I would be willing to bet, successfully.  It just sounds to me like your body is asking you to make some changes in one area to allow it to perform in another.  People have thrown out a lot of options - just do some soul searching to decide what you really want, and when you do (as you have advised others to do) swing for the fences!

I agree with earlier poster. You are in the midst of some important soul searching and you should give yourself time to work these out.

I went through some major life changes which were outside my control. I ultimately slid into terrible shape and the heaviest weight of my life. One day I visited my sick father in the hospital. Looking at him I realized that we had the same physique and I did not want to like he did after a life of inactivity. I like to say it scared me skinny (although I will never be truely skinny). Weight has always been a problem for me, and yes  at 56 it is easier to put on and harder to take off. On the other hand I have a lot more experience.

I had a complete ACL replacement and high tibial osteotomy over 20 years ago. I've had 6 surgeries to my left knee in total. At the time of my reconstructive surgery I told myself I wouldn't run unless my weight was below a certain point. The end result was that I didn't run for a couple of decades. Instead I swam, cycled, and surfed.

Four years ago I started to trail walk/hike to lose weight (I lost 45 lb.). This turned into walk/run, which turned into run/walk and finally running. Along with cycling on a trainer I found myself in great shape and entered a tri on a whim. You know the rest of the story.

I do some of my best running in the winter. Here in Oregon we get consistent rain in the winter. I do all my running on trails and love to run in the mud. We also have a lot of wood chipped trails and I run on them too. The only time I run on pavement is during a race. I just respect my knee to much. I also don't run hard on my knee except in the race. While training for my first HIM this summer I realized that it was requiring more running than I thought good for my knee. I eventually broke a toe 4 days before the event so I wasn't able to do it. At that point I decided I would do the Long Course tri I had planned for later in the summer, and I would do one HIM next year. But after that I was sticking with Olys, Sprints and OW races. 

While I had to give up going long, I realized that to do so would shorten my competitive career and that was not worth it. You can say I decided to go for the long career instead of the long distance. Better to win the war than any single battle. You are still young enough to develop very challenging competitive goals and get you weight down to help yourself achieve those goals. I wish you the best and remember, many of us are out there not because we have no physical limitations or injuries, but rather in spite of them.

My motto has always been 'nothing exceeds like excess'.  Maybe I need to change my motto.  :-)

Ok, I'm going to lunch.... 

~Mike

Hey Mike,

In regards to dropping body fat specifically.  The guy I do boot camp with spoke words I have never forgotten.  He said everyone in that room could have any body they wanted if they were willing to make the sacrifices & do the work.  I believe you can too.  He said there were no unrealistic goals, only unrealistic time frames.  What weight would you LOVE to be?  What is a number that the sheer thought of it makes you so excited that you can hardly stand it?  I set those goals.  And I decided for 6 weeks I was going all in to see what I could do.  And I found a motivation, a level of commitment & dedication I literally didn't know I had.  

Pursuit of the goal was FAR superior to eating pizza on a Tuesday.  But it wasn't easy.  I took one free day per week.  Not sure I could have done it without the free day.  When my boot camp guy did something similar (Body For Life) he said he and his wife would literally plan out all week what drive-thrus they were hitting on their free day (we call it Fat Sat (Saturday))..  But that only works b/c they were +/-1% of what they were supposed to be eating the other 6x/week.  It would never have worked for me to say have 1 cheat per day.  I'd rather go 6 full on and 1 go nuts day.  Lots of ways to skin a cat.   Just wanted to get your mind thinking of new ideas that might be more doable for you.

I've said this in various ways in various threads over the past couple years and people tend to run the other way from this, but the simple fact is that an awful lot of folks here on BT are struggling with weightloss more than they ultimately need to because it appears (from their statements here) that they feel like they are active enough that either they should be losing weight due to their extreme volume of training or they are as fit as they need to be because they can train (and/or race) to extremes.  Both are--usually--failed approaches in the long run.  A conscious approach to nutrition and lifestyle is the foundation on which fitness (whatever that means to any one person) is built.

I'd echo the comments of several others who recommended Weight Watchers.  My wife lost 62 lbs in 7 months while unable to exercise due to a disc problem using WW.  I didn't join WW, but many of its principles have helped me keep off the 75 lbs I lost.  But whether it's WW or just your own intuition guiding you, the key is not thinking in terms of "dieting", but making longterm healthier choices.  What Scout said about self-examination as to goals, what Bryan said about choices, I'd second...I'd call it priorities, personally.

Good luck.

Lots of good advice here - especially the ones who said you need to do some soul searching (which you've already started, really).  Just wanted to add two things:

1.  Being lighter is a lot more fun than being heavier.  Life is just easier!  You don't hit weight limits, you can ride all the rides, you don't need to buy special ladders   It's just nicer to be lighter on your feet and that is one of many reasons that losing weight will enhance your life.  I lost about 30 lbs and even in that span I feel like a new woman.  No matter what, it's worth your while.

2.  People have mentioned Weight Watchers and other resources to help you with weight loss.  In general, I wanted to emphasize the importance of a food journal.   You will quickly learn how many calories are in things and having that knowledge will help you make good choices for life, even when you cannot look at your WW book or whatever.  Understanding truly and honestly what's going into your mouth is critical.  I used www.myfooddiary.com and it works well for a do-it-yourselfer.

Good luck!