There, but for the grace of God, go I

Miguel had a post that he termed a Ghost of his Health Past.

That’s not him, or me. But not too far from where I was:

I keep that image to remind myself. I think I was approaching 300.

This is me a few years ago:

I’ve passed another sort of plateau. I’ve dropped ten pounds but added muscle mass, mostly in my shoulders, arms, thighs, and buttocks. What loose skin I had around my belly is melting and tightening. This is an awesome event for a dude over 60.

I have a friend that wants to get back in shape. He’s a few years younger. I told him:

• Start with Diet. Figure less than 2000 calories a day. This isn’t all that hard. Limit yourself to 3-4 servings a day of high glycemic carbs. A serving would be a slice of bread, half a baked potato, half a cup of cooked rice. Most everything else is fair game. Keep in mind beans and cheese have a ton of calories. So:
  • Eat eggs and sausage for breakfast, with black coffee (although cream won’t kill you. Juice is high glycemic and calorie rich. Have a mandarin orange instead)
  • Lunch, have a salad of some sort. I make my own, but think Chick-fil-a grilled chicken or southwest salad. That sort of thing. I like Chik-Fil-A because it’s tasty and fast.
  • Have a normal dinner. Meat, dark green veggie, light on the potato. If you do it right, maybe even with an english muffin for breakfast, you can still have a potato or rice. Use portion control.
  • No snacks, generally. Definitely no processed snack foods. Portion sizes on those are tiny, and you can wipe out a day’s diet and exercise real fast going down that route. Now that I’m skinnier, I’ll have fruit or yogurt.
  • No alcohol. That’s a calorie and motivational killer.
  • No desserts. Save that for special ocaisions.
• Exercise. Get some. I workout every day, but rarely on Fridays or weekends.
  • I walk the dogs about 1.5 miles every morning. 2+ on weekends in the park. I’ve done that since I’ve had dogs, even when I was fat.
  • Monday, Wednesday I bike for an hour at lunch. It’s a little over 8 miles, through the park and back.
  • Bike day, I lift weights after work.
  • Tuesday, Thursday I run, usually around 5K. I did that as practice for a race and kept it up.
• Sleep. Try 8 hours. My neurologist said it’s as important as food. That may be the cause of my gains. I’ve been sleeping better, deeper. I fall asleep easier and only get up once with the caffeine gone.

You get used to how your diet works pretty fast. Doesn’t mean you can’t indulge. Get that burger. A good one. Just, no cheese or fries. Get coleslaw instead, and understand that’s two of your four high glycemic foods (for the bun). That’ll fill you up on not even a third your diet budget.

Use a calorie tracker application to start. Just don’t use exercise tracking to rationalize bad food choices. You can obliterate that hour exercise with a small helping of chips. It’s easier to not eat them in the first place.

My weightlifting routine is:

• Incline pushups 3×10
• Tricep pushups 3×10
• Decline (feet raised on the bench) pushups 3×6
• Hanging leg lifts/crunches on the dip rack 3×8 or so.
• Kettle Bell swings 3×12
• Kettle bell tricep curls 3×10
• Kettle bell halo 3×10 (that one sucks)
• Barbell curls 3×10
• Bench press 3×10
• Dead lifts 3×5
• Goblet squats (kettle bell)
• Squats 3×5
• Farmers carry, 2 35 lb dumbells, out the driveway to the corner and back 3X

Takes about an hour, or a 1/3 rogan. I measure these things in rogans, as in a portion of a Joe Rogan podcast that I listen to whilst lifting. The dead lifts, squats, and farmers carry are core strength accelerators. Do them right and they’ll straighten your back and posture. Those are the ones I feel that I get the most out of.

I didn’t start this way. I started far slower. First I walked the dogs. As my diet kicked in and I dropped under 240, I started bike riding. Then I added trips to the rec center to lift, before buying my own gear. I didn’t start with all those exercises. I did bench, curls, deadlifts, and squats. As I got more fit, I added more. Gotta avoid the manboobs, doncha’ know.

I figured when I hit 220, I’d start trying to run again. Thing is, between checking I blew past that and found myself at 215. That’s when I started. I took it slowly. Run up the alley, walk back 4X. Made me sweat like a champion. Then, I increased it to a square route – to the corner, run up the secondary road to the alley. Walk to the curve where I turned around before, run back to the house. Started with two laps. Then three. Then four. I’d take a break if my hips or feet started to hurt.

So get busy and don’t compromise, like those gorditos on the electric assist bikes I see at the park, pedaling like old ladies with the cheap foot pedals at a nursing home while blasting up the trail. For that kind of money you can get a really light, fast crossover like mine. It’ll suck to get started, but in a month or two it’ll get better.

Hell, Miquel’s journey was more astonishing than mine. Jelly Roll’s was down right miraculous. If we can do it without a GLP-1 anyone can. It just takes willpower and work. When I lost the first bit, my endocrinologist was amazed and said “You know those big bags of cement at Home Depot? that’s what you were carrying around”. Think of that.

I started in the fall of 2022. I was probably 230 or so when Herself petitioned for divorce in the spring of 2023. By new year’s 2024, I was 185 with a 36 inch waist. A year and a quarter, give or take. Doesn’t take all that long. As you improve, you get more motivated.