What Went Wrong?

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana

OK, so I have no intention of dwelling on the past, what’s done is done and I can’t go back. However, there is something to be said about understanding what went wrong and then learning from it. That is the point of this post; to evaluate my most recent failure and determine what adjustments I can make to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Failure #1 – Un-sustainable Path

Have you ever been in a triathlon? If you are reading my blog regularly, then probably not :) but I’m sure you’ll still follow the analogy. Triathlons are one of the most grueling endurance races out there. Many entrants never even finish; occasionally you will see highlights of people who literally just collapse… their bodies are done and they can’t move one more step forward. These people failed because they were on an unsustainable path, the pace they set for themselves was too much for their body to handle.

When I look back at my past posts, I see that I started at 297 in November 2009 and ended up at 270 by the end of March 2010. 27 Pounds in in 5 months doesn’t seem unsustainable, but if you look closer, I was at 288 at the start of March 2010. I lost 9 pounds in the first 4 months and then 18 in the last month.

When I did the 30 day challenge, my diet and exercise regimen became unsustainable. It became more important for me to win than it did to be healthy. By the time I was done with that challenge I was completely burned out emotionally. What you don’t see in the blog is that Big D. and I started a second challenge in April. We didn’t even finish because we were so burned out; we just both agreed to stop about 2 weeks in.

Failure #2 – Loss of Accountability

Why did I start blogging in the first place? I started blogging for several reasons, but one of them was to add some more accountability. I truly know quite a bit about losing weight (just not keeping it off), but you can’t write about weight loss if you’re not losing weight. Somewhere along the line I convinced myself (in the midst of being burned out from the 30 Day Challenge) that I was spending too much time blogging and not enough time focusing on losing weight. What a crock! Once I stopped writing it became easier and easier to cheat. In fact, after about a month, I stopped weighing in altogether. Not only did I lose the accountability from the blog, but then I started losing accountability to my family and friends, and eventually to myself.

Failure #3 – Failure to Stop the Backslide

If the unsustainable path was the first domino in my failure, then failing to stop the backslide was the last. The road to weight loss is never a straight line. Think about how many times you’ve said to yourself “If I can lose 2 pounds every week for a year I will have lost over 100 pounds!” Ever know anyone to do it that way? Plenty of people have lost 100 pounds in a year, but I can guarantee you no one did it by losing exactly 2 pounds per week. Weight loss has its ups and downs.

After I was burned out and after I stopped blogging, there was a time when I could see myself backsliding into the bad habits. Instead of choosing to get back on the wagon, I used my small failure as an excuse to keep on failing. Have you ever said to yourself “well I already cheated today and blew the entire week (on Tuesday), I might as well enjoy it and start fresh next week.”? That’s what I did, but weeks actually turned into months and eventually 2 years had passed.

Failure #4 – Forgetting Your Priorities

I ‘ve mentioned it a few times before, but my heaviest weight ever was 349. When I hit 349 it was still just me and Mrs. FogDog; the little tikes hadn’t shown up yet. At that time I vowed that I would make my health a high priority in my life. Then all this other stuff starts to happen to you; kids, career changes, moving, etc. Just a few months after I stopped blogging, I actually received a big promotion. It was a completely different kind of job than I had in the past and it involved managing others. I’ve been successful my entire career because when I get into something, I tend to bulldog it until I do it near perfectly. This job was no exception and the next thing you know I was working 60+ hour weeks and pretty much ignoring everything else around me except for my new job. That lasted for just about a year. With all this going on, I still had other commitments as well, so my health became the casualty. The results show, not only did my weight take off, but now I’m on blood pressure medication from all the stress at work.

Learning From Your Mistakes

As I said, I’m not going to dwell on the past, but I do intend to learn from it:

1. No more challenges, contests, or visions or “Biggest Loser” type weight loss numbers. Just stick to a sustainable plan that I can live with

2. Keep Blogging (Even if no one is reading) and keep holding myself accountable

3. Prepare for failure! Eventually I will have a backslide so I need to be prepared now. Once it happens, accept it, get back on track, and move on.

4. Don’t forget your priorities. Every morning when I take that BP pill I remind myself why my heath needs stay near the top of my priorities.

Day 1 – And my starting weight is… Unknown???

Ok so the new year has come and gone, time to get this weight loss started. I just got back from vacation on Monday and decided I would start on Tuesday (yesterday). There were really 3 big reasons why I chose January 8th:

1. I wasn't ready with my plan and goals at the start of the year
2. I was planning a vacation on January 5-7
3. January 8th marks 30 days since I've quit smoking

Part of my new plan is to have a morning routine that includes some exercise so I got up yesterday at 5:30AM. Obviously since it’s the start of my new weight loss journey, I wanted to get on the scale and see my starting point. I got on my Wii Scale and prepared myself for my starting weight. The result… “oops you’ve exceeded my maximum weight limit”. I stepped off and then back on again (you know, because somehow if I stand a little different, maybe lean forward a little, the result might change). No good, I’ve exceeded the weight limit of my Wii scale. I had just weighed in at 327 before Christmas, so my guess is the scale tops out at 330 so that will be my starting point.

I’ve had this Wii scale for 4 years and this is the first time I’ve managed to exceed the weight limit on it. Oh just how far I have fallen! My wife seemed to be bothered by it; I think because she thought it was going to be a de-motivator for me. The truth is, I said to myself “Perfect, you’ve just hit rock bottom! Nowhere to go but up.” And that’s how I started my day.

I made it through the day quite easily; I wish all the coming days would go so well (not likely). I met my calorie intake goal, got almost 60 minutes of exercise in, and met my water goal. By the end of the day I was pretty tired so it was off to bed at 9:30PM.

That brings us to today. I managed to get up on time so I could get a workout in before work. Of course as still curious about my actual weight so I got on the scale again this morning. SUCCESS! It worked; I weigh 329.7. I typically don’t weigh myself more than once per week but I really wanted to see just how close I was to 330. Now I know.

So now it’s on, let the weight loss begin. In the coming days I’ll be posting my goals and my plan, both of which are quite a bit different from the last time. Best of luck to all of us!