 |
| Megan and JanMarie walking up the few hundred foot steep climb on our 8 mile trail run on Sunday. |
When I was growing up, I had one predominant hero: Michael Jordan. He was perfectly manicured by marketing, he rarely lost and when he did, he had the perfect excuse: his dad died. That statement seems dark, but it's truly what I thought as a kid. He never would've lost if he didn't leave the NBA for a year. Being brought up in a mostly Caucasian, nice suburban area gave me many breaks above the rest of the world, but it didn't teach me two things:
 |
| This is what happens after I weigh-in on Wednesdays. They are high calorie days to keep my metabolism guessing. My calorie cycling is still working well. This is half an old-fashioned doughnut mixed with milk n' cookies ice cream. :) |
1. I never learned to persevere when I was uncomfortable. First and foremost, I know this is an arrogant and first-world country thing to bring up, so you don't have to roll your eyes at me. As a species, humans have been striving for thousands of years to be comfortable and some are still fighting for it. To have enough food. To have adequate shelter. To have filtered water. Well, I had no role in who my parents were and what country I was brought up in, so this is all I know. I never failed at anything and if I did, I was able to lie my way out of it. It's the teacher's fault! She's an idiot! I promise, my arguments were much more convincing than this, but I don't care to reenact them at this time. As soon as I'd reach an uncomfortable situation, I'd find a reason to leave. The reinforcement of these habits created the incredibly flaky creature whose words you're currently reading, but I'm starting to embrace the discomfort. Mostly this is coming as a result of reading the adventures of trail runners (Anton Krupicka, Jenn Shelton, etc.) and falling in love with one quote: "Comfort comes as a guest, lingers to be host and stays to enslave us." Gaining this weight gave me many times when I was uncomfortable and it has given me appreciation for the people who've lost 50 pounds and completely changed their lives. Maybe they're not on the covers of magazines, but they are heroes. This brings me to the second thing I never learned as a kid.
 |
| Cari and I at the aforementioned Ben and Jerry's. :) |
2. I never appreciated 2nd place or 10th place for that matter. Maybe it's the media, my friends or a huge collage of things, but as a kid I never thought the person that finished in 2nd place worked as hard as the person who finished in 1st place. This is an American fallacy I've grown to uncover as I've gotten older. In America, the winner is celebrated and portrayed as the hardest worker. While this might be true in some cases, it's mostly not the norm. No amount of running in Texas as a child would've made me a better mountain runner than Kilian Jornet. The fact is, sometimes my best isn't as good as another person's best. That doesn't make me less of a person, it just means I'm not as talented as them in one thing, but most likely I'm more talented than them in some other respect. As a child I really failed to appreciate the greatness around me and I continued this up until just a few years ago when I met Ted Ricci. Ted Ricci is a trail runner in Texas who I met on a typical 10 mile Saturday trail run at Cedar Ridge Nature Preserve in Dallas. He was in incredible shape and we ran and talked for most of the run. He rarely finishes first at races, but at the age of 50ish, he runs hard and enjoys life even harder. Just like most of us, it's not about winning for him, it's about fulfillment. It's not about external motivation, it's about internal. He finds fulfillment in trail running and that's the inspiration. As this blog and experiment continue on, as a reader I encourage you to find your Ted Ricci. There's nothing wrong with admiring the elite of the elite, but I know I haven't drawn as much inspiration from them as I've drawn from my local heroes.
 |
| Sweaty selfie after a walking interval workout on Friday. The instability of the picture I think captures how I was feeling before going to the gym. It was one of those times when all I wanted to do was stay home, lie on the couch and watch television. I did the more uncomfortable thing which was to exercise and felt very accomplished afterwards. |
Someone once told me to not become a public speaker until I was forty. He said you don't have enough wisdom until that point. Of course, we can't paint all of humanity with a big brush like this, but I find it true for myself. At age 34, I'm peeling away layers of marketing, technology programming and cultural imprinting to find what is true and real in the world. This, more than anything else, is my inspiration for losing this weight, maintaining a healthy weight and pursuing all that I can in life. There's nothing wrong with being overweight, but I do find it limiting when thinking about traveling to other lands, hiking up mountains and exploring many experiences in life.
 |
| The joy of good single track trail, mountain views and sunshine. |
I only lost .6 pounds this week, but that's to be expected after such a huge loss last week. I will be under 200 pounds next week which is nice to think about. Yes, it's just a number, but there are certain numbers that become landmarks and living in the land of 100s will be a good refresher for my energy level and skeletal pain.
I'm including pictures this week but no exercise log or picture of my calories. There are ten weeks of calories and exercise logs previous to this which will point out my methodology, but from here on out I just want to write about life. Without the presence of certain conditions and diseases, my weight and appearance is a bi-product of how I feel about myself and what I've learned so far during my journey of life. I assume this is the case for you too. Your appearance won't change if you don't love yourself, you won't be able to climb that mountain unless you think you can and think you're worthy enough to and so on. I deserve to be happy and healthy and so do you no matter if you finish in first place or 200th.
No comments:
Post a Comment