Just to introduce myself, I'm Chris, I'm 28 years old and live in
Maine. I have been quite a bit overweight for the last 7 or so years,
and haven't been in truly good shape since the fall of 1997. In high
school, I was on the track and cross country teams, and ran regularly
for leisure and fitness up until November 1997. The following spring,
I got my first desk job, and have had one ever since. I also stopped
running at the time (beginning of my sophomore year of college), and
from that point on, started putting on a lot of weight, until I reached
a plateau of sorts by spring 2001, when I weighed a truly awful 250lbs,
on my 5'6" frame.
In the past year, I've managed to gain even more, topping out at 259.5
about 3.5 weeks ago. That's when I decided to finally try and do
something about it, as I really didn't want to ever see that extra half
pound and have the scale tell me I weighed 260.
Now, a summary of my physical activity during the past 5 years. Most
days, I walk about 1/3 mile from my car to my office. Generally, I
took the elevator to the 3rd floor. I might have walked around a bit
during lunch, well under a mile though, and at the end of the day, walk
1/3 mile back to my car. Once I got home, unless I went to run an
errand (by car), I was in for the night, and sat in front of the
computer or at my desk, reading a book (I read a lot).
Perhaps 2-4x a year, I'd take a day and go kayaking with somebody,
enjoy it thoroughly, get a workout, and then not do it for another few
weeks or months. Also, perhaps 2-3x a year, I'd go on a hike in the
mountains in Baxter State Park with friends, with me usually laden down
with a medium format camera and a tripod. I was slow and took a lot
of breaks, but I'd generally make it to the top, assuming that said
hike didn't involve more than 1200' or so of vertical gain. Again,
though it was tough to do, I enjoyed the view and being outdoors, but
would instantly revert to my slothful ways once I got back home and to
work. Once in a great while I'd feel guilty and go for a 3 mile walk
or something, but wouldn't keep it up. It would be truly once in
awhile, perhaps every 1-2 weeks, and all along, I wasn't eating all
that well (but not horridly either - most of my weight gain happened by
the end of college, remember).
Well, on August 24th, the friend who I go hiking with sometimes
proposed a hike in mid-October to a truly beautiful place, Chimney Pond
campground in Maine (see picture, which isn't mine).
http://www.tim-wood.net/travel/katahdin/images/img_0881.jpg
The catch is, we're going to camp there. That means a 3.3 mile hike,
1,500 feet of vertical gain (not too bad, really), while carrying my
camera, tripod, sleeping bag, pad, food, clothing, etc. In other
words, quite heavily laden! That was my inspiration. I REALLY wanted
to do this, but knew I couldn't in my present shape.
I had about 7 weeks to do something about that, and figured I could at
least condition my legs to activity. I also adjusted my diet a tad,
eating a bit more fruit and vegetables and cutting out potato chips and
that extra cookie after lunch, etc.
I bought a pedometer, and set a goal of 10,000 steps per day. I noted
that even without doing any extra walking, I was getting about 2500 per
day already. A mile or two walk during my lunch break was easily
do-able, so by the time I got home after work, I found that I didn't
need to tie up my whole evening walking around just to meet my goal. A
mile or two, in well under an hour of walking, would do just fine.
Now I'm young and used to be moderately athletic, so in spite of me
being overweight, I didn't find that walking a long distance was
particuarly difficult, just time consuming. Some nights I walk 5 miles
or so instead of 2. Sometimes, during my lunch break, I'd do a 2.5 or
so mile walk, which I'd do slower than my normal 3mph pace, in order to
not get sweaty at work. Sometimes at work I take a "cigarette break"
(I don't smoke) and go outside during office hours and walk around the
block, for 5-10 minutes, perhaps twice a day. When I get back I take
the stairs instead of the elevator (and I now work on the 6th floor
instead of the 3rd).
On a couple of occasions, I'd build up 4 or so miles during my work
day, mostly at lunch, and follow this up with a 5.5 mile walk after
work. Yesterday was one of these days in fact, for a total of 9.3
miles for the day. My legs feel great, even the day after.
Last Saturday, I decided to try a medium hike, Pleasant Mountain in
southern Maine. 2.5 miles each way, 1,600' of vertical gain. I took 2
liters of water, 2 bananas, and a light-weight camera only, so I wasn't
heavily laden. It was slow going but I made it to the top, though I
was cramping a bit towards the bottom during my descent. On Sunday and
Monday I was sore, sore, sore! I took those days off from walking, and
resumed at a lightened pace a bit on Tuesday.
On Sunday (2 days ago), I did another hike, Sargent Mountain in Acadia
National Park. 2.25 mile hike to the trailhead, a flat walk around
Jordan Pond, and then 1.1 miles up the mountain, which ascends 1,200
feet in that short 1.1 mile distance. This time however, I did
fantastically well, and my friend and I made it up with minimal fuss or
difficulty. I took much shorter breaks, basically to catch my breath,
as my legs felt great the whole way up. At the top, I sat down and had
lunch, and my legs felt as fresh as they did when I got out of the car
before the hike. The descent wasn't too bad, I remembered to rest even
though I didn't feel tired, to preserve my quads, and though I sweat a
lot, I felt great at the end. Really, really great. Surprisingly, I
wasn't sore Sunday night or yesterday, hence my really long walk last
night.
So, how much have I lost so far? 10.5 lbs. I'm down to 249 now.
Still horrifically overweight, but it's a heck of a start. I have 3.5
weeks until the hike I'm trying to get prepared for, and I'm well ahead
of where I thought I'd be. My goal was to get under 250 by the time of
that hike in October, and get some conditioning in. I didn't think I'd
get there by mid September! I realize that weight comes off faster at
first, so I'll remember that in order to not get discouraged when that
rate slows down.
Weather and schedule will probably require me to slow down a bit this
week, back to my 4mile/day minimum goal I set. That's OK. Hopefully,
I'll find time to do another hike this weekend. For now though, I'm in
really good spirits!
I'll try to remember to post my progress here, and won't hesitate to
ask for advice/encouragement along the way.
Cheers.
- Chris
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