rustypants speaks

or, How I Roll.

several months ago, i challenged my friend Tim to a weight loss contest. i knew i needed to get serious about it, and i knew he felt the same way. we started off at the very end of May and the contest is set to run through the end of August. i won’t release details, but the stakes are cold, hard cash – something i figured we’d both need as an incentive.

i waited to talk about this with many folks because i wanted to make sure it would stick. as of yesterday, i’ve lost 20lbs, have built up some sweet muscle mass, and haven’t felt this good since high school (if even then).

i’m a bit ashamed to admit that i’ve not seen my weight south of 270 in well over a decade. about 4-5 years ago, i hit 320 and got a bit weirded out. the picture above is still shocking to look at and think how incredibly overweight i was. i lost 30+ lbs over the next 2 years by changing eating habits (exercise? aw, hell no!), but got stuck in the 280′s, give or take 5-10lbs. when the scale showed 265 on Sunday? wowza!

so, back in may i figured i was gonna have to get off my rear and do some physical activity. i dusted off my bike and started riding. and thought i was gonna die after only 3 miles. i mean, seriously. my head hurt, my lungs were exploding, my legs were shaky, my knees were killing me! Â i could do little more than shuffle into the house and lay on the kitchen floor for a half hour when i finished.

insane.

but i kept at it. slowly over the next several weeks i worked up to 8-10 miles, increasing speed, duration, and finally biking twice a day, riding up to 20 miles a day.

now, i was getting a bit frustrated at the beginning, too. for the first 3-4 weeks, i actually GAINED weight. i was feeling good, but wasn’t seeing the change on the scale.

so i started to do some homework on exercise, on biking, on weight loss – i never even thought about muscle mass! i never considered that, after years of being only moderately active and no exercise since high school, i would be regaining muscle that would weigh more than the fat it was replacing!

at the end of our first month, i eventually had a net loss of only 1lb.

i also started to realize that simply biking wasn’t going to be enough. it was exercising and strengthening only one part of my body. i hadn’t made any big changes in my eating (besides getting away from what i would have called “the REALLY bad junk food”) or portion sizes, wasn’t looking at calories or what i was drinking.

these things were going to have to change if i was going to win this contest! Tim took the first month’s prize, but i was determined to modify my attack and take him down!

part two preview: scott gets schooled by a sassy chick in tights