Is DOMS Is Good!!!

I sit here writing this today with a smashing headache and sore throat.  I can feel a build up in my chest of that horrible green stuff.   This is the first time I have felt unwell for a while, but unfortunately it has gone through our entire house and we just can’t seem to get rid of it.  Julie is also not well, but we are still planning on attacking this next few weeks with a vengeance before we go to Bali.

I mentioned in my last post how I felt I had hit the wall and was struggling.  This is true and I wasn’t sure how I was going to shake it up to see the extra kilos fall off like I had hoped this round.  It is not as though I am close to goal and should struggle to lose weight, I am still 117kg for crying out loud.  I have been working hard and increasing my run distances and intensity, doing more physically demanding workouts this round than last with the toning part of it, but I have only lost 3kgs in 4 weeks.  I lost that in one week last round.  Whilst I appreciate the body is changing, I am fitter and need to work harder, it becomes a little demoralizing when you don’t see bigger numbers.

This week has been a bit of a yoyo week for me.  I have a 500 gram loss, which in the grand scheme of things I was happy with, but I have been struggling mentally with a few things.  My wife wrote in her blog about being in holiday mode and to some extent I have to agree with her.  Some old habits tried to creep back in.  I was craving a glass or two of wine and thankfully for her willpower and resolve she said no on Friday night and we didn’t.  Instead we went and did our fitness test.  So my battles with my mindset have been my lows this week, which I feel I have managed to win, but the highs have been some other wins which were less than expected.  On Thursday night I decided I was going to do my wall sit.  NO ONE enjoys doing this and if they say they do then they are liars or demented.  Why would you, it kills.  My previous time was 4:07 and was always going to be hard to beat.  I got into position and started the clock and when I finished I managed to get a time of 6:05 but my thighs were on fire and I could have cooked eggs on them.  I still had to complete my workout, which was Michelle’s toning workout.  This only included 180 lunges, clams and a killer crunch section.  Oh my god I was in pain Friday morning. 

So the workout had given me DOMS from hell.  I was not getting any love from my wife or Michelle for that matter.  I sent a tweet saying that this workout was not conducive to being able to walk.  The response from my wife was “Suck it up Princess, Is DOMS is Good!!”  Michelle responded “ha ha, She said it not me.”  Thanks for the support guys.  When I headed out that night for the time trial I had made the mistake of eating a short time before and having a seriously sore right glute.  I had hoped I could knock 18 seconds off my time and get under 5 minutes, but the way I was feeling I doubted it.  I went out pretty hard and approx. 350 metres into my run I thought my right glute was going to explode.  It was tight, sore and on fire.  Add to that, at about 600 metres I coughed and thought my dinner was going to make a second appearance for the night.  Not looking good at all for a decent time.  Oh well, suck it up and get moving.  I was really starting to struggle and doubted I would get anywhere near my last time let alone beat it.  With approx. 80 metres to go I glanced at my timer and I was still under 4 minutes.  I still had a chance to beat it.  How is that possible.  As I got to the line I hit the button hoping to see a 4 but the timer showed me 5:01.  AARRGGHH that is not fair.  But I now know that I will make sure I prepare a bit more before my next time trial and smash it out of the park. 

The ups and downs continue after that as I was spent but managed to continue running and knock out another 4 kms.  I was very proud of this as I have not even contemplated doing any extra after other time trials.  Nice win there and maybe a bit of robot mode.  I came home to do my measurements and was smacked in the face with reality.  I had only lost 3.5 centimetres in 4 weeks.  How can that be.  After a massive 86.5 last round I have not moved in some areas.  Julie and I had a chat and we have decided that this 4 weeks has been a bit of a blip for us, but with 8 to go we can still smash it out and reach our goals. 

Saturday morning saw us with our usual group and a circuit session followed by boxing.  We are really enjoying these sessions and we are both busting our backsides in them to get maximum effect.  We have now started doing them on Tuesday nights, Julie calls them last chance training.

Out of all the above, what have I learnt this week?  You need to keep moving forward. You will be hit by speed bumps, detours and diversions along the way, but so long as you are able to get back on the chosen path, you will still get to the chosen destination.  It may take a little longer, it may not be smooth or all roses, but stick at it.  Giving up is not an option, that got me to 146 kgs and I am not going back there.  As I have said in the past, this is not a sprint, it is a marathon and a lifestyle change, so I am still learning what works and what doesn’t.  This will not happen overnight, but it will happen.    I will be smashing out some big numbers in the coming weeks (well that is the plan) and hoping to be under 100kgs by Christmas.  What a great present to myself that would be.

Half Way Up My Everest

This week has been one of ups and downs, a bit like climbing Everest so to speak.  When I read Bear Grylls book, he explained that when he climbed Everest they had to aclimatise themselves with the altitude and lack of oxygen prior to trying to push higher. This would mean they would climb up and get used to the height and then come back down to allow their body to recover prior to heading back up.  This took him a total of 3 months from the time he arrived at base camp until he reached the summit.  Well this is similar to how I have been travelling this round and especially this week.

Some may find the fact that I am comparing Everest to my weight loss journey a little dramatic, but in actual fact my weight loss journey is my Everest and in my opinion a lot harder in my mind to conquer.  Whilst I am never going to reach the summit of Everest, through multiple reasons (finances, want/need, or capability) I WILL conquer this summit, but it is going to take time, work and the desire to reach the top.  This journey is one that I have struggled with on a number of occasions over the course of the last 12 or so years, trying numerous things to get to the top of this weight loss world, but always stopping half way up the summit and believing it to be too hard and finding myself back at base camp an unhappy, obese person, wondering if I would ever be able to get to the top.  I am not sure what happened this time, but the sun must have been shining one morning as I poked my head out of my base camp tent and I decided that this was going to be the time.  My wife had signed up for the 12WBT and I was going to jump on-board with here and get to where I wanted to be.  I was not sure how long it would take, how I would manage or even if it would work, but I had to try and I had to make sure I was doing the right thing by her and myself.

My story and journey up the mountain is well documented in this blog (which I won another 12WBT prize for this week, thank you everyone for your nominations) but what I have not yet written about is the fact that this current round has found me struggling a little.  I am still committed to losing my weight.  I am still eating as cleanly as possible and I am probably doing more exercise than I was last round.  The worst part for me is that I feel I have hit the wall metaphorically.   Yes there have been a couple of celebrations in this time with the Perth Finale and my wife’s 40^th birthday, but I am not using them for reasons why I have hit the wall.  I think in part I am just tired.  I have never been this committed to anything in my life, even when I was training for Kokoda and I have not stopped.  Add to this I have not seen as much weight falling off me the last 4 weeks as I did last round and it makes you wonder what is happening. 

Receiving my Blogger award from Michelle at Perth Finale

Me and the Guru at Finale

I equate this to stories I have heard about people doing Tough Mudder and how they have struggled when they get to the walls.  The walls are so high you need assistance to get over them.  I have felt the last couple of weeks that is exactly what I need.  Either someone to boost me up over the wall or someone to drag me up by the arm so I can scramble to the top.  I have been very lucky that I have this support network and it comes in 2 parts.  Firstly there is my wife.  She is always encouraging me, telling me I am a weight loss machine and giving me the time to go for a run and bike ride.  Thankfully she sees how much I am enjoying my exercise and the small wins I am having with my fitness and this is something that keeps me going.  If I didn’t have that support I would plain and simply be stuffed.  The second part is the amazing people I have met at the finale and have befriended on facebook as well as the rest of the Facebook group and Twitter families.  Everyone is so supportive of my efforts, runs, cycles etc and this small little bit of feedback, praise and encouragement means that every time I question my ability to get that little bit further up the mountain, they are behind me with their hands planted on my rather large still (but shrinking) backside pushing me up to the summit.  This sort of support is undoubtedly one of the key factors in helping me and obviously a lot of others get to the top or to their own summit and is an undervalued part of the program. Find your own network in whatever forum, social media you can and make the most of us.

I am proud to say that with this morning’s weigh in I am now over half way to the summit of my own personal Everest.  I started this climb with 56kgs to lose and after losing 500 grams this last week (where I honestly expected to put on) I now have 27.9kgs to lose.  This is a huge milestone for me because every step I take now I have less weight to lose than I have already lost.  The numbers to goal are getting smaller than those on the left hand side of my tracker and I am going to be there some time in the new year.  I had hoped this would be the case in Round 4, but realistically I think it might take until Round 2 next year.  As Pink says “So What, I am a Rock Star!” at least I feel like one with my wins so far and as it takes climbers 3 months to climb Everest, it makes no difference how long I take to climb my own, so long as this time I don’t go back to base camp and I stay on the side of the mountain and regain my focus and energy to continue the climb all the way to the top and complete this journey.