BigSean’s FatBlog

When I weighed in, I was pissed.

Yes, pissed.

I’ve been busting my ass for what? 329 pounds! Screw that noise. I was mad, so I got my ass in the NuStep Recumbent Cross-Trainer, cranked it up to 7, and cranked up my iPhone with my mix Cheesiest Pop Music of the 1980s. I was determined to bust my ass and see if I could burn off those two ice cream waffle cones I had last night.

With “just a little further” I set my ultimate goal at burning 1/3 of a pound, 1167 kilocalories. I made it with 1 extra. I kept resetting the difficulty between 6 and 7, depending on what my back and heart were telling me and when I needed to down some water. I’m still drenched in sweat.

HUAH. Frackin’ A!!!

Somewhere when I got to the roughest part of the workout, I was hit with that almost forgotten feeling - the endorphin rush. I haven’t felt that since my running days when I was an Army ROTC wannabe infantry officer. I’m telling you, when that rush hit, I got my second and third fracking wind.

Now, I’m very likely to skip tomorrow because I know I’m going to be sore as all hell; however, nothing beats the feeling of a great workout. Screw the 329 pounds. This ain’t bingo. As long as I consistently burn more than I’m taking in, I’m golden.

Today I got the the gym shortly before 1PM, finished off my SlimFast and hit the NuStep TRS 4000 Recumbent Cross Trainer. This piece of exercise equipment has been a real boon for my bad back. Since my back was giving me trouble yesterday, I started out light, but wasn’t even breaking a sweat after 20 minutes. I felt fine, so I picked up the pace.

By setting mini-goals “Burn just 50 more calories” and keeping mindful of what my body was telling me, I had the best workout yet, burning up a tad over 750 calories in 90 minutes. I’m pretty surprised and this just reinforces the wisdom of listening to my body and skipping a workout when my back is telling me to.

I hopped on the scale and it told me I upticked a pound to 326. Given that my weigh can fluctuate nearly 10 pounds within a day, I’m not concerned. It’ll drop and experience tells me that just before a sharp weight drop I have a slight uptick in weight. I don’t know the physiological reason for it, but have observed it time and again.

Slow and steady wins the race. Since I have the slow part down-pat, as long as I keep up the steady everything will be cool.

Wow, I’m really wiped out. Quite sore and today’s workout was very rough. I almost gave up at the mark of 150 calories burned. Excuses popped into mind. But I thought: “Just a little further. Let’s get to 180.” After that, break 200. Then march on to 300, then just 350 and then I could quit. 10 more. Just do 405, beating any workout. Then, another minute. A few more calories. Finally, I finished off at 425 and 45:27 seconds.

I would like to extend thanks to Julius Caesar for accompanying me on this workout. His words of encouragement, spoken to his men fighting in Gaul and Germania nearly 21 centuries ago, were tremendously helpful in keeping me motivated to go “just a little further.” Music, wonderful for pushing through a workout when you’re feeling up to snuff doesn’t do the trick when you’re tired and are looking for an excuse to quit.

So thank you, Caesar, for your assistance. For those interested in military history, I can’t recommend highly enough The Commentaries: The Conquest of Gaul and The Civil Wars (iTunes). It’s an engaging, personal book, written by one of the most accomplished commanders of the ancient world. The audiobook is one of my most cherished. Thank you, Joe, for the gift of this audiobook.

Anyway, I’m glad I pushed through and am now enjoying leftover BBQ from Monday’s dinner. Friday is nearly upon us. It’s a short day for me, I get off at 5:00PM, and plan to put in another turn at the NuStep cross-trainer.

Since I have an engagement tonight, I decided to work out at lunch. I hit the scale and weighed in at 331 pounds. Another few weeks will show where the trending is and what I can expect in the coming months.

I forgot to set my weight on the recumbent cross-trainer until I was 22 1/2 minutes into the workout, so the 201kcal burned is not accurate. As I don’t have another figure and don’t want to take a WAG (wild assed guess), I’m sticking with the number I have despite its inaccuracy.

At lunch, I figure I can get 30 minutes at the gym which is a few minutes walk from work. With a walk to and fro plus a shower, I’ll just make it - so no time for screwin’ around.

Oh, I listened to The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar audiobook instead of music on my iPhone. It’s a great book and I’ve listened to it a few times.