BigSean’s FatBlog

Hopped on the scale and got a good 40 minute workout (included 5 min warmup, 5 min cooldown).

Today I went to the gym and weighed in at 336 pounds, definitely a move in the wrong direction. When I’m not posting, it’s a pretty safe bet that I’m off the rails. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill on a weight loss program setting, burning 310 kilocalories. My knee has been fully recovered for about a month.

I went for a swim this morning. The University Natatorium is open for the summer and while I woke up late (6:25ish), I made it and got in a good 45 minutes in the pool. Wow, that really takes it out of you. Swimming is supposed to be great exercise for the morbidly obese and for those with knee and back problems. Heck, I guess it’s good for anybody, but the point is that if you’re broken in some fashion, the pool is a great place to be.

I’m back home and at the office. I was bad while I was traveling. Very bad. Afraid-of-the-scale-bad.

Be that as it may, I’m back, so it’s gym time in a day or so when my back recovers.

The other evening, I injured my knee again. That familiarly bony pop and sharp pain told me that I’d be hobbling around for a while. I managed to pop whatever went out of place back into place yesterday. If I can hook my ankle into something and pull my leg straight back it will usually pop back into place. Of course, there’s the stabbing nauseating pain and stream of curses that accompanies that endeavor, successful or not.

I’ve been icing my knee and staying off of it as much as I can stand. It seems to be paying off. I can walk around a bit without the cane, but am trying to keep my weight off of it when doing any substantial moving around.

I miss the gym. I’ve been playing with my exercise ball and dumbbells between chores and surfing. That’ll do for the time being.

Fat Man Unleashed creator Israel Lagares has big stones and has put his weight loss journey out there for all to see. If his feedburner stats are any indication, he’s a guy who’s doing what most of us only wish we would do. Get our big, fat, junk-food eating asses out of the lounge chair and into motion. Success is what this guy is experiencing.

He’s started vlogging, something I’ve also been telling myself to do.

So what are you waiting for?

Does anyone have recommendations for exercise without using one’s legs? My bad knee finally gave out tonight popping out of place. I’ve been staying away from the gym, but can’t stand it and need alternatives. I can walk, but only with a cane and knee support for the time being.

I bought a medicine ball earlier today and am planning to use the nautilus at the gym for bench pressing and that sort of thing. I have some dumbbells at home.

Disappointing, but you work with what you have.

Somehow I didn’t get the photo, but did 40 minutes burning 363 kcal and weighed in at 326.5. I had to stop the workout after my knees and back started hurting, especially my bad knee. I’ll play it by ear tomorrow.

My back is mostly just sore, but my knees are killing me.

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.