Day 1 - Mom's Lasagna is NOT an option

Sunday night (day before Day 1), my wife and I went to my parents' house for supper. My mother had prepared one of my most favourite childhood meals, meat lasagna. A few of her friends also joined us for the meal, and had made one of my most favourite desserts, lemon pie. Homemade pie crust and all. Now, I should have known going in to this feast that my belt would expand a notch. And it didn't bother me, I didn't think about it for a moment. Before Day 1, I had lost all concept of eating to fuel my body, and had fully resorted to eating because I had to fill myself. So I ate until I was content, but it never lasts. My mother knows me far too well, because as we were leaving for the evening, she presents me with a parting gift. She had baked me my own lasagna to take with me. It was a beautiful sight to behold, a dream almost. My very own "Mom's lasagna" to eat at my leisure! My family always acts with the best intentions in mind, and this may have been the greatest indirect wake-up call I could have hoped for.

The morning of Day 1, I stepped on the scale. I covered the majority of that incident in the Introduction, but I should touch on WHY I stepped on the scale. Throughout my re-weight gain period, I've stepped on the scale at least once a day. I believe it was intended to inspire me to stop the madness, but all it seemed to do was discourage and frustrate me. The old cliché of "I eat because I'm sad, and I'm sad because I eat" surely applied to me and my situation. When I saw 240, I thought "No biggie.", and didn't skip a beat. 250 was very heartbreaking, I think I went right to 7-11 for some Slurpee goodness. But, for some reason, seeing 260 again was truly maddening. I don't know why it took so long to realize that I was approaching maximum density, or why it took so long for me to officially put a stop to it. I guess what matters is that I DID realize it. Ironically enough, there was a program on TLC last night about morbidly obese people, and one person's story in particular hit me the hardest. His name escapes me at the moment, but he weighed 800, and got down to 190 in 10 years. Monumental, right? Inspirational? Absolutely! However, over the next 7 years he gained back enough weight to put him near 1000. That's when it REALLY hit me. There's no letting up on this. I'm in a very similar situation (though on a smaller scale), and all of his comments truly made me think. That could very well have been me. Our thought process towards the function of food was eerily similar, and reinforced why this needs to happen immediately.

Anyway, let's get to Day 1, shall we? Not a big deal, really. I usually don't have a problem eating properly through the day. I bring fresh fruits and veggies, and the cafeteria has (somewhat) healthy options, though I think I may start cooking at home more often. I DID, however, realize where my main issues are situated. Firstly, I tend to snack late into the evening. Secondly, I am extremely inactive. At my old job of 9 years, it was a sit-down type of thing, with quite a bit of walking to other departments and standing and such. Not at all physically demanding, but I'd log a lot of steps in a day. At my current job, I'm seated for nearly the entire day. I thought it would be great to finally be able to sit for the majority of my day, but it's not all it's cracked up to be, even for someone as lazy as me.

So food intake for the day was fine until supper time. I got home around 4:30 and decided to eat supper early. That lasagna was in the fridge, so why not? Again, I must preface this next segment with some back story. I'm not much of a beef eater. Not vegetarian (though I'm pretty close), just kind of lost interest in beef during my first big weight loss push. A few weeks back, I had my friend Pat come over to help with plumbing issues. As payment, he only required burgers and beer (what a pal), and I joined in for a burger. Chicken and turkey burgers are very rarely accepted as a form of currency, so I served classic beef burgers. Shortly after the feast was over, I felt winded, tight in the chest. Perhaps just being out of shape was a factor, but this felt different. "Could be the beef", I thought to myself. After the lasagna meal at my parents' I felt similarly lousy, but not so bad. After the second lasagna day in a row, however, it wasn't so good. Heartburn, trouble breathing, general exhaustion. I didn't overeat or anything, just enough. I'm going to send the lasagna to my brother, he'll put it to good use. Myself, I'm back to chicken and turkey. We'll see how things improve after removing the beef from my intake list again. But, for this meal, I had two helpings of Mom's lasagna. Isn't this supposed to be Day 1 of the NEW me?

I've determined that I should do two light workouts a day, morning and night, to help balance my gross physical inactivity throughout the day. So my first workout was to be on the evening of Day 1. I made it 15 minutes and 1 mile into my walk/run before nearly vomiting. It doesn't take very long to fall horribly out of shape. Not that I was really IN shape recently. For the half-marathon (I had originally signed up for the full marathon, but cut it down just before the day), I was barely fit enough to participate. I had severely slacked on my training through the spring, and it showed. I've tended to perform most tasks in this manner, cramming as much as possible before the big test, staying up all night writing charts for a gig or recording session the following day, but this is not something you can "cram" for. I finished the run in 2:40 (about a 12min 15sec mile), which actually is quite a good time for someone of my size and (lack of) ability. I was unable to walk for 36-48 hours afterward, and got a horrible chest infection that lasted 10 days. I learned my lesson. Don't "cram" for physical challenges, it will not end well.

In the most recent case, however, I'll have to blame lasagna, not completely, but at least 51% at fault. 5 hours after my final lasagna banquet, there was still rampant heartburn and general unpleasantness arising from my insides. Completely skipping the additional calisthenics I had planned to accompany the "run", I flopped on the couch, defeated, if only for the moment. Up to bed I trudged, setting my alarm for 6:30am. Tomorrow is the day that this will truly begin, though my body tells me that it's already fully underway.