Category: Celebration

Today, I took an oath of service, known as swearing in, to the National Guard. I am now a Staff Sergeant (SSG) in the Texas Army National Guard. This is a big day for me, as it was a goal of mine since around this time last year. I wanted to once again be able to serve my country, and to complete my 20 years of military service. I will be a 29E which is an Electronic Warfare Specialist, and I will be assigned to a local unit that is located just 7 miles from my home: 1st Battalion, 133rd Field Artillery Regiment.

When I realized that I had lost enough weight and was getting very close to the military standards for height/weight and fitness, I hoped that I would one day be physically fit enough to join the Guard, but I didn’t hold out much hope for it. I was optimistic, but since I’d tried so many times in the past to lose weight and get fit and failed, I didn’t hold out much hope. Yet here I am.

Today, met the  Army’s height and weight standards, my body fat percentage was far below the standard, and I can pass the Army’s physical fitness test with a 1st class. I was a SSgt in the Marines, and they have allowed me to keep my rank/grade. I have passed every extra test and jumped through every hoop presented to me. I am looking forward to serving my community, my state, and my country again. It’s a great feeling to be giving back to a country that has given me so much.

I’m especially proud to be in a position to do this. As a 49 year-old man, it’s not common for someone my age to go back in. It’s almost unheard of, from what the people in the recruiting office told me. I will be able to complete my 20 years of service and receive my retirement at age 60.

So, there  you go. Nothing is beyond your grasp if you want it bad enough. You just have to do the work.

I’ve been monitoring my portion sizes and I’ve actually increased them in recent weeks in a bid to lose more weight. My theory was that I wasn’t eating enough, and that my body was in conservation mode. Well, it turns out that I was right. This Saturday morning, I weighed in at 172.2 lbs, my lightest since active duty. Heck, I think I haven’t been this light since I was promoted to Staff Sergeant.

Most people look for scale victories (SV) and don’t place as much importance on the non-scale victories (NSV). I try to take any victory where I can find it, but I have to admit that SVs are more satisfying at times. It’s a relatable and quantifiable measure of our success toward getting healthy. Everyone uses a scale to measure their overall health level. It’s universal.

I’ve had lots of NSVs over the past six months including getting into shape, hitting sub-9:30 miles regularly, doing 80+ push ups, and even a shrinking waist despite my weight hovering between 174 and 177. Now, that trend is lower as my new normal is between 172 and 174.

The main difference has been the volume of food I’ve been eating and some small changes to certain specific foods. As I said earlier, I eat a little bit larger portions, but only slightly. It turns out I was barely under-eating. As for what I’ve been eating more of, the biggest area has been Protein. Also, I’ve been laying back on the sweet potatoes where I know I have a propensity toward overeating. I still eat them, but I try to eat smaller amounts of it. I’ve had some salads here and there as well to give me some fiber without a lot of nutritional value (eating lettuce is like barely eating from a nutritional sense) and to help fill me up.

Last night’s dinner, for example, was 10 chicken wings followed by a small chicken thigh that I was taste testing (Paleo Chicken Adobo: I need to tweak this more). The result was being down a pound from yesterday.

Hitting a plateau doesn’t always mean it’s time to eat less. It can mean just the opposite. You need to do the work and approach your weight loss scientifically and log data to analyze. I know, that seems like a lot of work, but if you want to be serious about losing weight and getting healthy, then you need to do the serious work and do it right. Otherwise, the benefits won’t last long. The last thing you want is to gain back everything because you undertook an extreme bandaid method to drop some pounds.

It’s been a very long time since I posted this, but here it is (and it feels good!!!):

Current stats:
Weight: 172.2 lbs (Started 289.9 lbs on 9/1/15)
Body fat: 14.1% (Started 47% on 9/1/15)
BMI: 27 (Started 45.4 on 9/1/15)

A note on the body fat and BMI measurements: I am using Fitbit’s calculations for both, and in the case of the body fat measurements, I am not using tape or water immersion. It’s an estimate. I’m pretty certain that the actual body fat percentage is a little higher (closer to the low 20’s), but I’ve been using their calculations since the start (when it was at 47%).

I wrote yesterday on my running blog about how I wasn’t looking forward to a run because I felt worn out, tired, and just unmotivated. I went ahead and ran anyway and it turned out to be one of my best runs in terms of how I felt. Sure, it’s not easy, and there is struggle involved, but the amount of effort I put forth was solid but not so much that I felt I was going to die at any point, and better yet, when I finished the run, I felt great without serious muscle pain. Sure, there was the post-run burn, but even still, it wasn’t horrible.

I am a light runner. I run three times a week for about 30-40 minutes each time. I know, to be a serious runner, you’re supposed to run 5-6 times a week for an hour each time, but I just don’t want to do that (yet). I have been avoiding injury and shin splints by running one day and resting the next, so I’m going to continue on this plan for the time being. Also, the motivation for my runs are the following:

• Get my cardio three times a week for at least 30 minutes (check!)
• Build up slowly without injury (check!)
• Bring my run times down for the two-mile run Army PRT (check!)

The final point is huge. For my age, I am now in the top third (1st class) of the Army physical readiness test classifications which is a goal of mine. Why does that matter to an old Marine? Because I’ve been accepted to rejoin the military. I’ll be joining the Army National Guard and swearing in within the week. Yes, even at my old age, because of all my active duty time, I will be able to join the National Guard and complete my 20 years of service toward retirement by the time I’m 60. This is great news because that means my 12 years of Marine Corps active duty service will not go to waste. This is exciting! As for my run times and physical readiness tests, I never want anyone to be able to say I’m not physically able to do the job. I also found that I’m well beyond the requirement for push ups (so I will max that out) and I am close to maxing out sit ups. This is all part of what made this morning great; realizing how far I’ve come in the past five months toward making this all a reality.

People my age tell me that I am inspiring them through my example. That makes me feel great, because I feel that we are not too old to be in shape! We are not to old to be healthy! We can feel young, energized, and capable at our age! It just takes eating right and getting outside for a little bit a few times a week. I did it, and I’m not the type of person who loves exercise. I enjoy running now, but I’m not a gym rat. I don’t LOVE working out and pushing myself (but I love making good, solid progress even if it’s slower than what other people do or have done). What I do love, however, is how capable and fit I feel all the time now. Climb some stairs? No problem. Walk a few miles? Easy. Help lift something heavy? I’m in! I am no longer limited by being fat and out of shape.

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows that I haven’t been reporting any great weight loss in a while. That’s because I’ve been sitting on the longest plateau of this journey of mine so far. I’ve been stuck at around 177 lbs for months with one weigh in at 174.4 lbs. My weight fluctuates within about 3 lbs normally, so the range 174-177 was about right for me. Annoying, but okay. I got used to seeing the numbers get smaller and smaller for so long, seeing them stagnate within +/- 3lbs has been annoying.

Well, that all changed last night. I finally got to a new low: 173.4 lbs! On top of that, when I weighed myself this morning, it was 174 lbs. It seems that my weight has truly dropped a bit. So, while I’m super excited about it, I have to wonder: what changed?

Well, I think the honest truth is that nothing really changed. I still eat the way I have been for the past six months, and I stay away from bad foods just as well. I’ve been running every other day and have been making good, steady progress in increasing distance and pace. Heck, I even had a record-breaking personal best last night!

The bottom line is that I believe the key to success in getting past the plateau was perseverance. I stuck with eating right, exercising regularly, and I never let myself sabotage my progress. I may have a treat here and there, but they were very rare and very small. I even countered any damage by those treats by eating a smaller portion of good food, or if I ate a larger portion, I would limit my next meal and perhaps do some exercise.

The lesson here is just stick to it. It’s a journey, not a destination. Sure, we have goals, but that isn’t an end-point. Rather, once we reach the goal, that gives us an opportunity to make a new one. Not necessarily to lose more weight, but perhaps to maintain that healthy weight, or to instead focus on fitness. I have 8 more lbs to lose to get to my final goal before I turn my focus to maintenance and increasing my pace and distance more on my runs.