Day 48 Pectoral Dancing and Fall Foliage Prancing

Day 48

Pectoral Dancing and Fall Foliage Prancing

My alarm clock goes off before 5am five days a week. So it was very strange sleeping in so late today. I mean late. Of course I stayed up way late last night, but getting up at 1:30 in the afternoon was very strange. It was like I was a teenager again. I can remember staying up so late and sleeping so long the next day, that I would not see daylight in a 24 hour period. But now, as an adult who starts a workday real early, sleeping in to me is like 9am. So I get my lazy butt out of bed at 1:30 and head to the kitchen to make breakfast. The Oklahoma State Cowboys were on TV at 2:30, so I decided to have a game day breakfast of Kettle Style sweet and salty popcorn and a cut-rate dream bar. Very unusual breakfast I know, but football was coming on! I later fixed an amazing extra sharp grilled cheddar sandwich for lunch. If you've been following my blog daily, you know that pretty much anything goes as far as food selection and eating times. I don't get that crazy with it. Some people drive themselves and everyone around them nuts with special foods and strict schedules. I guess some people need that, but for me it's all about keeping it simple. I have enough day to day stress to handle without stressing myself over special food requirements and eating schedules. I'm proving a simple approach works.

By the time the Cowboys passed the 50 point mark, and the game was firmly in hand, I decided to turn it off and head to the YMCA. I put on a jersey shirt that I haven't been able to fit into in over three years, and I made the quick trip for a great workout. When I pulled into the parking lot it was completely empty. I just knew they were open 'till 7pm on Saturdays, and it was 5:30, so during my walk to the doors I thought about how nice it will be to have the entire place to myself! It'll be like my own personal facility. Then I get to the door and noticed the lights were out and the door was locked. Turns out they close at 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays. I didn't know this! Last I knew it was 7 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. Nope. And too bad, because I was ready to rock! I was ready to tear up the hardwood and workout a treadmill. I was left with no choice but to walk the trail. At least it was an absolutely beautiful day for a walk. As I walked I made a point to notice my surroundings. It's so colorful these days! There are a couple of trees in the park that have the most amazing orange leaves. I mean orange-orange. They were awesome. I've never really had too much appreciation for fall foliage, I guess because when you're constantly surrounded by beauty, you run the risk of taking it for granted. But these colors I encountered today along my walk were the kind people in the Southwestern United States would get a camera out for. Let me re-phrase that, it was the kind of colors that anyone would get a camera out for. I should have taken a picture with my phone. It was nice. In some parts of the country, perhaps around here, they actually have bus tours of fall foliage, I guess I understand and appreciate why now. As I pulled into the trail parking lot I made a decision to walk a brisk two miles and I did, without stopping! Remember, just 48 days ago I couldn't even make it a quarter mile, but there I was powering out a nice workout. My heart rate was up and the sweat dripped from my brow. I didn't have any music to enjoy while I walked, so I just observed my surroundings. All the people playing disc golf, the fall foliage, and the squirrels! They were everywhere! I quit counting at twenty-five critters. They're fun to watch. When a nice breeze would blow and rustle the changing leaves, it would give me a boost of energy and a positive stride as it dried my wet forehead. I do prefer the intensity I can create inside the YMCA, but I have to say, today the great outdoors was making a pretty solid case for walking. I almost forgot to mention this: On my walk I found a completely wrapped never open Snickers Bar just laying in my path! A Halloween reveler had to have dropped it. Or maybe the M&M/Mars company is trying to reach me after reading that I boycotted candy yesterday. They know Snickers is my favorite candy bar in the whole world! And there it was right in my way as I exercised. I grabbed it for an inspection...Yep, it was sealed and still probably good to eat, so I threw it in the doggy doo trash can. Nice try M&M/Mars! You're gonna have to do better than that! This is the third blog in a row I've mentioned Snickers, maybe I should eat one and get it over with already. It's 280 calories, I could squeeze that in one of these days. Maybe tomorrow, then I'll tell you about it tomorrow night, then it will be four blogs in a row. Maybe I should just try to find a way to include Snickers in every blog. It'll be my little weird obsession, like Seinfeld's superman-in-every-episode thing. Then I could write a book someday called “How I lost nearly 300 pounds eating Snickers!”

My workout plans are not written down anywhere, it hasn't been pre-planned. I knew from the beginning that I would have to start with the very basic. Like I've said, on day 1 that quarter mile was brutal. At 505 pounds it hurt real bad to move at all. I've let my body write the plan and create the schedule. I knew that when it was ready, I could bump it up a level. I have bumped it up quite a bit in 48 days. And eventually I'll add some weight machines to the mix. Then a little later I would like to do some serious weight training. I don't want to become a muscle man, but I do want well formed muscle tone someday. After abusing my body and stretching out my skin to cover a 505 pound body, is it unrealistic to still expect six-pack abs someday? Some might say yes. And without a full body tuck, they would be right. I fully expect to have a full body tuck when all that's left to lose is loose skin. If I ever want to see a six-pack, I'm going to have to have the full tuck. I hope to donate my excess skin to a burn hospital. We'll see how that works out. I use to joke about having a 24 pack, and that was funny, but maybe not as funny as this: I really do have a six-pack! I can feel it! It's under there just waiting to be liberated, waiting to take front and center. I also have some really firm and formed pectorals. Maybe that's why I've always had man-boobs. When I flex I can make them dance. I'm not kidding! Ask Irene about it, she's one of the few people in this world that's witnessed my naked dancing chest muscles. Maybe carrying around so much weight all these years built up my muscles underneath. It'll be interesting to get down to them again. Oh wait, I mean get down to them for the first time!

Courtney spent the day walking all over Frontier City with her friends. She's enjoying the fruits of her labor at the radio station. She didn't officially work out, but I imagine walking for nine hours around an amusement park is a better workout than anything we've done thus far. Amber is home and we're getting ready to watch a late night movie together. Tomorrow is Day 49, and we're heading to Stillwater to celebrate me and Keith's birthday. Everybody is leaving it up to me where we go out to eat. It was always so easy to choose before, just give me the place where I can eat the most and pay the least. Already to suggestions have been made, and both are buffet places. Remember my blog about not having any use for buffets? Yeah, that. I also mentioned in that blog that I'm sure I would have to face one someday for a special occasion or family event...and walla—special occasion and family event coming right up! But I'm leaning away from a buffet. Not because I think I couldn't handle it, because I could, but really, none of us need a buffet! I'm going to go figure out my last two hundred calories for the day and enjoy them while I watch a movie with my oldest. Good night and...

Good Choices,
Sean