Summertime and the living was easy

Early in the spring of this year I was invited to join a group of trail runners in my neighborhood. They promised beautiful outdoor trails and a pace that seemed slow enough that I would be able to keep up. True to their word there were lots of beautiful trails and their pace was slow enough, however, turns out the majority of the group were ultra-marathoners who tended to like a ‘couple of good hills’ and the pace we were keeping was, to them, a ‘conversational’ pace. Also, the minimum distance they set a course for was ten miles. They were all very kind and encouraging even if the last few miles were extremely labored for me. I felt compelled to offer some excuse and used the standby that I was carrying a few extra pounds that probably slowed my trot a bit. One of them suggested that was ok and he anticipated that over the summer a lot of the weight would naturally fall off. That stuck with me and I considered hopefully that maybe he was right despite my previous experiences. In previous years, the level of summer enjoyment was typically positively correlated with a certain amount of weight gain. Maybe this year would be different (I thought hopefully). Alas, past experience was a personal predictor of future outcomes and the reading on my bathroom scale at the end of August corroborated what I already implicitly knew to be true: I had an epically fantastic summer and it showed all over my body. We spent nearly two months in France, and while we walked a lot– most of those walks involved a bakery. I went for a few short runs but I didn’t set foot in a real gym once during that time. Most importantly, we ate very, very well and didn’t pass up any croissant, baguette, pate or extra pat of magnificent butter.

Back in the USA, as I struggled into the now uncomfortably snug clothes left behind in my closet, no longer able to close the button on my formal suit coat, I realized that I probably needed a plan to get back into some semblance of shape. I had been at this point precisely three years prior and at that time I had hired an online fitness coach to help me through the process. During that, I had picked up the tools that I needed to successfully address the issue. Although I was armed with a meal plan and workout schedule, there was a critical element lacking in my plan: accountability. As a grown adult with a reasonable track record of being able to self regulate, it is embarrassing to admit that the biggest obstacle I faced in getting back to my fitness level is that I didn’t really have to be accountable to anyone but myself– and I tend to go pretty easy on myself when it comes to sneaking an ice cream sandwich from the freezer. With a coach I knew that each week I had to take progress picture, keep track of my average weight for the week, report exactly how many workouts I did, share any challenges or questions and inform him if I deviated at all from my meal plan. It is still a bit baffling to me that not wanting to report failure to some guy I have never met living in Wisconsin was such a key element in my previous success.

The most logical course of action would be to re-hire my coach to get that accountability back, but there is another clear summer correlation that I had to deal with: the negative correlation of summer enjoyment to the amount of money in my bank account. As such we needed to be considerably tighter on our budgets. As an experimental alternative I am looking to this blog to provide some level of accountability. It will be different; no one wants to see a bunch of shirtless photos of a middle aged man’s weekly progress and no-one, me included wants to see a slow roll of weigh-in reports. Still, I will plan on regularly sharing progress on my evolution over this period by tracking waist size, bodyfat % and weight as well as what things eventually pop-up to derail me.

Official starting point is 58 lbs over goal weight–about 20 lbs of that I picked up over the summer. I have a pretty big frame so ultimately body fat is a bigger concern for me. I have an inexpensive ‘smart scale’ which provides an indication of bodyfat. The scale is obviously not very accurate as it has a space where you self-identify as being an athlete which gives you 15% less bodyfat automatically if you choose not to identify as an athlete. As I don’t really care about the absolute number I’m using that tool as a metric for direction and progress. That scale currently shows me ‘unathletic’ at 35.3% bodyfat and athletic at 21.3%. I also use a body scanner app that provides measurements which also has also estimated bodyfat % currently at 29.6%. The app is currently showing my waist at 45.7″. I have shared the digital avatar below with increases since the last scan (taken in April 2024) represented in yellow and decreases represented in blue.

In addition to restoring a bruised ego and reclaiming half my wardrobe as good motivators, I have given myself an additional incentive: I managed to smuggle about 4 pounds of premium salt-crystal butter from France which is currently sitting in my freezer. Once I can button my suitcoat and vest (didn’t even attempt that yet) again, I am getting some expensive baguettes from the French bakery and making a serious dent in that my buttery stash. I know that is only setting me up in a vicious cycle, but it is a delicious, vicious cycle.