One year ago, to the day, I posted the Top 10 listed above on Facebook. In some ways, I cannot believe that it has been a year since I wrote this, and yet in other ways I absolutely can because of all the conscious changes I have made. A few of the things listed here were written in a tongue-in-cheek manner, but were really bugging me, and it was because of that that I stopped thinking or writing about them and actually let them be the catalysts for positive change.
1) I still keep a keen eye on the price of allergy pills when I’m overseas, but I don’t need them nearly as much as I used to (I’ll explain why at the bottom of this post).
2) I got rid of cable tv and have not regretted it once since I did it.
3) The words “selfie” and “lit” still rub me the wrong way, but the word “excretions” have now taken their place in eliciting visceral, negative responses from me.
4) I no longer feel daily aches and pains, but I did one year ago to the day, and it scared the hell out of me. (I’ll explain why I no longer have them at the bottom of this post).
5) I stand by this one and will until the day this body dies. Grammar matters. (I think I just came up with a future book title).
6) I’ve softened in the last year and am not as judgemental or critical as I was. I find myself feeling much more compassion these days than I used to, but trust me, the judgement is still there, and I actually find it entertaining when it rears its head.
7) I have stopped eating refined sugars and most foods that contain them. (I’ll elaborate at the bottom of this post).
8) I’m fine with emojis now. Language is changing. I get it. (The middle finger and the vomiting emojis have become dear friends to me).
9) I’m paying less attention to my blood pressure. (More on this after #10).
10) My face has changed. Here’s why, and this also ties into #1, 4, 7 & 9.
I have spent years studying spirituality and energy, honing my spiritual intelligence and focusing on what lies beyond the obvious and apparent. In doing so, I seriously neglected this body I live in. Yes, I practiced yoga and meditated, but that was it, and that was all I believed was necessary.
Cut to July 2017. I was looking at myself in the mirror and not liking what was reflected back at me. I felt puffy. I felt like my body was inflamed, which was a word I was reticent to use because it had become trendy in articles posted online, but nonetheless, I felt inflamed. My body was aging. I was experiencing weird aches and pains every day, and each day was a new one that I had never experienced before, which somewhat scared me because I felt like my body was aging in a “this is out of my control” kind of way. I remember telling myself that if I didn’t do anything to help myself feel better, it was only going to continue to go in one direction, and it wasn’t the one I wanted for myself.
I had also become used to getting sick every couple of months. Strep throat here, sinus infection there, slight cold around the changing of the seasons, etc… I had created all kinds of stories around my facility to fall ill. “I’m in contact with so many people every week”, or “it starts with allergies that then triggers the infection”, or “the antibiotics didn’t really kill the infection, which is why it’s happening again”. Allll kinds of stories.
So I decided to face one of my aversions and signed up for a membership to the gym that is, without exaggeration, forty footsteps from the front door of my home. I decided I would start doing some cardio exercises two to three times a week. And I did. I started to feel proud of myself that I was doing it, because I stopped going to the gym in 1999 when I couldn’t deal with the posturing I saw there from others, and I felt like the gym environment was completely artificial and unpleasant. It was because I stopped working out that I started looking for a yoga teacher to see if the asana practice could replace the gym for my physical exercise (so I guess I should be grateful to all those gym posers I saw in the late 90’s). I also started feeling better. So I kept going.
I went to Paros in September 2017 and stopped the cardio while I was away, then came back home and picked right up where I left off. I then decided to meet with a personal trainer at the gym to see if she could give me insight into some exercises I could pair with the cardio, but arranged to delay the meeting until December, as my schedule was packed until then.
Come December, I met with Julie, a kinesthesiologist and personal trainer at the gym I was going to. We sat, talked, and I was honest with her that I really just wanted some cardio and a couple of light exercises. She asked me how long I wanted to be at the gym for when I came to exercise, and I told her an hour at the most. She put together a program for me, we went through it once together, and then I spent the next month doing it on my own three times a week. That is how I ended 2017 and began 2018. I then made another appointment with her at the end of the first month and she designed another program for me to follow for February. And we kept at it. Every month, a new program. And I quickly fell in love with exercising.
I wasn’t expecting to become that gym guy I found so annoying in 1999, but I did. I fell in love with the exercises, as well as with the time I had at the gym that was almost meditative in its intensity. I have never sweat more in my life, and I have never worked harder, on a physical level, at anything like I have done, and am doing, with my workouts. And I love it.
I have been so hesitant to publicly talk about this, because I really don’t want to be one more person sharing his exercise regimen on social media with a photo of some weights accompanied by a #gymday or #justdoit hashtag. It doesn’t sit well with me, and I didn’t want to launch more of that into the world. However, I have been told by people that I trust that I should talk about it, that I should share this part of my story, because the effects have been dramatic and that they find it inspiring.
When I started working out and feeling better, I stopped eating all foods with refined sugars because I knew that they lowered my immune system. Doing that along with the working out has resulted in my immune system being stronger than ever before in my lifetime. Without wanting to jinx it, I have had two barely-there, light-sniffles colds in the last 10 months. My aches and pains are gone. Totally. I have lost twenty pounds of fat without compromising my lean muscle mass, and because I wasn’t a really overweight guy a year ago, it has changed my body and my face. I am leaner and am seeing the body that I knew was under the excess weight all that time, but which I accepted as being a thing of the past, not available to me in my forties. My posture is better because of the exercises Julie gives me to strengthen certain muscles in my back that need it, and paired with monthly visits to my osteopath Keshia, who gives me more information to bring back to Julie, my body is stronger and more functional. And oh yeah – a few months after I stopped eating refined sugars, I decided to have dessert after a meal and I found that the sugary stuff I had once loved no longer tasted as good as it used to. If it didn’t taste as good, then there was no point in eating it, and I found myself losing my appetite for sugar and shifting over to being more appreciative of the savoury foods. This was a big deal for me, because I have always had a sweet tooth. A serious one.
One thing about this whole journey that has really opened my eyes to how weight-obsessed we are as a culture and as a species is other people’s reactions to my weight loss. I’ve had people ask me if I’m sick. I’ve had people get angry with me after they ask me how I lost the weight and I tell them that I’m working my ass off (literally) on a consistent basis (I have kept the workouts going even when I’m working overseas), and have changed how much sugar I eat. I’ve had people tell me not to lose more weight. I’ve had people tell me that I look fit. I’ve had people tell me that I look healthy, less inflamed. I’ve had people tell me that they can’t believe how good I look. I’ve gotten all of it, and because not much has changed in my head (or my wardrobe) throughout the physical transformation, the reactions have really surprised me. I’ve learned that getting my body into shape has taken weight off my face and my neck, and I look older. I couldn’t give two shits about it. I feel incredible. I feel better than I ever have in my almost 45 years in this body. I am well. I am in better shape, mentally, energetically and physically, then I ever have been, and I am so, so grateful to Julie, Keshia, and Caroline, who has replaced Keshia while she takes maternity leave. With their help I have changed the quality of my life, I have improved the quality of my life. I have spent money on doing it, have been disciplined and put in the hours and energy to do it (which hasn’t been difficult, considering I love going to the gym), and have been relatively quiet about it, because, honestly, I didn’t think it was anyone’s business aside from mine and those in my inner circles. But I suppose if this somehow inspires or educates someone, and motivates them to make a positive change in a similar fashion, then it’s worth sharing.
Making a change this significant in my life motivated my to make others. I got rid of my cable tv subscription. I don’t weigh myself unless I’m at the doctor’s office for my annual checkup or at the gym getting the updated statistics on where my body is at. I don’t need the allergy pills as much, and am happy to report that I shopped at record stores when I was in Paris last week 🙂
DM me if you’d like to get in touch with Julie or Caroline (I’ll let Keisha have her full maternity leave before unleashing new clients her way). I hope the events of the last year somehow affect you in a positive way, and feel free to share your thoughts on it all with me by commenting on this post or through a private message.