Fatback 2.0

Yep, the fat is coming back. My taste buds are all straight—no more salty tasting food—and my appetite is back. I am eating fine and it is beginning to show. When I got home from the hospital after surgery I weighed 168lbs. That is the least I’ve weighed in probably 30 years. Granted, it wasn’t a healthy kind of thin because it came at the cost of muscle mass. Still, I liked the ring of it. Now just a bit over two months on I am back up to 175.5lbs…and that gain has come largely without rebuilding any muscle mass. You know what that means…it’s in my belly. My old friends my toes are starting to disappear again and that is not good. Sure, I kind of knew this might happen since I spent the 4 days after Thanksgiving on a stuffing and gravy diet. No kidding. For lunch and dinner I ate nothing but stuffing, some turkey, and gravy. Now, when you eat nothing but potatoes and bread for five days you probably deserve to pack on a few pounds…and I’ve done that.

So it is time; time to fight back against the slow creep of fat and lethargy. My wife is back in town, so I’ll have time to ride my bike and do some walking in the mornings. I’ve also started a workout for my arms, legs, and torso that I will alternate with days of walking or riding. I still can’t lift anything over 10 lbs because my sternum is still healing, so I can’t do anything too hefty. Honestly, I can’t do anything too hefty anyway because my arms and legs are pretty thin and weak. Just lifting them—my arms and legs—is enough of a workout for me right now. Funny story, I did a bunch of exercises for my arms, legs and abs just using my own body and reps or resistance Tuesday morning. My legs have been indescribably sore…just from lifting them up and down. My arms and abs don’t hurt, but my legs really do. I really have a long way to go.

It’s time too to change my eating. I’ve fallen back into the carbolicious lifestyle where bread and pasta and cake and brownies and stuffing (I do love stuffing and gravy) dominate my diet. Time to bust out the fruit and yogurt and wean myself off the heavenly rush of simple carbs and sugars. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t pass up a brownie or not make pasta for dinner. It’s just that their starring role in my eating life is going to get reduced.

The only way I am going to stick to all of this until it is a part of my daily life again is by posting about it regularly. So, beware. My posts may get a little boring. This is how I started my blog…keeping myself accountable.

The fatback 2.0 is a reference to Lance Armstrong’s 2009 Comback 2.0. Like Lance, I’m on a second comeback. Unlike Lance, I’m not looking to win the Tour de France and I’m not coming back from anything as horrible as cancer—just a little heart valve trouble. I will ride for free, but no one’s giving me free bikes, gear, food, coaching, transportation, or time off from my real job to ride a bike. OK, so this is really nothing like Comeback 2.0…and that is good because in the long run Comeback 2.0 didn’t work out so good for Lance. Sure he got third place in the 2009 tour, but in 2010 he had a horrible tour and Novitsky and the FDA starting coming after him hard. He’s spent more money on lawyers since the beginning of Comeback 2.0 than I or my descendants will make in seven generations. I guess it wasn’t a particularly good reference for this post…but it was all I had.