11 Months & Much Going On

Football cleats have come a long way
since I was 10-years old.

I came into the 11 month anniversary weekend of my gastric bypass surgery with a very surreal Saturday. I spent part of that particular afternoon at sporting goods stores shopping for athletic gear for myself. Something I have not done since I was probably 11 years old. You see, on top of my continued adventures in working out and being a part of my gym's 2011 Body Challenge, I have decided to join a recreational men's flag football team...


Yeah.


Doesn't seem odd for most people, I suppose, but had you asked me a year ago - I would never have even considered playing a recreational sport. I guess there was a time when I may have covered-up any offer of the like with a story of disinterest in sports, but the truth is that I would have just been afraid to do so at my size. Afraid of really seeing how terribly out of shape I actually was. Not that I literally worried about things like that. At that point in my life and my size, playing sports for fun was just not an option. I suppose I had just come to terms with the idea that team sports were just a part of life I would never partake in - I just accepted it really.

A 9-year old me with my football team.

Similar to joining my gym, playing football is most certainly another doorway that has been opened in my life thanks to my decision to finally try and get healthy. All of these newly opened doors are exciting, fun, and most are completely new. Football, however, is not new to me. I just shut it out of my life for a long, long time. I played midget football as a kid - as a 9 and 10 year old - for the Lakewood Tigers. I loved to play the game and my life was football back then. I wanted to be a Denver Bronco.


I stopped playing football after two years. Thinking back on it now I realize that I stopped playing because I hated the conditioning. I was big (as you can see, almost as big as my coaches at age 9) and the exercise was difficult. Ultimately it was too much for a young Jim, and I let it keep me from continuing to play a game that I loved for 21 years...


I had forgotten the fun of the game.


Reliving my youth through my two sons, however, is one of the greatest parts of being a Dad. Thanks to Braydn and Ethan wanting to play football this past summer/fall (as well as my part as an assistant coach to Bray's team), I realized how much I longed to play again. And thanks to my new found pursuit of physical health, I'm no longer afraid to play. Two weeks ago I inquired about the adult flag football program through Hyland Hills, the same league my boys played through this past fall. I was put on the free agent list and called back by one of the teams this past Monday. My first recreational flag football game is this coming Saturday...


I'm stoked, my friends!


As I was saying, Saturday afternoon was very surreal for me. Picking up a pair of Nike football cleats, a mouth guard, and my very first pair of compression shorts (or squeezy-pants as a dear friend of mine calls them)... This is another one of those experiences granted to me by my new-found health that I had, until recently, written off for my life.


That's not all the news for this 11th month, however. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was very concerned about my poor performance during Christmas break. I gave myself the week after returning home to get back into the gym and back into my better eating habits. It seemed to pay off as, to my wife's dismay, I had actually lost three pounds since my weigh-in before leaving for Christmas!


Unfortunately, that three-pound loss is my only scale showing for the month. But hey, it could be much worse the month after the Christmas and New Years holidays.


Last weekend brought the beginning of the 2011 Body Challenge at Fitness 19 which, as previously mentioned, I have decided to participate in. I went in early last Saturday morning to meet with Nick, the CPT that I initially spoke with when I joined Fitness 19 last year. We took my entry metrics for the challenge that day and I was surprised to find that my progress in these new measurements is impressive. The stats they are checking include pinches to measure body fat percentage, lean body mass, fat mass, and BMI. I am, indeed recording these readings, which will be checked two more times during the three-month challenge, and I will post all of the specific numbers once the challenge is done. However, for now, one notable improvement is an almost 20-point drop in my BMI since before my surgery almost a year ago. Again, stay tuned for more updates about the Body Challenge...


Two other fun notes in the past couple of weeks: I had to purchase yet another par of jeans, having shrunk out of the old pair. I'm now fitting into 46" waist Levi's - dropping two more sizes since buying my last pair of pants. Before surgery last year I was wearing 58"-60" waist jeans. The fact that I have dropped below 50" is a huge milestone for me, as I absolutely cannot remember the last time My waist was under that measure - even when I used to wear my pants under my belly (at a smaller circumference).


Secondly, on my latest follow-up with my PCP last week, Doctor Elder says that my blood-work shows all of my levels perfect and I have been taken off of my cholesterol medication! I have been kept on blood-pressure medication for now, but the doctor hopes to have me off of it within the year. Again, another big win!


I go in to Pres/St. Luke's for my one-year follow-up on the 3rd and I'll surly write an update about how that goes next month.


So, my friends, I leave you this evening, 11 months to the days since my weight-loss surgery, at a weight of 309 - 143 pounds lighter than I was in February of 2010. Closing in on finally dropping below 300 pounds, I continue to have incredible motivation and am excited to continue regaining my health in 2011!