The Irony Of Injury

 

Losing weight is not cheap. As a matter of fact, the reason most of us put on weight is because eating like crap is usually cheaper. Think about it, burgers, fries, deep fried chicken, you can get about as much junk food as you need to fill you up for about ten bucks. Eating healthy takes a little more work. Not to say that it can't be cost effective, you just have to work at it. But that's just it. The drive-thru is so easy. And no one ever whipped through the drive-thru and picked up a bowl of rice and a plain grilled chicken breast with a glass of tap water, all for $4.99. If you could, maybe we'd all be a little trimmer.

Not to mention, while you could work out at home, or go for a run in the park, you usually end up sitting on the couch watching all four seasons of Breaking Bad in a row, because you really want to get in shape, but Walter White really looked like he was in trouble at the end of that last one, so I better just watch one more episode, and now it's 10PM and I'm growing sores from sitting here so long and GOD DAMNIT WALTER JUST TURN YOURSELF IN!

Sorry...

What I mean is, there are a lot of distractions at home, and while some people can work around that, most people can't, so we go to the gym. So now you gotta get a gym membership, and while it's not like it breaks the bank, it is money you have to spend.

But here's an expense I never banked on. My clothes are starting to not fit.

If I ever take a picture like this, shoot me.

Seriously, I was walking up to my apartment with my arms and hands full the other day, when suddenly I could feel my pants starting to slide. So here I am, still three doors away from my place, and my boxers are putting on a command performance and I can't do anything because I have no free hands. I make it in my apartment just in time before my pants literally drop from my hips to around my ankles. I had to sit down with a pair of scissors and a cutting board, and gouge a new loop into my belt, just to keep my pants up, not that they fit all that well anymore either. I look like an extra from a 1997 rap video.

Starring Ja Rule of course...

So, I'm going to have to buy some new pants. Not that that's the worst problem to have, I know, but like I said, losing weight isn't cheap. Damn, does it feel good though, which brings us to weigh in number four. For those who haven't been keeping score, when we started, I weighed in at 297 pounds, 94.4 of which was fat. As of last week, I was down to 290.6 pounds, 87.5 of which was fat. As of today?

287.7 pounds, and only 81.1 of that is body fat. That means I'm down almost 10 pounds of body weight, and over 13 pounds of body fat, in 3 weeks. That means I've also put on about 3 pounds of muscle since I started, which I'm pretty happy with, considering bulking up was never the goal of this endeavor.

At 287 pounds, I'm now walking around the lightest I have been since I was in my early 20s. And that's what makes what happened today so ironic. You would think that, being lighter, I would have less strain on my knees, making me somewhat less susceptible to injury, but today I blew a tire. While doing a prolonged squat exercise, I felt a pain in my knee. While trying to hold the position, it wasn't long until the pain was a full out tweak, and I couldn't put much weight on it. I had a new trainer for this session, because Jenna is out sick for the week (get well soon!), so Erin stepped in to take over, and she tried to help me work through some other exercises, but I found myself hamstrung as to what I could do with only one stem. We did some biking, because it's not as hard on the knees, and some weight lifting at the end, but all in all it felt like a bit of a blown workout because I had to go half speed. I did go in on my own Sunday and Monday, doing about an hour on the treadmill each time for about 3 miles, and that might have had something to do with the knee injury, but mostly it makes me feel a bit better because it means that this week won't be a waste, even if I have trouble getting around. 

Of course, when people like this are in the headlines, it's hard to feel like a "sore knee" counts as a setback.

The results make it all worth while though, so I'll ice this stump of mine, and do a little physio, focus on arms and core workouts on Thursday with my other guest trainer Christina (Remember her? She helped me do some stretching when we realized I had the flexibility of Hacksaw Jim Duggan's 2X4), and hopefully I'll be back up to full speed in no time.

I'll take any excuse to post a picture of Hacksaw.

Has an injury at the gym ever set you back? How did you deal with it? Tell your story in the comments below!

 

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