A Year of Rediscovery

First 5 are the Hardest

This isn’t an actual saying, but it sounds like the folksy wisdom one gets from a weathered old-timer rocking the day away on a moss-covered porch, so I’m stealing it.

I don’t know who is reading this, nor do I know why you are reading this. More importantly, I don’t know where you are in your journey. For these reasons, I write this to a blank page, intent on inspiring you dear readers to step outside and find your moment. In fact, if I encourage you, I am single-handedly reducing my readership, obviously not a marketing genius here.

With that disclaimer out of the

 way, I’m ready to continue. I don’t know how my story compares with yours, I don’t think that my relationship with the outdoors was the same as everyone else, but that could be the human need for exceptionalism. I started as a hiker. I was climbing mountains at age fourteen. I set out on weeklong hiking trips during school breaks. Winter mountaineering, summer extended trips, rock climbing, biking. If it was outdoors, I was probably doing it. I was never an adrenaline junkie. Nothing I did was about the rush; it was a connection to nature, and I loved it.

Starting at the Beginning

This is a scene we see a lot now

I won’t blame any moment or event, but I wasn’t getting outside anymore at some point. As with most people, life happened, and I forgot my passion. I woke one morning, and I was happily married, had an amazing child, and weighed 220 pounds. The forty-four-year-old that practically lived on the trail in his youth couldn’t find the motivation to walk the dog once a day, granted my dog can be a real pain the ass on walks.

That was me on January 20^th, 2021, as I sat on an examination table wearing a flimsy blue medical gown listening to my doctor genteelly reprimand me about my weight. I suffered from heartburn and took medication daily to try and control that. I was tired all the time. My knees hurt, my back hurt, I got winded with even relatively short exertions. I felt and acted like an old man, and it sucked. There were a lot of reasons for me to change my lifestyle. I suppose that moment sitting exposed while my doctor explained he would probably need to scope my throat when they scoped my backside in a few years because of prolonged daily use of heartburn medication was the motivation I needed to rekindle my passion.

After twenty years of low to moderate activity, my journey began. Five thousand steps a day was my first daily goal, modest and not life-changing, but where I decided to start. Mind you; it was January in New Hampshire. Walks before or after work were in the dark and in the snow. It was 2021, which meant COVID, and for me, that meant going to the gym was right out. I have an advantage at work there is a warehouse. I started walking in the warehouse while doing Rosetta Stone courses; I wanted to learn Irish. That was roughly 30 minutes a day of additional walking. That was the first step on the physical side, but it wasn’t the only change I made.

At the same time, I took responsibility for my eating habits. I won’t say they were terrible; they may not have been considered bad. But I certainly was consuming far more calories than I needed. Rather than join a group or pay for a diet program, I uploaded MyFitnessPal onto my phone and set a goal of 1500 calories a day. I know that is pretty aggressive but, I figured I had plenty of fat to burn, so why not go hard (Please, for the love of all that is holy, if you take my journey as inspiration to make your own changes, make sure that you do it safely, talk to your doctor before you go hard at body transformation). For someone that was eating out three nights a week, enjoyed a bag of chips with lunch from time to time, and whose favorite meal to cook in the winter was poutine… this was not a lot of calories to work each day.

Just reading this makes it sound easy. Like I just said, this is what I want to do, and that was it. The truth is this kind of journey is never easy. I was sore, not all the time and not intensely, but I was sore. I had gone from a primarily sedentary lifestyle to walking five-plus miles a day while carrying dozens of excess pounds. My knees ached, and my back hurt most days. I had accumulated a lot of excess baggage, particularly around my midsection. Then there was food.

Unlike other addictions or habits, we must consume calories to stay alive. There is no such thing as going cold turkey from food. You still need to eat. This was tough, and I was used to eating until I was full. Great big American-sized portions. I LOVE food, I enjoy eating, and if it is good, I eat a lot. So, I had to be very disciplined about what I ate. The secret for me was portion control. Rather than switching to a diet of bland, boring foods, I kept eating the same things, but I controlled the portions. If I was hungry, that meant more broccoli and no bread with the chicken breast. It meant staying away from sandwiches for lunch. When two slices of bread are 200 calories of a 1500 a day diet, you must think more about what is on your plate. It also meant no sugary drinks, which is okay, but I still want to figure out how to enjoy a sweet tea or fresh squeezed lemonade without worrying about the empty calories.

Hello Hundereds

My first goal was to get down to 190 pounds. This was safely away from the dreaded 200s and a weight which I had memories of feeling pretty good. I weighed in at 190.5 pounds on March 22^nd, two months after I started this journey. Two weeks into the journey, I increased my step count to 6000 steps a day. A month later, I increased that again to 9000 steps. I was still at 1500 calories a day; at this point, I decided that I wanted to get to 170 pounds, and once I made that weight, I would increase my daily calories to 1800 and reassess things there.

Around this stage in my journey, I decided I wanted to pass the US Navy Physical Readiness Test. Something I didn’t particularly appreciate doing when I was in the Navy, but an excellent benchmark to test where I was physically. So, I started jogging. Five days a week, 15 minutes a jog, nothing too stressful. Mind you, I hadn’t been jogging in decades, at least not with any regularity, and it hurt. After a couple of weeks of jogging, I ran a ten-minute mile, and I was still shedding pounds fast. Fast forward to May 17^th, and I weighed in at 169 pounds. I did it.

Last 10

I was officially under my weight going into Boot Camp in 1998. At this point, I increased my daily calorie intake, and I could probably say that I had an active lifestyle. Weekly Mt. Monadnock trips, running up and down Mt. Wantastiquet every Sunday evening, dog and family walks every day, jogging 30 minutes a day, and more hiking. COVID had broken for the summer, and I played in a weekly Street Hockey game. I had increased my daily step count to 12,000. My knees didn’t hurt nearly as much as before I started back in January, and my back pain was manageable. I was doing a 20-minute morning flexibility routine and a 20-minute strength-building routine in the evening.

On my 24^th week, June 24^th, I weighed in at 159.5 pounds. This was two pounds more than I weighed when I graduated high school. I decided this was where I’d stop, I increased my calories intake again, and now I’m consuming around 2200 calories a day. I measure running in miles now rather than time. I run 4-6 miles 3-5 days a week now, but I have a feeling that will change as we get closer to winter. I try to do one long run every week, which is around 8 miles.

I’ve plateaued and I weigh about 158 pounds (give or take a pound) since October. I don’t have a six-pack or anything, so I could trim up probably another 5-10 pounds and then be that scary cut 45-year-old. I know that to do that, I need to cut fats and sweets, and to be honest, I’d rather enjoy a responsible treat and not have sculpted abs than being totally cut and always wearing a shirt because I’m still a furry beast. Yes, I’m covered in hair except for my ever-expanding bald spot.

It ain’t all Roses and Joy

One thousand five hundred words to drag you along on my weight loss journey; it doesn’t seem that tough when you compress it down. You will face challenges in any life-changing endeavor. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth it, but if you think you can flip a switch and magically achieve your own goal… more than likely, you will be sorely disappointed. I refer to this process as my journey because it wasn’t an instant fix. Like any good journey, it takes time, and I’m still traveling down this road of life. So, let’s look at some of the challenges that I encountered along the way.

First, and this one is both awesome and awful all simultaneously.

Clothes:

I’ve lost over 5 inches around my waist, 2 inches around my neck, and dropped from an XL shirt to a medium. I have had to replace my wardrobe completely. It is nice that my Navy coveralls fit again, though they are baggy. Yes, I have replaced every wardrobe item except my hockey jerseys. This is great, I fit in the types of clothing I want to wear, but it has been an expensive summer. Also, my wife had gotten me a high-quality sweater (Aran Sweaters For the Win) that now fits like a tent.

Shoes:

While we are talking clothes, it turns out that trail running shoes are only good for 500-750 miles. I’m averaging 275 miles a month, so those two pairs of luxuriously comfortable trail-running shoes that I love barely made it through the summer. Again not complaining, but that is hundreds of dollars in shoes every season. As I write this, I’m looking at the soles of the remaining pair of Merrells, and there is a white foam under the tread, which is now clearly visible.

Body Wear:

I made the mistake of trying some shoes that were too small early on in my journey, and my toes paid the price. My back has serious pain after I do 10 miles, especially when I go out with a pack. And, after a week of running, I can suffer from some sharp pain in my knee. I treat my body like I’m still 16, and the painful reality is that I don’t have that body anymore. The toes are cosmetic; they still look nasty and were damaged over five months ago. I now regularly visit the chiropractor for the back and knees, and I’ve started doing dry needling, which I may write about later. I’m also trying joint supplements, and these two things have helped a great deal, and I feel a lot better than I did even just a couple of months ago. I wouldn’t change any of that, but it was my journey. If you embark on a journey of your own, be prepared for physical discomfort and maybe a little pain.

Why I’m Writing

This blog isn’t an opportunity for me to brag. I lost this weight for me and me alone. If I had thought I would share this with others, I would have taken before and after pictures, at the very least. Since I’ve started this, people have asked me what I did and how. I think that is why I’m writing this. I don’t know if a chronological overview of my journey distilled into a couple of thousand words answers the question of how I did it or if it will help anyone start their journey, but I hope it will. If what I post here helps a single person achieve their own goals or even take the first step down their path, I can feel that I have done something positive.

I want you to know that you can do it. We are all at different points in our journey through life, but if you’re going to make a change, you can if you are willing to start down a new path. The people around me who pursue their passions inspire me to be better. My wife writes stunning novels, I can’t get the words in my head out in complete sentences, let alone arranged in such a way that tells a story. My child went from a public school with the same kids since preschool to a private boarding school by choice. My sister has taken on illness and is raising three children independently. Every moment, I’m in awe of the inspirational people that are willing to take chances, sacrifice, and devote themselves to their passion. I speak with friends daily, dealing with real challenges, depression, special needs children, physical disability, even deaths of loved ones. I stopped overeating and started walking, I don’t feel like I made any momentous leap, but I also know that even minor changes can be overwhelming.

I hope to inspire others to get out and experience the world around them. It is too easy to become trapped behind a screen and lose our connection to the world around us. It is up to each of us to find our moment and be our own adventure.

1. 

   This shirt is even more cute in real life than it looks on screen. It’s a really comfy nice quality…

Mike Darcy

Mike lives in Southwestern New Hampshire with his wife, teenage child, dog, and cat. He leads guided hikes for all ages and skills levels around the region and volunteers his time with trail maintenance, planning, and promotion with various local trail organizations. Mike has put his outdoor knowledge and experience in courses which he offers both online and in person. You can follow his adventures via You Tube, Social Media, and this Blog