More big changes
It’s been too long and I apologize for that.
Dear readers, I have missed corresponding about that with you. And after three years, I can finally, once more blog about fitness and put corresponding progress photos up when I hit certain milestones. I have had a lot on my plate the last few years, both literally and figuratively.
I moved in 2023, again in 2024 and finally a third and final time, to a condo I have purchased in Pointe Claire. My personal and family life was thrown into upheaval and I was living on my own, and the solitude was killing me, slowly but surely. To add to it, I was eating those feelings of solitude, and after 20 years of two children and two dogs running around the house, suddenly, life was quiet, uncomfortable, and lonely. So lonely.
To add to it, I was dealing with some latent childhood trauma, which caused night terrors in me as an adult and was affecting my sleeping. The medication I took to help me sleep caused me to wake up in the middle of the night, famished, and eat everything I could get my hands on. My self-esteem took a dip, my mental health was in the toilet, and I was having dark moments. I was diagnosed with ADHD and started medication for that.
I’m deeply ashamed to say I put on close to 80 pounds in 14 months. From a nutritional standpoint, my nighttime eating was so very dangerous to my well-being that my blood pressure spiked, my self-loathing got worse and it was the worst year imaginable. I’m ashamed to say I spent Christmas with nowhere to go that year. It was lonely, it was miserable and I was not dealing with it well.
I kept lifting, but my eating was disordered and I was no longer cooking for a family, so I got take-out.
A lot of take-out.
Didn’t eat a lot of vegetables. Didn’t take long walks anymore. Got out of a lot of good habits as I processed my trauma, or traumas, rather. There were a multiple. It was a whole deal.
Over time, I settled some of my eating down. I changed my night-time meds to curb the nocturnal binges, and I started being conscious of what I was eating again. There were other positive changes in my life – I discovered that building a whole new life could be possible. I started reading and doing writing projects again, which had been on the shelf for a long time. My weight, though, was still a concern.
Fast-forward to April of this year.
I went into the hospital for emergency gallbladder surgery, and there I weighed 319 pounds – and when I came out, I started eating a low-fat diet and found it agreed with me. So, as I went through the months of April and May, I continued eating light and working out daily in the gym in my condo building.
With the support of my loved ones, I healed up nicely, without barely a scar to show for it. I recovered, then I went about changing my body. On purpose.
I started losing some weight and saw more visible progress. Clothes were fitting a bit better. That was encouraging.
In June, I changed jobs and in the downtime between ending one and starting another, I set a goal of 20,000 steps walking every day, improving my workouts to challenge myself again and started taking great care of what I was eating. I started getting up extra early to walk my dogs for an hour and change before work, took walks in the heat of the midday sun and did literally everything I possibly could to hit those 20,000, even if it meant doing laps around the Valois neighbourhood to hit my numbers between 10 p.m. and midnight.
My daily weight workouts were progressing as well. To give you an idea, I was doing three front planks in a workout for 90 seconds each. Now I do the same at two and a half minutes, and I’ve added a minute of side plank right after to accentuate it. My rep range has climbed to 20 and 25 from 15, and my weights have increased to where I was at my strongest in 2019.
There was a lot of stress, too, about the job transition, as well as looking at potential real-estate purchases and possibly moving again. The stresses were mounting and I did the one thing I knew I could do about it: move. I walked 20k steps daily (sometimes I took it easy on Sunday) all summer long. Football season arrived, and that compressed my schedule even more with practices two or three nights a week and games on the weekends. My son is no longer playing with Lakeshore (I’m proud to say he’s playing at Vanier College now) and so the utter joy I used to feel being able to share that with him has diminished slightly, and it's a bittersweet feeling. I'm still getting my steps in and even though it's a challenge at the best of times -- especially on days where I'm coaching football -- I have persisted. I am proud of what I have accomplished, and mine is the only opinion that matters.
I get to see my son’s games as often as possible but I’m realizing now that a lot of the joy I got from coaching was from the time with my son. The drives, the laughs, the getting ready for games – always together. That’s a thing of the past, and I’m struggling to get used to it.
Things are changing – as life often does – and I’m better equipped to handle them now. The new company I work for feels like a breath of fresh air and my life is getting better in every way, every day. It’s incredible and I have been inspired to do it by someone who has been through more in their life and the last few years than I could ever survive. I have a boss who has been in the business a quarter-century and loves sharing his knowledge with me. I am truly blessed.
Weight update: I weighed in at 228 pounds this week, or a total loss of 91 pounds overall and I have seen my muscle definition return and I like how it feels and how I feel.
And no, I didn’t use a GLP-1 OR Ozempic or any of that stuff. I did it my way. Smart eating, slavish dedication to my own workouts and fitness and making that stuff a priority.
Though I have to say, some days my knees really feel the 20,000 steps every day. Not going to lie.
At 91 pounds down, I will not be stopping. I blew right past 235, and I’d be thrilled to come on here and share that day with your, dear readers. After that, who knows? Maybe it’s time to do that first-timer’s bodybuilding show I thought about doing seven years ago before the pandemic hit.
Follow along, dear readers. I’ll give you my workouts and I’d be thrilled to answer any questions you may have about how to successfully get back into great shape in your late 40s (yeah, I’m still 49. For now.). Send queries to marclalondepro@gmail.com, or message me at 514-742-5465. I’m still taking clients on a very limited basis, so if you want to train with me, drop me a line there and we can discuss packages. There are a couple of weekday slots left but they are going fast.
I promised my sister I wouldn't put any more shirtless photos on the Intenet. Sad to say, I had to break that promise. Love you, Em!
Comments