Gate Crasher

Part 1 can be found here.

I started riding, running, and eating right in the weeks leading up to my departure. I had even started practicing Australian Rules Football, as there was a league in the US that a friend played in and when he invited us to join I didn’t want to embarrass my country at its’ national sport.

 In the 10 days before I left for the US – I lost over 7kgs. I know this is probably not very healthy, but it worked. I was exercising 2-3 times a day and all I would eat was veggie soup and yoghurt. All I would drink is water and milk. At my going away party a lot of people expressed shock on their faces when I came running up to them, their jaws were hanging open! I had gone from 98kgs to 90.3kgs in less then 2 weeks.

  I was happy and confident with my body on the trip, before leaving I had: my hair cut, teeth whitened, tanned and slimmed down to my goal. The trip was an amazing experiance with some unforgettable moments with a lot of unforgettable people.

 When I returned to Australia I was around 95Kgs again, I blame that fatty US cuisine. I honesty couldn’t eat the bread because it was sugary! I had to find a special French bakery to get me food, and I had never even seen orange cheese before. I wanted to stay the weight course and so I enlisted for a Triathlon

 The triathlon group actually trained you 3 days a week with personal couching tips and sessions in the 12 weeks leading up to the event. I became the fittest I have ever been in my life and got back around the 90Kg mark. I completed the triathlon (1km swim, 25km ride, 5km run) in 1hrs 5mins. I was a little disappointed in the final time as I had nearly broken the 1 hr mark in 2 practice races. But it was an achievement that I was extremely proud to have accomplished. I came 13 for the 20-24 year old Male category.

 As a result of pushing my body through the training and event, I became quite sick. I had a couple of days off work to recover. One symptom didn’t vanish though, my joy of running. I still ran every day (where as previously I had always preferred to ride then run….something to do with being a speed demon), and I would still work out with weight training every night. You can imagine my surprise when I weighed myself 4 months later and saw myself tipping the scales at 88Kgs.

 Then something weird happened, I had decided I wanted to take up Gridiron (American Football). One of my old hometown friends was actually the quarterback so I figured if he could do it, I should have no problems. Starting preseason I was quite shocked at how my body reacted, Gridiron was an explosive sport where as my body was conditioned to endurance. After training my body would ache and I would be sore for 2-3 days after wards. In the end it adjusted, but then my flatmate and I had been having troubles and I moved out.

 The kilos piled on again. I was eating more, exercising less because I was out of my normal environment and now that we were wearing pads and hitting hard I was sore for days after. I started Gridiron Pre-season weighing 88Kgs, half way through I was 97kgs. I was training 3 nights a week and doing the odd run here and there, but I would just gorge on food.

 To date I’m 94Kgs and believe I’m back on track, its hard braking old habits and I think we all have our weigh jump up and down time to time. So long as I am happy, fit and eat healthy I don’t think I’ll stress too much about my weight in the future.