Achieving Whopping Weight after a Wallowing Wait

          I created this blog for two reasons, the first is to explain the long road of learning by failure after failure that led to my current ability to be satisfied with my weight (the wallowing wait). The second, is to explain the enlightenment I experienced resulting in discovering that my (whopping weight) is not my ideal weight. There are many elements involved in the quest for me to find my ideal weight. Many of which (and like in other cases) I cannot control, and the others I can. The difference for me is that I have a very different viewpoint and approach in gaining to get to my ideal weight. The different dimensions of health in my life start with the wallowing struggle to reach a certain weight as an athlete. At the time, the weight that I was hoping to achieve had no rhyme or reason. I wasn't enlightened as to the fact that my "ideal weight" might not be as whopping of a weight after all. 

At first I was afraid, I was petrified.

 At the time of this picture I was just a very small kid waiting to get bigger. Eating as much as I could, and the scale wasn't flinching. I just thought that eventually something would happen and I would look just like all the other kids. I had no idea that work ethic and direction would be required in my later years, for me to reach my ideal weight.



 

My goals as I began to get older were such:

1. Consume as many calories as I possibly could no matter what they were.
2. Get to the point where my talent is not hindered by my weight.
3. Work out and get as strong as I can.

The Things that I thought made me bigger and stronger.

Left with no energy in the weight room, and no good calories to help me grow

          

From the time between then and now I have had many failed attempts to gain weight. All ending with 100% more effort than progress. It was a time in my life when I had no idea what I was doing and had no direction. 




On the left is me as a Junior in high school. I was working out regularly for about 4 years at that point. But with no diet to support my weight lifting, I was gaining no mass, and very little strength. I was only burning the little fat I had, and not improving at all as a baseball player

The Little the Big the Not Big Enough

At a certain point in my life I was finally fed up with no progress. I developed a plan where I would consume as many calories during the day as possible by splitting up eating 5 or 6 meals a day instead of 3. Also, by emphasizing high calorie snacks into my diet, especially the ones that were high in fat and everything else. I had no idea at the time that there were good solutions to that kind of food. So I sacrificed a lot of time and money to consume as many good or bad calories possible.

At the start of my new diet I was in very good baseball shape, felt very athletic and fast, but was a very small baseball player at160 pounds.

After 3 weeks I was looking my best, feeling okay, and at 168 pounds.

After 6 weeks it was starting to show that I was consuming lots of bad calories, and my athletic performance, flexibility, and energy were all down. And the weight I had gained was not exactly there to stay. I weighed 175 pounds. (The most I had weighed in my life)




 The Downfall as Prochaska's "relapse" hits close to home
In my first month of college I lost 12 of those pounds and was back down to 163 pounds. Here's why: The biggest problem that I ran into was that I was consuming all these bad calories, but I wasn't just sitting around gaining weight and working out anymore, I was now a division 1 college athlete practicing and training 25+ hours a week. That was the first time in my life that I realized that my energy and ability to perform in front of coaches was hurting badly with the diet I was on. Secondly, now I was now away from home and had no direction on where I should go or what I could eat for cheap. My work ethic was down because I felt a lack of energy and focus in my every day life thanks to the dark devil of high calorie (doesn't do anything actually good for you) snacks. The third problem was when I realized by experience that the more I weigh doesn't necessarily mean that I will perform better. At one point I lost 6 pounds in a week because I wanted to get rid of the weight. even thought I was only around 170 pounds, I had such a bad diet that I played like I was 220. 



I like this illustration, because it describes how tough it is for an athlete to be satisfied at his current weight. As well as the measures they will take to avoid the sacrifices, and what the wallowing wait of proper diet and dedication can drive some one to do.

"The Enlightenment"

Thank the lord that I actually opened my eyes and read the material in my Lifetime Wellness and Fitness class, because if it weren't for that class, my experiences, and my meeting with a nutritionist, I would have never figured it out. Why did I feel so unhealthy, and how I can reach my peak performance? At the same time of reading the materials in that class, and humbling myself as someone that didn't know what health was, I had a meeting set up with my nutritionist as an athlete at Eastern. There were two main things that she helped me realize after the meeting. The first, even though I may be getting bigger by consuming lots of bad calories, it in no way actually helps me as an athlete to be heavier unless it is good weight. Secondly, The thought process that I had that it is difficult to consume a lot of good calories and easy to consume a lot of bad, was wrong. She gave me two documents after the meeting which helped me tremendously. The College Athlete's Grocery list, and The Athlete's guide to healthy 500 calorie snacks. These were both, and are both, still detrimental in my progress.

After my meeting with this nutritionist, and following the six dimensions of health, I developed these new goals:

1. Find out what my ideal weight actually is.

2. Reach that weight by avoiding bad calories and consuming more healthy foods.
3. Remain healthy in the wallowing wait to reach my goals.
4. Find the healthy medium, where I feel athletic, wholesome, and satisfied with my weight.

 

Here I am at 19 years old with the first real direction in my life as far as knowing the weight that I want to be at for best physical performance as an athlete, and the correct way to get there. Not necessarily that all calories have to be organic ones either, but that I am consuming more healthy calories than non-healthy. I had it explained to me as a teeter totter, you want the healthy foods to out-weigh the bad ones each day. With that in mind, here is a typical Monday eating schedule for me now:



5:15 A.M. - 3/4 Serving of Muscle Milk Collegiate, Clif Bar, Granola Bar.
6 A.M. - Weights w/ Team
7:15 A.M. - Breakfast at Eateries: Eggs, Hash Browns, Sausage, French toast.
9 A.M. - Snack: 3/4 Serving of Muscle Milk Collegiate, 500 healthy calorie snack of my choice.
11:30 A.M. - Lunch at Commons: Food varies, but always get two 20oz. glasses of chocolate milk.
2 P.M. - Snack: 500 healthy Calorie snack of my choice.
6 P.M. - Dinner: Looking for more than 1000 calories.
10 P.M. - Late Night Snack is a full serving of Muscle Milk Collegiate, and granola bar.

As you can see on a typical Monday I am consuming between 5500 - 6000 calories, with the healthy ones heavily out-weighing the non healthy.


 

At the rate I am gaining now, I will have reached my goal playing weight by season. That of course still being a manageable weight where I feel good. However, the two deciding factors are, if I can keep this kind of dedication up and if I will have sufficient funds to continue. 

   

 My progress in now dictated by me, and my dedication to my wellness, fitness and diet. In athletics it is always an amazing stride to realize how to coach yourself, and I have achieved that momentous knowledge in my knowledge of wellness and fitness. But what does it mean to be well? 

The answer for me can now be self dictated by the way that I feel, and I now know that feeling. I know the feeling of not being satisfied, and being worried that I have no direction. Right now I am at 175 pounds; I feel athletic, I feel fast, I have lots of energy, I feel great. I'm eating healthy, and exercising daily. I'm there, I am at the point where I am no longer hindered as an athlete by my weight because I feel great, I feel accomplished. I know exactly where I am, where I want to be, and where I can be. Do you?