30 x 34 501's

The tags were off and the feet were through the legs. With a jump I hiked the

jeans up over my torso and buttoned up the crotch. They fit. I felt like I was in

high school all over again.

The signs had been there. The plummeting weight that registered on the

scales. The leaner physique I saw in the mirror. The positive comments I

received from friends and family. They all served to reinforce the positive

changes I had made in my life. It wasn’t though until I slipped on those 30x34

button up 501’s that I truly felt that I had arrived and met my weight loss goal.

It began on my 50th birthday. I tried to look at this milestone in a positive

manner. In my mind it was the mid-point of my life. I felt that I still had 50 years

left in me. And with that mid-point I also had a mid-life crisis. I looked in the

mirror and didn’t like what I saw. I was overweight, tipping the scales at 215,

and I was out of shape. It was then and there I set a goal. Lose 50 pounds in a

year. Something that was doable. It would translate into four pounds of weight

per month, or roughly a pound of weight per week.

Once I set the goal the question then became how I would go about losing the

weight. My wife had embraced cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing with wild

abandon. I like to mountain bike but I also wanted to strike out on my own.

Years ago I attempted a triathlon. I am not sure what wild hair caused me to

plow forward on doing another triathlon but I did decide that training for a

triathlon would become my goal.

I have a friend who undertook a triathlon for a girlfriend and another who did so

in order to continue and build upon past athletic pursuits. For myself, it became

the focus of my weight loss journey. As with any journey there were bumps,

some missed turns, an upside down map, some rest breaks, and some

wonderful experiences. The weight didn’t all come off in a year. It took a bit

longer. However, somewhere along the way I realized that it had no longer

become just a one-time thing to meet a goal. Instead, it had become a

continuing and on-going journey. It is a journey that I would like to share with

you.

I am an average Joe, an anonymous triathlete, if you will. I gave a triathlon a go

and I ended up getting hooked. I went from simply wanting to lose weight and

succeeding to developing a passion and embracing a lifestyle.