MY INSPIRATION

Weight loss is such a difficult beast to tame.  Thankfully, there isn’t just one way of fixing it. If you have been reading my blog, then you know that I have been very open and honest with everything that I have been doing over the past six months in regards to eating, dieting and how my health has changed. That isn’t always the case on how people defeat obesity. Please let me introduce you to David McAllister, a friend of mine from way back in my middle school days.

David and I were offensive linemen together when I played football (Which lasted only about 2 seasons between middle school and high school). I don’t think we really ever had classes together because he was always in the smart classes and I was hanging out with the kids that ate glue. Anyways,  we hadn’t kept up good contact with each other until I started my blog. David was one of the first people to contact me and tell me how excited he was for me to be taking care of my weight problem. He then shared with me that he had also recently lost 115 pounds! I was so shocked. I didn’t remember David being that big, but he sent me some pictures of before and after and I was pretty floored. David then gave some little pieces of advice that helped him, and said we should get together at some point to do a workout. 

Fast forward to four months later and we finally met up.

 

As soon as I saw David I knew I was going to have a good day. The man carries himself with such a confidence that I was almost jealous of his swagger. We went to go eat lunch, and I had 100 questions to ask him. How did you do it? What was the breaking point? Did you hit a “wall”? How are you maintaining...And with each question came clear, concise responses. He approached his weight loss in a different manner than me. He decided that he did not want help from others and took the “me against the world” stand. I give him major kudos for his stance, because I know I do not have the discipline to approach weight loss like that.  He had no trainers, barely used a gym and did all the workout and nutritional research himself.

 

We finished up lunch and David drove me to an elementary school. This started a series of four workout samples we did for the day. All the workouts we did David used in his weight loss. 

 

1.     At the elementary school David had a car tire, and a 45-pound kettle bell. We took turns squatting the car tire and then as we came up from the squat we threw the tire as far as we could. Then you chase the tire down and repeat the process. While David was doing this I was doing swings with the kettle bell. Once you got 10 throws in with the tire you switched. We did 5 rounds of this. I thought I was in shape, buDavid made me do this and I soon realized I was not in Kansas anymore-- I was in David’s world…and it was scary.

2.     We then drove to a hill by our old neighborhood that David would walk up everyday. The distance was only about 1/3 of a mile but the incline was just incredible. When I started, David just laughed at me and said I would never be able to keep the pace I started at. He was so right: I was gassed within the first 30 seconds, and struggled at some points with walking, but I promised myself never to give up. David wouldn’t let me quit either; the guy was cheering me on the whole time.

3.     After the hill, we went to a park where we did about a 2-mile hike. At the top of this hill we could see a great view of the 360 hills in Austin. I was feeling pretty exhausted from this one, and the rocks were messing with my ankles pretty bad, but it felt good to be out in nature instead of the gym.

4.     Our final trip was to a different park and a different hike. This last hike was shorter than the first one but it was way more difficult. I would say it was about a mile hike but it was a pretty close equivalent in elevation as we climbed.

 

These four mini-workouts were all samples of what David did for his workouts. Each one presented different problems, but they were all doable, for me. To be able to do someone else’s workout made me feel proud that I have come a long way from six months ago. I didn’t do them faster than David or as quick as maybe I wanted to, but I finished each one. It was also neat to see a different perspective of workouts.  Something other than going to the gym and hitting the treadmill. I had never really hiked before, but both hikes made me really want to get into it. I think just being outdoors more would be good for me instead of writing on this blog. 

 

I just want to thank David again for taking me out on an inspirational day and sharing his story with me. I hope one day I can be so lucky as to borrow a shirt from the man and fit in it.