Fatty: Elephant in a field of antelopes

View from the Fatty's new condo

Last week I moved to one of the top 5 fittest counties in the country. Blaine County, Idaho. This place is AMAZING. Full of celebrities and millionaires, Olympic athletes, world-class skiing, epic mountain biking, incredible scenery, it. is. heaven.

There's just one problem. The Fatty is still a fatty. In a county full of amazingly in shape people, young and old, I find myself to be the odd man out, or rather the fat man out. What's a fatty to do?

Well not sit around and cry was a good start, so I threw away the tissue box and hit up staff workout on Tuesday morning (Yes Fatty works for an amazing organization that has a weekly staff workout!). My legs are still in pain after an hour long circuit workout. Really fantastic though to be in a room of my co-workers, sweating and cursing, all of us working to achieve our own goals.

Today is Thursday and because I had a hard time walking yesterday, let alone working out, I took Wednesday off. Today though started with a delicious home made egg breakfast and then a nice long day of work and ended with my first time seriously working out in almost a YEAR. It wasn't easy. It also wasn't very long. But it's a step in the direction that I committed to going last October. It will be pretty hard to get demotivated in this environment. Between hiking every morning/evening with my coonhound Ellie, and working at a place full of people passionate about living healthy and having a total wellbeing, you can look for pretty regular posts from Fatty.

Sorry I took a break quit. Sorry that I allowed myself to being content with the losses I had made. I was healthier, happier and an all around better guy when I was focused on creating a less fat Fatty. I look forward to getting that attitude and feeling back and keeping it this time around!

A Fatty finds a way to focus

Red Butte

Work has been crazy, life has been crazy. Typical issues that we all face on a daily basis, stress from work, stress from relationships, stress from finances, stress from your dog getting into a fight with a cactus... you know, the usual. Late yesterday afternoon, Fatty had enough. I jumped on my bike and churned out 8 miles down Hermits Rest Way here in Grand Canyon National Park, top speed of 30mph. I got home an hour after dark and it was

From the top of Red Butte, Humphrey off in the background

amazing. Woke up this morning feel dapper and woke up a friend to go take on Red Butte trail, just outside of the park. If you've ever driven into the park from the south, you've seen Red Butte off on your right hand side. I think it's a beautiful butte. The view from the top was incredible and it was everything I needed today to blow off some steam.

Yes, it is true. This Fatty has been slacking since he arrived at his new home and has only lost 10 pounds since January 3rd and this may sound shallow but I have come to realize that is incredibly unfair of me to claim to be an outdoorsy, adventuresome guy who is full of energy and ready to tackle any trail and obstacle when it is so clearly not the case. I will give it my best, sure, but anyone can take a look at this body and know that for all my talk, it's just not the truth at this moment. If I am to live the life I want, I have to fight for it. I have to get the body that speaks for itself, without me having to talk about all the cliffs I've climbed or trails I've rode. To have the life I want, surrounded by the people I want to be around, I have to transform this lump into something beautiful. Please don't read this as me being a downer or thinking that I'm not awesome sauce, I am and I know it ;p , the problem is that no one else can see it. It's like if apple pie smelled like rotting flesh, I can tell you till I turn blue that it tastes delicious but no one is going to want to get near enough to try it. This is the harsh reality of being a Fatty. So what is a Fatty to do? Wallow in it? Or strap on his pack, hit the trails, pump the iron and change it?

Last night while biking on the rim.

This Fatty is choosing to change it. I want that life back and I'm tired of being pre-judged based on what's on the exterior. It's time to rock this planet and burn the rest of these inches.

A Fatty finds a slot canyon

2 months and 13 days since this Fatty arrived at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Altitude adjustment has been my excuse for far too long for not getting things into gear and stepping up to the plate every day like I did in Phoenix. That period is over though and I am declaring myself officially acclimated.

This past weekend myself and two lovely friends of mine headed up to Lake Powell for a hot minute and then up into Utah to explore Buckskin Gulch and it's slot canyons. The place was amazing and totally worth the 8 mile road from hell and the hike in. I've been nursing a wicked ingrown nail (ewwwww right?) that I am having surgery on later this week but even that didn't stop me from doing the 4 mile hike into the slot canyon to capture some awesome pictures. After the hike we headed back and spent the night at historic Lee's Ferry campground under a sea of stars.

Yesterday Fatty woke up and ran to the gym (that he is the manager of) and set to work on testing out all the fitness equipment. When I first arrived I worked out a few times but, and I'm being honest, the altitude seriously limited what I could do. That's not the case anymore but 2.5 months off has put me back a few steps on the distance I can handle running and even on the weight I can put up in the gym. In my mind this isn't all bad though, it seems that giving my body a bit of break means that starting up again will kind of snap it into gear and shake it up and hopefully I can put up some big losses on the scale over the next few weeks.

A Fatty loses time

Time Management.

Something I've never been good at. Managers have even sent me to classes to try to get me to learn it but my brain doesn't seem to process time like it should. Anyway today I was going to go for a run but then the phone rang earlier than my alarm clock and one of my employees had overslept so I was up and out the door in a flash to drive a employee shopping trip to Flagstaff. I had plans of getting up this morning, throwing on my running clothes for the first time in a few weeks and taking a wog around the Grand Canyon Village. Plans are the things the universe laughs at.

I've arrived home, exhausted and tired but with a run planned for tomorrow morning. Tonight though I look forward to a letter I know is being typed for me from someone I love and dinner with a movie.

Speaking of dinner, I love cooking. I don't know if I've mentioned that before but food has so many amazing flavors and it is so much fun to bring those flavors out and taste all the amazingness the world has to offer. Tonights dinner is one I have been meaning to make for weeks.

Here's the recipe.
Beef Oxtail
All the veggies you currently have in the fridge
Beer
Special Items needed
Pressure cooker

Heat the pressure cooker up with a bit olive oil, add oxtail and brown. Remove oxtail, set aside. Toss in large chunks of veggies (On hand I had carrots, white onions, red onions, green pepper) and saute slightly. Add oxtail back to pot, pour in a beer (I used a Fireside Honey Nut Ale), add 2-3 cups of water. Put lid on pressure cooker and bring to pressure. Set timer for 45 minutes.

I don't know how it's going to be yet as the timer still has 30 minutes on it. I've read that oxtail is usually best when it is allowed to slow cook for most of the day but pressure cookers are the most amazing kitchen invention ever and from my experience 40-60 minutes in a pressure cooker is equal to 4-6 hours in a crockpot.

Tomorrow I'll let you know if my feet are more tender than the meat is tonight! (eewwwwwwww)

A Fatty loses touch.

It's been a few weeks since I last posted and I feel terrible about it. I guess I've not been posting because, while I am still losing weight, I've not been running or working out as regularly as I was in Phoenix. This shouldn't come as too much of a shock as I think most of us go through a bit of an adjustment period when starting a new job and moving to a new place. I am glad that the healthy eating habits I've been putting in place over the past few months and the muscle mass I've put on has kept things going in the right direction.

Courthouse Butte in Sedona

The last few weeks have seen a few weekend hikes though, one in Sedona around the Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock and then just the other day down South Kaibab trail to Cedar Ridge and back. I thought I was doing pretty good with my cardio and getting adjusted to altitude but dragging 320 pounds up a 2,000ft elevation gain after hiking down it is rough on the lungs! The rest of my body felt pretty good after the hike but I definitely think I need to do a few more minor hikes down into the Grand Canyon before I start trying to do any full trails.

Cedar Ridge Grand Canyon -  That's me way out there!

I brought my bike up with me from Phoenix and I've been told there is some pretty sick singletrack that I need to start bombing. I went for a short ride immediately after hiking South Kaibab and my legs were not up to the challenge. I know that since I can take my bike on the NPS buses, I can catch a ride with them up to the top of Hermit's Way and bike all the way down to outside the park entrance. I'm waiting for a slightly warmer day to tackle that ride but I am pretty excited about it.
 So once again I am super sorry for the delayed updates. I know that when I am updating the blog, this fatty does a way better job of staying on top of things. Still since October 4th I've lost 40 pounds and at the end of the day, that's pretty dang exciting!

A fatty adjusts to altitude.....slowly

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

After living in the desert and the rockies you would think that I would understand the importance of staying hydrated but this move has been rough. I went for my first run since moving here the other day and I thought I was going to die, just a few hundred feet and I was huffing more air than a hoover vacuum.

I am looking forward to adjusting to altitude and running along the rim of the canyon, especially at night. The stars are brilliant here and the high desert night sky never fails to take my breath away. Or maybe it's just the altitude.

A Fatty moves to the rim

I know it's been awhile since the last update and I'm sorry for that. On January 3rd I moved to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon! I took a job as a recreation manager there and it's been a crazy two weeks since then. Life is amazing here and I can't wait for the snow to melt a bit so I can start running along the rim everyday. The elevation has taken my breath away a bit but once I get used to it, I will be able to exercise even harder when I visit Phoenix.

I now have a full fitness center that I have keys too and it has everything I could ever need to work out. I am really liking having the gym at my place of work, now I just have to continue to make the time to use it!

So just a quick update!