I overcame a nicotine addiction, lost 70 pounds, and changed my life with exercise.
My turning point was one night while laying in bed. I could feel my heart beat. My heart beat so hard, the bed shook enough to make an audible squeak. I listened to that squeak many times but this time I had a semi-conscious dream that made me take a stand against the lifestyle that was trying to kill me. I dreamed that I died in that bed, my heart gave up and I died in my sleep. The paramedics came to take me out and had to call for backup because the three of them couldn’t manage to get me down the stairs. While waiting for the second crew to arrive and help, they were joking and laughing about how big I was and how they needed extra help. In my dream I could see my kids standing in the doorways of their rooms crying not only because they lost their dad, but because these people were laughing and joking about how hard it was to move his body. The brutality of joking about how fat someone was in front of their mourning family was like an electric shock to my soul. I can still see that dream. The look on their faces still makes me cry, and it was only a dream I had over a year ago. The next day I changed my eating habits, stopped smoking and using nicotine lozenges, and started to focus on making my body healthier.
I had read about the challenges that Lance Armstrong’s team had with regards to getting enough calories into Lance’s body in order for him to ride a stage in the Tour de France. I don’t remember the exact numbers but it was over 10,000 calories per day. I thought it was unfair that this guy was doing something we think of as fun and can’t get enough to eat while the rest of us seem to get too many calories and don’t have any fun. I decided that cycling was the way for me to lose weight - I grew up doing it, I enjoyed it, and best of all, I had a bike already.
For Christmas I asked for a camelback so I could stay hydrated on long bike rides. To me a 15 mile ride was an all day affair and hydration was a problem. I presumed this would solve it. Instead, I got a gift card to REI for quite a bit more than I really needed. I shopped around a little and realized that for a few bucks more I could get a trainer for my bike and start sooner rather than later with my riding. The hydration would have to wait until my birthday in March! I ordered my trainer, purchased a slick tire for my mountain bike, and proceeded to ride in the basement almost every day. At first 20 minutes was a real struggle, I would get off the bike numb, tired, wobbly, and dripping with sweat. I had a training video that came with the trainer but I couldn’t keep up with it. For months I would start it and struggle and have to quit before it finished.
I joined LIVESTRONG.COM when I was searching for some idea of how many calories I was burning while riding the trainer. Within a day, LIVESTRONG.COM changed everything about how I was managing my diet and exercise. Suddenly I found myself planning meals based on the calories I was tracking and burning, and planning workouts based on my calorie goals. To say I was hooked wouldn’t do it justice, I lived and breathed LIVESTRONG.COM. If it wasn’t listed there I wouldn’t eat it! If I exercised, I logged it on my iPhone with the app. Everything went in there.
For the first 3 months I lost about 15 pounds per month. My diet was very strict and my exercise was daily. I could see progress on the scales just about every day and that was encouraging. I was lifting weights 2-3 times per week and my wife and children were doing Zumba 2-3 times per week while eating healthy at home. It was a revolution and the proof is still out there on LIVESTRONG.COM. I look back now and then and admire that weight chart or look back at the early days of exercising and eating right.
In February bought a new bicycle, a nice road bike, and signed up for the Tour de Cure in Hampton Roads, VA in April. I raised well over $800 for my 100 mile bike ride and to my delight, my entire family was not only there to support me, they rode in the 10 mile family ride. For me, the Tour de Cure was a turning point. My family had a history of diabetes and I was ignoring my own blood sugar issues brought on by my weight. By the time I trained for the tour, I had moved well into the normal range for cholesterol, blood sugar, triglycerides, and my blood pressure was much better. The Tour de Cure was that goal out there that I HAD to train for and it was really what kept me going. In truth, training and raising money for the cure was my own cure.
On the day of the Tour de Cure, my wife took video of me riding out with 800-1000 other riders. It was an amazing moment, I looked like I belonged there - hundreds of fit people going out for a long day of exercise and I looked like one of them. I have never felt so happy to be normal in all my life.
Training in the foothills of Virginia is great when your goal ride is long and flat near the beach! I rode really hard, and felt great for about 95 of the 100 miles. Near the end I started to feel a bit worn and get some back spasms but nothing serious. At mile 94 I remember standing on the pedals thinking I might just finish this ride standing up.
A little over five hours after I started, I rolled back to the high school parking lot where the celebration awaited. I remember trying to get my cell phone out and text my wife and let her know I was one mile away but the tears in my eyes prevented me from seeing the screen on the phone. I not only overcame obesity and it’s related illnesses, I just ROCKED a 100 mile bike ride and I didn’t stand out from the crowd at all. Nobody said “what are YOU doing here?” or “wow, you’re gonna try this." It was wonderful to just feel normal.
I remember trying to ride strong for that last mile but worrying that I would run into a ditch with the tears welling up in my eyes. I finished, hugged my family and took pictures. After the initial excitement and congratulations my wife tried to show me video of the start of the ride. I remember saying “no thank you, I’m not interested in that. I’m a different person now and I don’t really care to see the guy who started this ride.” The person who finished this ride would forever be different.
I really was a different person - not just emotionally - things changed on that ride. For starters, the taper down period before the ride allowed some physiological changes that I didn’t expect. I was a very strong rider for my size, I was able to ride longer and harder than I expected, and my heart rate was at least 10 bpm higher for the entire ride than I would have expected. Basically I had been overtrained leading up to the ride and fortunately I tapered down and was able to recover and come out strong. My heart and lungs were capable of more than ever and I felt almost foreign in my own body. Those changes stayed with me all summer, I went on to ride another century ride, much hillier than the TDC, a bike race which I finished close to last but in a race where not everyone finished I still feel pretty good. I rode thousands of miles on my own and with other groups with total ease - keeping up with the pack was never a problem.
In June the local cycling group was looking for people to get together for some triathlon relays. While a triathlon was interesting to me, I was neither a runner or a swimmer but I volunteered to get involved. As it turns out, I was too late to be a rider (it was a cycling group after all) but they needed a runner and the run was only a 5k. I agreed as long as my team wasn’t concerned with the fact that I was no runner.
I went out and gave it a shot. I realized I could run a 5k in about 30 minutes. It was a monumental struggle but it could be done. I haphazardly tried to learn to run for about 2 months and never really got under 30 minutes for 3 miles, but my teammates said that was fine.
Race day came, and once again my life changed. This time, I think it changed while I was riding to the race, I was among athletes from all over the area with fancy bikes on their cars and stickers that said weird things like 13.1, 70.3, 26.2, 140.6, swim, bike, run, tri. These were people that did crazy fitness things on weekends, just for fun! The atmosphere at the sprint triathlon was even more amazing. There was music, people warming up, really nice bikes, all kinds of strange clothing and weird drinks and foods. This environment was so electric, I knew I had to do this again. I was hooked before I even started. My run went better than expected, it was pretty hilly but I still ran it in about 28 minutes and despite my previous notions about competition; only a handful of people were truly competing with each other - the rest were just out for the party and to do their personal best.
I ended up doing the same thing at another local triathlon, shaving a minute off of my time and running a few other local 5ks. I kept the running up and ended up signing up for the holy grail of running, the Virginia 10 miler. This is the pinnacle of fitness I thought! As a kid I had always heard about it and everyone I knew who ran talked about maybe one day being able to run that. I never knew anybody who did, it was something that normal people didn’t do. Just like the century ride, I made a plan, trained hard, and ran that race the best I could. I still came up with my same 10 minute mile pace, but I was able to carry it for 10 miles so I was excited. Unfortunately, while still elated at finishing a 10 mile race (ahead of other people) my thoughts turned toward the REAL pinnacle of fitness when someone handed me a brochure about an upcoming half marathon. The holy grail of running... 13.1 miles of what I just did, and if I did 10 so well, of course I could work up to 13.1 miles and check this off my list.
Meanwhile some folks at work were taking interest in what I had going on and my family started running too. They all did the couch to 5k plan as I trudged on in my training to work on a half marathon. As a family we did our first 5k close to home. In order to make it more of a challenge, I rode my bike the 20 miles to town then rode a 24 mile loop with some friends before starting the race. I ran this 5k with Lauren, my 12 year old and helped her complete her first 5k race - it was a wonderful moment I will never forget.
November is the month of the Outer Banks Marathon, Half Marathon, 8k, 5, and 1 mile fun run. The whole family was on board for this, so we made a long weekend of it. We reserved a campsite near the beach and took a few days off work and school to experience the whole race atmosphere. We all trained for the months leading up to it, and I was signed up for the Pamlico Challenge - that is an 8k on Saturday and a Half Marathon on Sunday. My 12 year old daughter was running the 8k with me, my wife and 9 year old were running the 5k, and my 5 year old was doing the 1 mile fun run. At this point, I felt very good about running, still slowly but I was steady and enjoyed it. This weekend was the best in my life - the whole family did runs on Saturday, got medals, and partied with lots of families doing the same thing. The experience still makes me emotional. After our wonderful day together, I rested up and proceeded to run the half marathon the next day and beat my goal time of 2:15 by several minutes.
The first half marathon wasn’t as life changing as it should have been, while it was an amazing experience I realized early on that I wasn’t going to be entirely happy with it. Blame it on a computer glitch or user error, maybe it was an unexplainable nudge from beyond but a blip nonetheless and it changed my feelings about the race. During packet pickup my registration was listed for “The Blackbeard Challenge.” The prestigious challenge where you run an 8k on Saturday and a full 26.2 miles on Sunday. This was the pinnacle of fitness! I was registered for it already, by mistake, but I WAS registered for this prestigious event. I held the marathon bib number in my hand. It had MY name on it. This really captured my imagination, “Al Maxey, Marathon Runner” was the most exciting thing I had ever though about. The pause and the smirk on my face when I held that bib prompted Paula to say “you’re not thinking about it are you?” Of course I was! I knew right then and there that I would not be happy with merely running half of a marathon. I really thought “maybe, just maybe I should do it and get it over with.” I knew it would be crazy to run 26.2 miles without training for that distance, so I got my registration straightened out and ran the race I trained for. I’m glad I did, it was a wonderful experience and at the end I thought I couldn’t walk another step - doing 13.1 miles was out of the question. I’m glad I didn’t take on something I know I would have failed.
In mid December I went on to run another half marathon in colder weather with more hills. To my surprise my time was almost identical to my first half marathon but I walked funny for about 4 days afterwards, so I guess I paid for those hills. Still a good race but clearly not the elite challenge I was looking for.
This coming weekend I plan to help one of the friends from work qualify for the National Half Marathon in late March. The options are to run a 31 minute 5k, 41 minute 4 miler, or choose from several other qualifying times and distances. Since I have a GPS watch, I’m going to pace her so she gets under the cut off in a 4 mile run. My wife is now training for a half marathon in April in the Outer Banks and for me. I’m signed up for the National Marathon in DC March 29th. I think I have bitten off a pretty huge challenge here, but it is the thing I said I would never be able to do in my life. I can’t wait to check it off my list, I am sure I will be a different person when I’m finished with this race.
In this past 13 months, my health has made a 180 degree turn. I hope to spend the rest of my life helping others make the same change in their own lives. I’m nearly finished with a personal trainer certification and hoping to start a running club at my children’s schools next school year. I truly believe that’s what I should be doing with my life. There are many words of wisdom that could be shared with people on the same journey but it depends on where they are on that journey, there are so many stumbling blocks - you need the right advice at the right time otherwise it is confusing and seems out of reach. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that our bodies adapt to training. Exercise burns calories but TRAINING causes changes. When you cross that line from exercise to training you start to see change in your body, so I would encourage everyone to set a fitness goal as well as a weight loss goal and let the training do the work for them.
I tell people who ask “how did you lose so much weight” the same thing: watch every calorie that goes in and out of your body. Sign up for LIVESTRONG.COM and track it. It can be a little stressful tracking every calorie and being on a stringent diet, so take it easy one day a week and enjoy yourself. Exercise and eat lots of healthy foods rather than starving and sitting around weighting for the weight to fall off. Our bodies are made to move and do things and the sooner we make them do it, the sooner we’ll start to enjoy life again.
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