Life In The Slow Lane

Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of “Will Wes Fit On A Coaster?” 

Today’s episode brings us up to date and gives a little insight on what our intrepid coaster rider is up to.

I’m back for an update on my quest to get healthier, lose weight and never have to make another coaster or amusement ride walk-of-shame as long as I live.

To give a little background on this update, in April 2015 I fell several times during training for and running the Marine Corps. mud run in South Carolina that F3 calls their Super Bowl each year.

The following months I began to experience a lot of back pain which stopped me in my tracks from exercise and eventually contributed to me to losing focus on my diet and as a result I gained back all 56lbs I had lost between 2014 and 2015.  By July 2015 I could barely walk without pain. Life sucked.

I went to doctors, chiropractors, acupuncturists, massage therapists and nothing worked.  It felt great while they worked on my back, but as soon as I tried to walk or exercise at F3, it started hurting and I wasn’t going to go the surgery or drug route.  Then I had a thought, which I think was probably a whisper from God: Go try yoga.  

Yoga? What in the world?  That weird, wacky thing where they chant and twist themselves into knots? Um, no.  But I checked into it and low and behold there was a small studio in Mint Hill, five minutes from where I used to live.  Bettie was wonderful!  It wasn’t weird. She basically took us through a series of stretching exercises, with a positive thought for the day, and that was it!  Nothing weird, no worshiping the dead as someone online said yoga encouraged, nothing but a great experience.

After my first class I could tell a huge difference in my back.  Within several weeks I had increased mobility, my posture improved and I was feeling much better.  I’m still not bendy and can’t stretch like many people in class with me, but it has made a huge difference in my life.  

I use several of the poses at home to help stretch before F3 or if I just start getting tight.  Going to yoga class is also a huge part of my recovery.  I never stretch as long at home as when I’m with a group and a teacher.

Funny, that’s a lot like F3.  I never worked out as hard at a gym as I do at F3 with a group and a leader.

Go check out yoga sometime.  Not hot yoga, but restorative yoga or a beginner’s class.  Mint Hill Yoga is great if you are close.  Also F3 now has a yoga/stretching workout Wednesday mornings at Mathews United Methodist Church parking lot at 5:30.  All F3 workouts are free.

To give an update on my weight loss, I’m down again 45lbs and want to lose another 55 which would give me a total of 100lbs!  It’s still staggering to realize how overweight I have been for the past fifteen years.  I’m not trying to get down to 185 like I was in 1998 but 225 would be a wonderful place for me right now.  I would fit on any coaster or pretty much all of them.  Some are just very strict and have tiny seats which don’t work well for my build.

So overall 2017 is going strong and I’m thankful for my progress.  

MyFitnessPal and F3 have been a lethal combination to the fat cells in my body.  

Until next time.