Fit Forties Project: Chapter 1
Turning a weight loss journey into Big Leo Energy.
Jason Momoa is exactly one year older than I am.
I’ll just go ahead and point out the potentially-not-so-obvious fact that one of us has clearly been blessed with a superior combination of cytosine, guanine, adenine, and thymine. (I won’t put up a side-by-side picture of us because I’m don't want Jason to feel inadequate) Jason and I both recently celebrated a birthday on August 1st and I have to admit that my fellow Leo is giving me a bit of FOMO. It actually has nothing to do with outward physical appearance but rather energy.
When I rolled into my late thirties I began drifting into a physicality that felt extremely limiting. For at least the last decade I have tried to eat fairly healthy and keep to a pretty consistent fitness regimen, yet I was frustrated to see fat pounds stack on. I’m 100% certain it’s a frustration most of us deal with as we age. Other complications arose that doctors confirmed were likely linked to my being outside of an ideal weight. These included things like hyperhidrosis (extreme and sudden sweating), gout flare ups (a kingly disorder), and sleep apnea (hooray for snoring!). I put a lot of focus and worry on changing the number on the bathroom scale but ultimately ended up even more frustrated as it seemed to go in the upwards direction.
I finally had a good chat with my nutritionist, cardiologist, endocrinologist, and gastroenterologist about my frustrations. Rounds of bloodwork and other tests showed that I was actually in quite good health otherwise. I was just holding on to a lot of chub around my waist due to some unknown reason genetics.
After a few more chats, this team of doctors had a collective idea; stop focusing on losing weight and start focusing on streamlining and utilizing energy.
Let’s take a moment for a brief biology lesson. When we eat any kind of food, that food is converted into glucose to be used by our body for fuel. Cells absorb the glucose out of our bloodstream to use what they need to be all powered up and function properly. Too much glucose in the system gets stored as fat in the liver, muscles, and fat cells to be used later in case of emergency. Too little glucose in the system gets pulled from those very same emergency stores. The pancreas helps regulate the whole process by creating insulin to open and close the door as needed. Glucose levels in the blood spike whenever we eat anything but it really spikes if we eat something that is particularly loaded with sugar or carbohydrates. These large spikes freak the system out a bit and can even mess up the pancreas enough that it causes things like diabetes.
This is the part where Jason Momoa comes in.
Fortunately I am not diabetic or even pre-diabetic, but the doctors suggested the use of a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) as a way to see how my body reacts to certain physical activities and foods. The idea is simple; see which foods cause the biggest spikes and eliminate or reduce them. See when spikes happen and use physical activity as a way to blunt the spike. When spikes are happening, our bodies are basically just freaking out and storing that energy as fat. If instead the spike can be blunted with activity, we push the glucose into cellular energy instead. My mindset was changed. Where I used to see fat on my body I now see untapped energy. Over the last several years I’ve been frustrated in the moments I chose to not jump in the pool, run with my kids, or allow myself to do what I really wanted to do because I knew I was going to sweat, feel slow, or ache afterwards. My inner Leo has not been happy with this.
Jason Momoa is one year younger than I am and is bringing big Leo energy. I’ve allowed a poor self-image to take over and I’ve approached physical activity as a chore and as a means to lose weight rather than a joy and something that I am capable of doing. Well I’m done with “dieting” and Ozempic to me is literally only an absolute last resort. My doctors reminded me that our bodies are amazing machines and mine has simply been perfectly doing what it needed to do in response to what I was doing with it.
This post is the first in a series that I will be using to journal my journey. I am committed to focusing on the things that I have absolute control over rather than simply worrying about what a scale says. I’m opening up this Leo season by tracking four pillars; nutrition (tracked using a CGM), sleep, mindfulness, and movement. I’m ready to use up the energy that’s been sitting in storage for too long now.
Yes, Jason Momoa is an absolute caricature of Big Leo Energy and brings way more to the table than I would ever be able to dish out, but I’m honored to share a day with him.
Hauʻoli lā hānau kaikaina.