I met Kat Bukowy at a 6-week summer program called the North Carolina Governor's School, a magical, fabulous experience that truly changed the way I viewed academia and the world around me. We also happen to go to the same gym. Kat offers raw honesty, practical tips, and thoughtful encouragement. I teared up reading it! Without further ado, I'd love to share Kat's story with you.
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Kat in mid-April 2013
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So the honest truth is…I cheated. Ok, not really, but kind of – it’s as confusing as it
sounds.
I started working on “getting healthy” two years ago. When I was young my mother did Weight
Watchers (still does I believe); so Daddy and I did WW. For a whole lot of years, I did not
realize that corn and peas and potatoes are vegetables. To me they were starches and you
shouldn’t eat two in a meal.
“Family style” is a recent fad in my world. We always ate our meals pre-portioned at the stove. I have been well-indoctrinated into the
teachings of WW. I’m not saying
it’s a bad program; it works well for many people. I even did it once in my twenties and lost about 20 lbs (I
also gained it all back).
Despite all of Mom’s efforts, I have weight and body image
issues. I finally had enough when
I hit around 230 lbs. It was time
to get serious and find a “healthy lifestyle” that I could actually maintain. Essentially, 230 lbs + genes that tend
toward heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes + own personal issues
(depression, asthma, and premature arthritis) = impending DISASTER!
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Kat (right) with our friend Lacey (left) near the 230's around her 30th birthday
(stay tuned for Lacey's story) |
I found a gym and joined with a friend to help hold each
other accountable. I probably lost
about 20 lbs. I was honestly not
paying a whole lot of attention to the weight loss between 230ish and 203
lbs. I just know it went
away. At 203 lbs I was frustrated
that I was still not really losing weight (apparently the whole 27 lbs or so
loss kind of got missed in my brain to the point that I don’t even acknowledge
it now). A friend suggested I try
using a free online program (I use My Fitness Pal) to actually track what I
eat, that perhaps I was eating more than I thought I was.
On top of that I had discovered triathlons, something I had
always wanted to do, but thought I couldn’t. The reason I thought I couldn’t? I did not believe I was physically capable of running. I discovered that doing a run/walk is a
legitimate thing, not something just for fat people like myself, and that I
could do a triathlon with a run/walk for the “run” part of the event. I started training for and doing sprint
triathlons. If the high I get from
triathlon is the high that crack addicts get, I understand why they go back for
more. However, the scale only
dropped a little for all of the effort I was putting in.
And this is where I cheated. Sort of. When
you train for a triathlon and you’re swimming, riding or running twice a week
and the “long” ride is 30 miles, you expect after awhile to see a DROP in
weight, especially if you’re eating within the calorie range that you are now
diligently tracking.
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| Kat's first team triathlon |
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To make a very long story much, much shorter, I saw an
endocrinologist throughout the whole train for triathlons, count calories
process. She trusted the lab
results and the average limits for those results. It turns out that I am sub-clinical, which means that my
results fall within range, but are actually too low for me. When she told me that my thyroid was
not my problem, I got another opinion (Ok, she told me my problem was not
something she could deal with because my lab results were fine; so I fired her
and got another opinion). I
happened to find an endocrinologist whose philosophy happens to be "treat for
the simplest solution first." The
odds that I had some remote form of cancer are pretty slim, so he decided to
dramatically increase the synthetic thyroid hormone that I was on. No surprise to me, it did the
trick. The moral of “the cheating”
is that if something doesn’t feel or seem right – my hair was falling out, I
was tired all the time, I had weird hot/cold flashes and I’m 32 – get an answer. Get one that makes sense and don’t stop
asking the question(s) until you do.
So from May 2012 to May 2013, I lost 35 lbs. How much of that was me working and how
much was “cheating” I don’t know.
I can say that I don’t think I’d have lost that much weight that fast
if I had not been working so hard.
I love having lost 35 lbs.
I am 15 lbs away from my goal of 50 lbs down. Even with the 35 lb loss, my brain sees the physical changes
and accepts the complements with pleasure, but something in me still sees a fat
person. I am deathly afraid that
the fat person will come back one day.
I’m not going to let it, and I won’t let the fear drive what I do. I keep pushing my “limits” because I
know I can be stronger, faster, harder, better and happiest because I did it.
I think my biggest problem, like a lot of people, is
diligently recording what I eat.
Fortunately, I am a creature of habit and like my routines. I eat the same thing (nearly) for
breakfast every day: oatmeal (Quaker Rolled Oats), vanilla protein powder, flax
seed, and cinnamon with either fruit (blueberries, peaches) or apple/peach
butter or jam thrown in for interest.
Lunch is typically a Lean Cuisine or similar at the office. Days I’m in the field are nearly a
free-for-all, although I try to eat a chicken sandwich or I bring peanut butter
and jam/honey sandwiches and carrots or something "healthy." When I’m in the field, I can burn up to
about 700-900 calories depending on the weather and type of work. I almost always carry apples and Lance
peanut butter & honey crackers with me. A hungry Kat is NOT a happy Kat. Because I’m at the gym until 7 p.m. and my boyfriend is
usually home before me, I try to make something on the weekend to have as
leftovers during the week. I need
to get better at the food planning thing. I keep trying, but haven’t gotten the
hang of it yet. I also have a
mid-morning and an afternoon snack that is usually protein-based.
I have had recent digestive issues so I have discovered that
I need to avoid most dairy, beans, and corn. I am also severely allergic to cashews and pistachios. These are the only real “limits” on my
diet. I LOVE to bake and do so
frequently. I put the recipes into
the online recipe calorie calculator so I can know what the calorie content of
a serving is.
Some advice…
Exercise is key.
If you’re not doing anything, I wouldn’t expect you to go do a
marathon. I started with walking
and going to the gym; it worked for me.
Whatever you do, do it with your best effort and start today. Then go
back tomorrow.
It took a variety of gyms (from the super-cheap, to the
posh, and the exclusive with a personal trainer) for me to find my Y. Don’t be afraid to shop around. It’s really about what works best for
you. The Y is on my path home. I figured out that it takes the same
amount of time for me to go to a 5:30 class at the Y and get home as it does to
go directly home fighting 5 o’clock traffic. It also happens that all varieties and types of people are
welcome at the Y. I don’t get on
the cardio machines and see tight bodies that I want to beat to a bloody pulp
everywhere – there’s one or two, but I can usually ignore them.
If you’re exercising be as comfortable as you can. For some ungodly reason, everyone is
telling us to be (or get) fit and healthy, but the stupid clothing industry is
NOT helping the large trying to become small(er). The best investment you’ll ever make is in a solid pair of
athletic shoes. Go to a local
running shop – if whoever comes to help you isn’t helpful and friendly get
someone else – and be properly fitted for shoes. Yes, they are expensive, but your budget will thank me when
you’re not spending money on doctor’s bills or you’ve quit because your feet/legs/hips/back
are killing you. If you’re female,
the second best investment is a GOOD sports bra. I’m partial to the Moving Comfort brand discovery I made
last year (I started out as a 40 DDD and they make a very supportive larger
bra), but I had Luminere and Champion (when I wasn’t so well-endowed) before
that. Be warned that you should
try them on first if possible.
Sports bras do NOT fit like regular bras. I wore a 40 DD sports bra, but my regular bras were
DDD. Try them on, jump/bounce up
and down, run in place, whatever.
Make sure nothing pokes or pinches. If you fear chafing get an anti-chafe stick. I think I got an Arm & Hammer at
Walmart, but I also use Body Glide.
I sweat like a cold glass on a hot day, so for me, moisture-wicking
material is the best invention ever. Just remember, getting your exercise on is
not about what you look like while you sweat; the reward comes in the afterglow
of what you’ve accomplished.
Because I run and ride outside I don’t listen to music very
often, and I recommend that for safety reasons you learn to live without the
tunes (or at least not via headphones/earbuds that cut out all other
surrounding sound). I like to
think that my theme song is "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson. I know it’s cheesy, but I first heard
it about the same time I started down this path and it’s gotten me through some
rough times. The quote that I
mostly live by is “The voice inside your head that says you can’t do this IS A
LIAR.” I think I saw that on a
Nike advert circulated on Facebook at the beginning of this trip last year.
P.S. I can now
run a full 4 miles without stopping.
It’s not fast, but it’s still running.
