Primal Rule 6 - Play!

One aspect that has been a bit lacking in my workouts has been play. When I started out at the gargantuan weight of 374 pounds, my first challenge was just to get moving. I started with walks - 20 minites, 30 minutes....working my way up to 60 minutes - just walking through the neighborhood with my 2 labradoodles. After a couple of months, I started going to the gym & moving some weights. Again, starting gradually at lower weights, suffering the inevitable Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and increasing intensity as I went.

Winter's bad weather moved my walks indoors at the gym. I started challenging myself on the treadmill with intervals of various levels, with the idea that it will prepare me for the hikes I want to take in the beautiful Oregon wilderness which I get to call my back yard.

But all that time working on machines in the gym gets a bit dull. So when I pulled up in front of the gym this morning, a thought occurred to me: that basketball court is always empty in the morning. And with all the work I've done, I'll bet I can play some fairly active ball....and so I did!

I dribbled for full-court layups, chased down my misses (a lot of those!), slowed down for sets of free throws, then ran down to the other end & play pretend game-situation play. This went on for an hour and included lots of jumping, cutting, turning & twisting....raising & lowering the intensity level however I felt like it. In the end, I worked as hard as any workout I've done yet, but had a blast! Needless to say, there will be more of this in the weeks & months to come.

What a great reward for all the work I've done! It would have been unthinkable to try something like this before. So if Rule 6 hasn't made it's way into your primal lifestyle yet, perhaps this is just the reminder you need.

My story so far

I've been following a paleo/low carb style diet since 5/13/09 and have been reporting my progress via some message boards and blog comment sections. People have been asking about progress pics, so here they are. First, here I am at my daughter's graduation in early May, right before I started:

And here I am with my barbershop quartet a week or two earlier:

Contrast that with this pic, taken Oct 31 with my QT at our fall contest - 88 pounds lighter:

I've lost another 20 pounds since then. I'll get some more pix up soon, but you get the idea....