Living in an abusive marriage was painful enough that I chose to drown my depression in wine. I literally sat on the couch, watched cooking shows and drank wine. I gained a LOT of weight over the years, so when a friend came to my office and talked me into buying custom made shirts from her, she measured my waist and to my surprise, it was 50 inches! When she left, my office manager came in, and we talked a bit, she offered to take my BP (she took her own daily), and sure enough, it was way too high for a man of my age. I was also pre-diabetic at the time. So, I sat there in my office looking at nothing and thought to myself, “Well, I know exactly what I should do, and if I am not willing to do what I tell others to do, then I have no right being in practice.” I walked out into the gym, and got on the treadmill. A long time patient was riding the stationary bike next to me. She was very sweet, and said, “Hey Neil, great to see you on the treadmill, how far are you going to walk?” I smiled at her and said, “Monica, fat as I am, I think I need to walk to San Diego!” She had a good chuckle, but I thought about what I had said, and right there, made a decision to do just that. I was walking up a 10% grade at 3 mph (I had to walk rather than run because my right knee was very arthritic.) I did a quick calculation and realized that if I walked to San Diego, I would also, walking up a 3% grade, climb Mt Everest, twice!
So began a journey for me. I logged my distance each day on a map and walked the fat off me.
As time passed I added bike riding, ERG rowing and outdoor walking. I was also lucky to have an Alter G in my office…
So I got to run at a lighter weight (as my knee tolerated) as well. In the end I lost about 60# and took several inches off my waist. The weight loss helped my knee quite a lot and I felt better than I had in years. What was weird about this was that my then wife did not believe I was working out to get in shape, or she might have, but she said she did not. It’s not like she paid much attention to me in any event. We were pretty well estranged by then anyway. It wasn’t much time after that that we got divorced. I also picked up and Eliptigo when my friend Mike brought one to the office for me to try. I loved it. Once I was able, started riding around Mercer Island on it every day.
Anyway, that whole experience took a couple of years of daily exercise to bear fruit. I finally got to 200 lbs and was in decent enough shape to keep it off with routine exercise. That is how things went for the next few years. Between 2014 when Melissa and I split up and 2018 I rode around the island just about every day. It was a good ride with some hill climbing and some flats. I got a lot of cheers from passing cyclists (its not as fast as a bicycle) and friends who waved me on.
In 2016 when I moved into an apartment on the island, I got a indoor trainer for it so I could continue to ride when I had my knee surgery. The total knee replacement stopped my riding for a time, and in 2018 when I met Heather, most of my expercise was related to walking my dog Kiva, which I did for about 7 miles a day!
Who wouldn’t want to walk a dog like Kiva? He pretty much saved my life first when I got seperated, and then when I got divorced, and after my total knee replacement, he got me out walking too!
Anyway, the next 7 years, Heather and I spent as much time as we could together, only doing intermittent exercise other than walking, and by 2025, the net net of that behavior was that I was back up to 220, and my left arthritic knees was very painful. I was considering total knee replacement. Ugh. Lucky for me, I had a rowing machine in storage. We live in a really small place so it never came home with us, But, I had left it in a fairly accessible location and without too much trouble, was able to retrieve it and bring it home. We figured out where we could keep it so it was easily accessible to the living room, and now, I put it out each evening and take it apart once we are done with it.
I started at the end of May, and was immediately reminded how hard rowing can be! To give me motivation, I created a virtual journey. I plan to row to Hawaii. It’s about a 4,000 km journey. I found a great website, MyVirtualMission.com and created the journey.
This was my first post at the end of June.
As you can see, I rowed up through the Sound and into the Straights of Juan de Fuca on my way out to the ocean. The tag NC is my location, while the red tear drop is my anticipated position based on the time I allocated to the row.
I gave myself 1,095 days to complete the voyage of 4, 414.7 km.
In general, my strategy was to row 10,000 m a day. I began and made good progress, but found that my efforts were taking a toll. I needed some technology to understand my recovery so that I could set up my rowing intensity appropriately. To that end, I found the Whoop. It has been a godsend.
When I use Woop during my workout, I can set my intensity based on my recovery, and I can track my effort precisely. It’s pretty great when it works. (RIght now, as I write this, I am dealing with the sensor not working…which is frustrating.) Anyway, in May I rowed 17,000 m and June, I rowed 155,623 m. I renewed my relationship with the Concept 2 site and also the Nonathlon site, and armed with tech, a way to log my virtual journey, and a way to monitor my output and fitness progress, the next thing was to find a proper body composition scale.
I did my research and found the Oxline scale on sale! Perfect. It tracks so much stuff.
- BMI
- Muscle Mass lbs
- Bone mass lbs
- Weight lbs
- Body Fat %
- Fat mass lbs
- lean body mass lbs
- Muscle rate %
- SubQ fat %
- Body water %
- Water weight lbs
- Ideal body weight lbs
- Visceral fat
- Skeletal muscle %
- Protein %
- Protein mass lbs
- BMR
- Body age
- WHR
- Obesity
So, each day, I row, take a shower then weigh in. I record everything and graph out the data. In the meantime, I rowed 214,025 meters in July!
That put me out in the Pacific ocean and well on my way, and well ahead of schedule. I was making progress. My body fat percentage was beginning to fall and my muscle mass was beginning to grow, but mostly, I noticed that my left arthritic knee was feeling better! #Winning.
I pressed on noticing that my waist was getting smaller (I had to punch two more holes in my belt! The main thing is that I was down 20#.
During August, we traveled some, so my total rowing output was 175,980 meters. Not bad at all, and, like before, the main benefit was that the strength I was gaining had really reduced my knee pain a lot.
BY the time I got into September, I was feeling good and really started to feel the strength gains My September output was pretty good 202,500 meters and I even rowed a half marathon! I was clearly starting to feel the impact of 3 months of almost daily activity. Rowing a 10K each time I row was getting easier to manage and I began to play with intensity by building sprints and active recovery into my rows. The highlight of my monthly weigh in was that my visceral fat had really begun to visibly reduce, or as Heather says, “You’ve got ribs! ”
How I manage to row 10K every day is by rowing with the Tour de France. I row every mile with them on every stage. It’s so great having access to the Tour, those athletes are fantastic and I am really a huge Tadej Pogacar fan. Massive respect. I will say that since I row an hour or so each day, I have watched TDF for about 130 hours, which means I am getting to be a massive fan of pro cycling, getting to know the athletes and the teams, and having my own reaction to the US commentators who I tolerate. If it were up to me, I would watch the International Feed. But I don’t make that decision it turns out.
October was a massive month. I was very disciplined and managed to row 256,597 meters. Sadly I picked up an achilles injury when I turned my ankle out walking the dog. Funny thing is that I used to tell my kids not to “get their foot stuck in a hole” when they were little kids on their way to school. What goes around!
Because of the achilles injury I had to tape every day and ice it too, which made sprinting hard on the Erg. Even so, by the end of October my scale data showed I had reduced my visceral fat by 40%, I was under 200# and had to switch to my sweat pants since none of my jeans stay up even on the last notch I added to the belt. My body fat generally fell to under 30% for the first time in forever too!
I started eating oatmeal for breakfast and that seems to have increased my burn. I also started using chocolate milk on Heather’s suggestion, to replenish on days my sprint efforts leave me too depleted.
Because of the injury, I backed off on the load by only rowing 160,000 meters during the month. Part of it was my sleep was disturbed and therefore my recovery was low so I took an extra day off a week, which made a big difference.
I am still well ahead of schedule and still managing at least 5 rows a week even though I make every effort to do to 6 days a week. I feel well and healthy and the energy I have each day is better. I also find that my knee is feeling so much better than it did when I started back in May. I am about a quarter of the way to Hawaii. My knee feels good. My fitness is definitely increasing. My weight is steadily under 200# and improving and I am only a quarter of the way to my goal!
My Life: A Memoir 