About
About… A.K.A. ‘My life story as an open book.”
My name is Sean Ryle. For most of my life, I’ve been overweight. After graduating high school in 1991 and getting a full-time job, my life became fairly inactive. Sitting at a desk for 8 or more hours per day does not do a great deal for keeping you physically in shape. I work in computers so I don’t have much opportunity to get a lot of activity during the daily grind.
I’ve been a smoker off and on throughout most of my teens and adult life. I have eaten way too much fast food and snacked too much in my life (and I don’t mean healthy snacks like an apple or a banana…I mean like Chips Ahoy and Ice Cream).
About a year ago, I decided I needed to lose weight and stop smoking. I set out to do both. First order of business, I talked to my doctor. One of the ARNPs in his practice had a weight loss program they felt strongly was a good program to help people lose weight and get on track with eating properly, good portion control, healthy foods, etc. So, I signed up.
Essentially, the first part of it consisted of nothing more than shakes and soups. (Blech; however it did drop the weight; quickly.) In about two and a half months, I lost approximately 60 pounds (keep in mind, this is doctor supervised). Toward the middle of the second month, they had me introduce solid food into my diet. We had weekly meetings with helped with motivation and were aimed to teach and guide us about managing stress (so we don’t over eat to battle it), healthy alternative foods, etc. We were also supposed to log everything we put in our mouths (which I did not do faithfully). I SWORE to myself that I would NEVER gain that weight back. I felt so great about myself. However, I LIED to myself. I ended up, over the next year, gaining back about 40 pounds of it back.
What happened?! Well, while the doctor led program had the right intentions, it didn’t quite pull off the goal of teaching me what I really needed to be eating. Two and a half months is just not enough time to learn what you need to know. Especially when you only meet for one hour per week.
To make matters worse, within a month of discontinuing the meetings (I moved), I started having severe stomach pains; typically they happened at night and kept me up most of the night. One day several months into it (after the 5th or 6th bout of these pains), I couldn’t bear it any longer. I could have sworn I was dying. The pain was excruciating! I had my girlfriend take me to the ER in the morning.
After an abdominal exam and ultrasound…the result.. severe Gall Stones. I’ve done some reading on the subject and I asked the doctors and surgeons about it. it is very possible that the very restrictive diet I went on and then the return to normal foods caused my Gall Bladder to go crazy on me and build up stones (DISCLAIMER: I am no doctor nor do I possess any scientific proof this is true. It is solely the opinion of me and those who I asked about this; that the stones were related to my diet. Really coincidental at the very least). I had to go in for emergency surgery as they were worried it was going to rupture. WHAT?! Rupture?! My Gall Bladder?! That did not sound pleasant. So, an abdominal surgery and a very uncomfortable week and a half in the hospital later.
So, here I am, December 2009; nearly as fat as I once swore I would never be again. A friend of mine approached me about a “Biggest Loser” type contest that he was putting together with some of his friends. We all chip in $100 and the winner takes all after three months. January 4th, 2010, we weigh in. April 4th, 2010, we weight out. Largest percentage lost gets the prize. I signed up. At current, I am in the lead with just less than 11% lost. I was able to melt the weight off quickly at first, but I realized that I was putting myself into the same trap I did before. I happened to be at that same friend’s house visiting. He is a triathlonist and his wife a marathonist. They had just gotten back from registering to run in a local marathon. It was suggested that Mike (my other friend) and I run too. I thought.. “Huh… Why not?”.
For some reason, that stoked a real interest in me. I, to this day, am still unsure why. I rushed out and paid the $50 registration fee for the half-marathon which was scheduled for four weeks later. (I will later write an article why this was a REALLY bad thing to do; PLEASE don’t do this to yourself. It is hard work and most of all, you will very very very likely injure yourself. At the least, you can not possibly ready yourself for a run like this in four weeks..I digress, for now). I got all geared up, mentally, for the run ahead of me and the journey to get me ready for it. I started doing lots of research on the Internet (working in computers and being a nerd…this is what I do really well). I came across lots of training tips, healthy recipes, meal plans, the right shoes, clothes, etc.
Why I’m here… and why, I hope, you are still reading this. I needed lots of help (and still do) and I know that. The Internet is a vast well from which I can draw a full bucket of information with each pull of the crank. The problem is, that well is not only deep, but wide… more like a lake or an ocean. You know when the bucket comes back, you will get water. The problem is how does the water taste? Is the water good for you? How long did it take you to get that water. I hope that I am making my point (ya see, I’m not really a writer either but I feel strongly enough about helping people with the information I find that I’m doing my best).
My point is… my goal is to have one place for people to come to find the information they need about getting healthy, learning to run properly, running some races, looking good, and most importantly, feeling good.
