Welcome to Phuket Fit’s weight loss and fitness blog. I’m your host, Aaron Rowland. I’m a 28-year-old writer from Los Angeles, California. At my heaviest weight, I weighed 160 KGs (350 LBS). I’m here at Phuket Fit to lose weight, improve my fitness and have the adventure of a lifetime. I’ve been here seventeen months so far and I’m staying indefinitely. My favorite exercises are the bicycle crunch and the medicine ball slam. Barbell thrusters, suicide planks and burpees give me nightmares.
Wha-Wha-Whatttt?
Over the past year writing this blog, I’ve tried to emphasize the importance of not just paying attention to the scale. There are many ways to track health and fitness and your weight is just one small factor. Things like body-fat percentage, body measurements, photos, how your clothing fits and even timed fitness trials are all great ways to track progress on your weight-loss and fitness journey.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to put my money where my mouth is. No weigh-ins for the next fourteen weeks. Instead, I’ll be focusing on training for the Phuket Marathon, a 26.2-mile (42 KM) test of fitness and endurance. When one of my friends signed up, and asked if I’d be keen to join, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Surely you can’t be serious?
I am serious, and don’t call me Sh… you get the joke. Needless to say, this isn’t going to be easy. I’ve never run in any sort of formal race and I would consider myself a very weak runner at present time. Simply put, I don’t like running. I would much rather glide on a cross trainer or sweat out the calories on a rowing machine, than jog for even a few minutes.
But that why I’m going to do it. If you aren’t willing to train in the areas where you’re weakest, you won’t be able to improve to your peak levels of performance.
What’s the plan?
For the next 14 weeks, I’ll be working on a marathon-training plan I found online. Some days I’ll be doing road runs, while other days I’ll be participating in Phuket Fit’s bodyfit and cross-training classes. It’s difficult for me to even run a 5k without stopping now, so that’s the first benchmark I’m aiming to pass. Right now, my jog/walk 5k time is 38:54, and I’m hoping to get that below 35:00 in the next two weeks. I’m realistic about my ultimate expectations, I doubt I’ll be able to jog the entire marathon after only 14 weeks of training, but if I work hard I know I’ll be fast enough to finish well under the 7.5-hour time limit.
So, that’s where things stand currently.
The marathon is June 8th. We’re 14 weeks away.
Have a great week of weight loss! If you set your mind on it, I know you can do it!