The best workout of my life

“Are you married yet?” I asked.

“Yes, are you?” she replied.

This was a small back-and-forth of a text message conversation I had this morning with my ex-girlfriend. I have a little apprehension about discussing this topic here, but when I committed to blog this life transformation, I decided I wasn’t going to be boring or hold anything back. This is relevant to my diet and exercise program, and my current weight. You’ll understand …

Getting a text message from my ex seemed slightly random at first. But then it occurred to me that it was almost two years to the day that we broke up.

Yes, she told me, she’s married now. And then: “are you?”

As if married is what I’m supposed to be. As if anything other than that is abnormal. That question seemed more like “aren’t you?”

I knew she was getting married. She and I share some of the same Facebook friends, as most ex’s do now. And some of those friends tell me what she’s up to, whether I want to know or not.

“Hey dude, saw a picture of your ex trying on a wedding dress,” a buddy told me recently.

I know this might be coming across as bitter, but I’m really not. I don’t harbor any ill will, and I don’t think about that relationship much anymore. This text message conversation, however, had that effect of reminding me of a time in the not too distant past where I was very happy. And for at least one day brought back a little bit of hurt.

When we broke up, it was a clean break. I didn’t want to spend time trying to be friends and going through that charade. I severed almost all of our ties, and we haven’t spoken on the phone since the day she moved out.  The most we ever do is trade a few text messages, but it’s been at least half a year since I heard from her. Until today.

I really started to pack on the pounds after we broke up. Single people are not supposed to be the one’s who let themselves go, right? But for some reason I did. I took myself out of the dating pool and for two years I have not had a significant other of any real significance. And I got really fat. Like 261 pounds fat!

Back to that little bit of hurt. After our text message conversation, there was an image I could not get out of my mind for the rest of the day. It was an image of me and her sitting on our couch, watching our favorite together show, “The Office,” and cuddling with our cat, SevenToes.

SevenToes was my cat, but he inevitably became her cat, too. Other than me, my ex was the only person SevenToes has ever wanted to snuggle with. My cat loved her as much as he loved me, and that’s saying a lot after having so many roommates over the years. That cat was in a state of bliss cuddling on the couch with us, and so was I. They were my two favorite people, once upon a time.

Well, if you had told me at that moment two years ago that the girl next to me on the couch would be marrying someone else soon, and the cat sitting on my lap would be killed and eaten by coyotes, I probably would have jumped off a bridge into the Clark Fork River.

That was the image running through my head all day — the three of us together on that couch. Now she’s gone, and he’s dead.

And when I finally got to the gym this evening, I had the best fucking workout of my entire fucking life.

Food Journal (click to view):
Breakfast: One whole-wheat mini bagel with peanutbutter, banana, walnuts
Snack: Baked salmon, banana, walnuts
Lunch: Two whole-wheat mini bagels with peanutbutter, orange, hard-boiled egg.
Snack: Power bar
Dinner: 10 California sushi rolls with brown rice