I've been in the technology field professionally since 2000 and an enthusiast since I wrote my first bouncing ball program out of the back of Byte magazine on the ti 99/4a but I never felt the need to start a blog until now. Surprisingly this blog is not about technology but my quest to be the 21 year old me that I know still exists underneath the wear and tear and extra weight of 15 years of self abuse and poor diet. My goal here is to chronicle my attempt to get in shape and be a healthier person.
I hope that the obligation to my readers (if I have readers) will inspire me to stick to my plans and post them here daily.
So, why am I here?
I truly have no idea why I feel the need to publish my trials and tribulations and this kind of feels like the intro of a bad movie plot but here goes:
First things first--I shamelessly stole the title of my blog from my brother-in-law after a discussion we had at thanksgiving about our rapid descent into middle-age. Both of us were active in our youth and have let things slide over the last decade or so. My weight gain has been exacerbated by the 5+ years of being a travelling consultant who disdains eating in a restaurant alone. Well, it all stops now.... or Monday.
I'm 37 years old and weigh 228 lbs as of this morning. When I went into basic training in 1993 I weighed 185 and thought that was too heavy. When I left ground combat school 5 months later I weighed 151. I don't think 151 is a healthy weight for someone 6'3" so I'm shooting for 185.
For several weeks I've been aggravated by the fact that it takes effort for me to put on my boots. Bending over my sizeable gut to reach my feet every morning is like a slap in the face. Furthermore, there have been several tasks in the last few months that I previously was able to complete with little effort and certainly without getting winded in the process. I have no energy and seldom feel like exerting any more effort than absolutely necessary to accomplish what must be done. There just isn't anything left in me for extras. This is what I must fix.
How am I going to get there?
Quite simply, I'm going to quit doing all of the things that got me here in the first place. Fast food, alcohol, marathon sessions in front of the computer etc. In addition, I will quit smoking, start exercising and drastically change my diet.
Smoking:
I've been smoking since I was 18 years old. It was the only way to get a change of scenery while I was in the military. I knew the risks but the rewards seemed a lot nicer than some nebulous diseases that might happen 20-30 years down the road. That's a choice I've regretted for nearly 19 years.
In 20 years of smoking the longest time I've spent without nicotine was about 35 days when I was bed-ridden after a motorcycle accident. But the monkey was huge and the first time I left the house on my own I went and bought a pack of cigarettes. There were also two times when I tried to quit that I made it a week or so. Every time it ended with a justification or some lame excuse and I would go right back to smoking.
Of all of my failures in life, this is probably the biggest. In true junkie fashion I hid it and lied about it to those I've loved. This addiction, while perfectly legal, has probably caused the most heartache in my life.
And today it's done.
I've been taking chantix (again) for the requisite amount of time and as of Sunday June 25th at 8:10 EDT I became a non-smoker. You've all heard it a million times and some of you have said the same things with varying degrees of success but this is my time. With any luck the damage I've done over the last 20 years of smoking will heal and this will just be a new chapter in my life. On the other hand, if I'm not so lucky then you, constant reader, (sorry Stephen King) will have an extra ten minutes or so in your week to spend on something other than my poorly written blog.
Exercise:
I'm a fan of programs and structured activity, but I'm not a fan of spending money I don't need to spend. This leaves me in the conundrum of trying to exercise appropriately without paying someone for this privilege.
Over the last few months I've researched my options and I've decided on a three stage program.
Stage 1:
I'm fat! Did I mention this? Stage one is straight out of the book of common sense. I'm going to get out of my chair and walk. I have this pedometer which is fantastic and extraordinarily accurate (zero is pretty easy not to mess up). My goal for the first few weeks is 10,000 aerobic steps and 15,000 total steps a day.
After the first or second week I'll start the second half of stage 1--anaerobic exercise. No gym, no membership, no required gadgets. I still travel every week and have little access to these things. The solution is another program. Hundredpushups.com has a six week program for pushups and situps that should get me into reasonable shape to start additional training. Also during this period I plan to start the couch to 5k program. Did I mention I like programs?
Stage 2:
Nine weeks after stage 1 starts I should have completed the pushup/situp portion and mostly completed the 5k training (assuming my knees cooperate). At this point I'll move over to the program I hope to maintain indefinitely. Again it is a body-weight program but this one was developed by Mark Lauren who developed the program from his years of experience and results as a military instructor. This program requires very little equipment and can be completed anywhere you happen to be. Just what I need.
Stage 3:
At this point I'll be 20 weeks or more into my routine. If I'm satisfied with my results I'll add some recreational activities into the mix. If not I'll repeat from either stage one or stage two.... Only time will tell.
Diet:
I have no idea what will be the hardest change to maintain as it all seems overwhelming right now. This change is the one I've gotten the most flak over. Today I started the 80-10-10 diet. I kind of fell backwards into this one and it seems to make the most sense to me.
About six months ago I was feeling quite disgusting and decided I needed to change my diet. I started researching different methods and came across the documentary Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. It was fascinating and got me thinking about ways to ease into a juice diet. I bought the juicer in the documentary and tried juicing for a couple of days but that left me ravenously hungry all the time. Needless to say it didn't last.
After trying and failing there I decided that a more reasonable method had to be out there. I researched for several weeks, watching numerous documentaries and reading the referenced studies and decided 80-10-10 was the closest to ideal I could get. I've incorporated some of this into my diet already and it seems to work but I'm going to miss cheese and beef and pork and turkey and....
I suppose my main concern with this diet (in addition to getting all nutrients that I need) is that I'll stay hungry. I've been hacking away at this post for an hour and in the process ate 3/8th of a watermelon as per the menu plan in the book. I still feel hungry but my stomach feels full. We'll see how that works out over the next few days. I might have to do more research.
So there it is, in a huge nutshell.
I suppose I'll post some actual goals and timelines in the not-too-distant future.
-Chin
