A year of watching what I eat

I had my ups and downs. Some weeks were harder to eat relatively healthy compared to others. All in all, it was a successful year of weight loss. Last May I weighed in at 243.3 pounds. This morning I weighed in at 213.8. My morning weight tends to fluctuate between 212 and 215 pounds making me down about 30 pounds. I'd like to break the 200 barrier but I don' t know if I can do it. I think my biggest hurdle is to stop having a second dinner around 10 at night.

Getting exercise was the biggest change of the year. I walk a lot more than I used to. Also take the stairs more often than in the past. Time Warner set me back a little when they changed the free Exercise on Demand channel. Some of those were pretty good workouts. One exercise guy said the hardest part of a workout is actually starting the workout. There's a surprising amount of truth of truth to that. I've tried to start P90x twice. I've had some elbow issues in the past and there's something about the pullups that bother's my right arm. After two weeks of the program, I get a stiff neck.  Could be operator error.

The exercise leads me to another fairly recent milestone. While on a treadmill at the conference last week, I jogged a tick over 3 miles without stopping. A personal distance record. Granted, it was flat and at a set pace. I tend to go a little faster on my own and need to take a break every so often. Plus hills make a big difference. I'd like to participate in a 5k sometime. If I can make it around the neighborhood without stopping, I'll sign up. Maybe the Crossings 5k this fall. We'll see.

BMI

As winter became spring, I began to notice the extra weight I put on over the winter. And that made me look at how much weight I had put on since 1998 when I moved from construction inspection to a desk. The pay was a lot better, but moving a few hundred 30 pound concrete cylinders daily had gotten me into a little bit of shape. I was always on the heavy side. My fascination with food hasn't helped.

My heaviest was in high school. I topped out around 260. I had a "Body by Bud" poster of a heavyset guy sitting on a keg drinking a beer. The bumper sticker on the keg read "No Pain, No Pain." They were words I lived by. In college, I had a co-op job that didn't really factor in any time for eating. I was pretty much only eating dinner. I lost sever inches around the waist there. Hated the job though. I was in Boston and took the T to South Station every morning. On my way out of the station I walked past a large bank of pay phones. This was 1991 - there were still pay phones. Every morning as I walked past those phones I thought, "There's still time to call in sick." Needless to say, I did not go into that business. I was miserable, but lost several pants sizes. Probably not the way 4 out of 5 doctors recommend doing it though.

Then there was more college and then the construction inspection job. I weighed about 200 pounds then. Which apparently was still too much according to the body mass index. From there I moved to a desk. When I started it was actually a desk. I have a cube now. Since taking a desk job in 1998, I have slowly and steadily put on 43 pounds. When I entered my 243, 6'1" numbers the output reads "Obese." Ouch.

In an effort to be able to chase my kids around, I decided to do something. Turning 40 later this year probably has something to do with it too. As luck would have it, while I was looking through the recently acquired cookbooks at the library (641s for those of you into the Dewey Decimal System), I saw a beginners guide to running. This guy was recommending a walk/run. Walk a bit, jog a bit, repeat until you've had enough exercise for the day. He got a little more into it that that. There were schedules and charts and enough repetition and words of encouragement to fill a book. About 3 weeks ago, I started exercising. And while a coinciding Rapture was predicted, the world didn't end.

Night is the only time I get a chance. Everyone goes to bed, I grab some shorts and running shoes and off I go. I've got a 2 mile loop around the neighborhood. It is kind of peaceful. I'm usually the only one out. I have heard a few couples arguing through open windows. I scared a raccoon too. Lately the night skies have been nice. Pretty cool crescent moon tonight. Yesterday, I was walking while my youngest rode her bike. She was quite surprised that I could keep up with her. She pedaled faster, I ran faster. We got to the end of the street at the same time. No way that could have happened in April. I would have passed out. I cut waaaayyy back on the booze too. I drank a lot this winter. And for some reason, I started eating salads for lunch.

This morning I weighed in at 237. Still obese. If I can manage to lose 3 more pounds, I'll step down to overweight on the index. Baby steps....