Fitness Blogging #1

OK,

Here's the deal. I am fat and out of shape and can't take it anymore. Back in the day, I was in super duper shape. In high school I lettered Varsity football (I was a defensive halfback, senior year our only loss 3-0 in OT to the eventual state champs (for our sized school) in the state semi finals) and track (100, 200, 400, long jump and javelin - I l) as well as skied slalom and giant slalom (and moguls). At graduation I was 5'9" and 155 lbs. In college I began riding bikes seriously - and while I put on 15 pounds my freshman year, I dropped most of it and was a very fit 165 lbs by the time I graduated when I was riding and racing mountain bikes. I kept this up and through law school would routinely do a 35 mile loop out my back door on the mountain bike or ride 15 miles one way (with a serious climb and a gnarly downhill) to class while during the winter I telemarked(skiied) 4 times a week. However, a job at a brewery took its toll and I thought I was overweight when I got married two weeks after graduation (I was 27 and 170 pounds). I spent that summer studying for the bar and would bike 15 miles into DC to attend Bar Bri classes. It helped shed the pounds.

However, since then things have gone down hill. My law practice was bad enough but I still had time to bike to work. When my wife got pregnant though, I began to eat as much (or more) than she did and have continued to put on serious weight in my current position as a lobbyists (its all those lunches). I know weigh a very portly 212 pounds.

The result of this, of course, is disgust with myself. Even more so though, I went skiing once this winter and fell and hurt my shoulder. It hasn't recovered yet. Then this last weekend, while at the Creative Discovery Museum with my 3 year old son, i couldn't keep up with him as he scaled the rope jungle gyms and ended up keeling over in pain as I banged my right knee. I am still limping and have since twisted an ankle.

As I said, I am sick of this. Over the last year, my wife has lost almost 50 pounds - all her baby weight, all her marriage weight, all her college weight - and is visiting her parents house regularly to scrounge through the clothes she wore in high school. She accomplished this by cutting out sugar and carbs and walking 6 miles a day. She also eats lots of dairy. If I do say so myself, she is looking rather fine.

I, on the other hand, am not. As she pointed out - every day I carry around 40 pounds more than i need to. Would I carry a sack of potatoes with me everywhere? No, so why do I carry all this fat???

So here is what I am going to do. Every day I am going to post my exercise and eating routine here, as well as my weight. I don't know if anyone cares about this - or if it will cause my meager reading audience to run away in horror - but enough is enough. I want a means to track my progress, and this seems as good as any. I might as well take advantage of blogger somehow. Plus Ricky's fitness posts over at Toys in the Attic (eer, North Georgia Dogma) have been inspiring.

My goal is to shed 20 pounds by the time we go to the beach in mid August. Initially, I am going to simply limit my caloric intake (and reduce the really bad stuff - no more donuts, Diet Dr. Pepper instead of the real stuff, Tea with Lemon instead of five glasses of Sweet Tea), start riding my bike to work again (but monitor my heart rate - its about 45 minutes here and 1 hour back), and walk for 45 minutes to an hour each day at lunch.

I haven't kept perfect track of today's activity but here's the first entry.

Food
Breakfast - 1 breast of cold KFC original recipe, grapes as I walked to the bus.

Lunch - Walter's Special at Loebs deli (its disgustingly tasty - mayo, pastrami, munster cheese, etc)

Snack - two cans of Dr. Pepper. I single serving bag of M&Ms

Dinner - Coq Au Vin (very good - one of my favorites and the wife is getting good at it) with carrots and new potatoes. Can of Safeway Diet Cream Soda (Mmm Mmm Mmm)

Desert - 12 ounce glass of Orange Julius (I made it with Splenda)

Activity - Rode bike back from work - 59 minutes at an average heart rate of 145 bpm (i was trying to keep it under 150 in order to maximize cardio buildup and fat loss)

Wish me luck. If you have any advice or pointers for helpful hints, I'd appreciate it.