Wednesday Cat Blogging

Early Bird

I've found out through experience....that if I don't do my exercises first thing in the morning, I will find an excuse to blow it off later in the day.  I'm really good at finding excuses.  It will be too hot, too cold, too dark, too light, too many people at the gym, gym is closed, I'm hungry, I'm full...I can come up with a million excuses, all the while forgetting the reason I wanted to do the exercise in the first place.

I think that's the problem.  A bit of perversion from the biblical verse...the flesh is willing but the mind is weak.  I've discovered that it really helps if I can do exercise before my mind has a chance to think much about it and come up with any objections.  After exercise, with all the good physically induced endorphins flooding my brain, my mind is like "oh hell yeah, wanted to do this all along, do it some more".

I do have stumbles though.  Wednesdays, for example; I have to go to work so early I cannot get a workout in.  It is always a struggle to do it at the end of the day when I am tired and hungry.  

Maybe I could bring a set of dumbbells to my meetings? 

Start of 12 Weeks

Okay....so what's the point in posting an ugly photo of me for the whole world to poke fun at?  It's not masochism or some deep seated desire for public humiliation.  It's really for my own motivation.

You see.....losing weight and getting physically fit is a slow process.  Agonizingly slow.  One good way to gauge progress is to set up time specific challenges such as the one I am starting today.  Another good tactic is to have a before photo to begin the challenge.  So often so many get discouraged when they fail to see dramatic progress...like in the advertisements for diet and exercise crap.  We expect miraculous results and when they don't appear, we say fuckit and give up or move on to the next bright promise.  Having photographic evidence of a transformation proves that it is occurring and can motivate you to continue, no matter how long.  It's also to show that I'm a real person. 

So here is my before photo.  I'm weighing in at 175.4 lbs...the lightest I've been in over twenty years.  We'll see what I look like in October.  Maybe I'll have a tan by then.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Take Your Medicine

When I started this goal of getting physically fit, my intent was mostly toward vanity.  I was very overweight and had become ashamed of how I looked.  There were the ancillary things too....such as being tired all the time, no energy, feeling generally lousy....but the main reason was that I simply wanted to look good without any clothes.  

Health?  meh.....maybe in the back of my mind.  The thing is, I didn't connect my health to exercise.  To me exercise was a way of losing fat.  I felt that if I got the weight off  THEN I would get healthy.  Health was about diet.  Exercise was to lose weight while on a diet.

Then I get the double whammy of a heart attack and diagnosis of Type II diabetes.  The heart was repaired, that was just a matter of fixing the plumbing.  Diet is important for this to prevent future damage.  Diet is important as well in managing the diabetes...but I've discovered that exercise is an absolutely critical aspect in controlling my blood glucose levels.  Daily exercise is every bit as important as the meds that I take every day.  I've also got the benefit with daily exercise of treating my blood pressure, cholesterol, and strengthening my entire cardio/pulmonary system.  

Plus I lose weight and get muscle.  Win - Win

Don't think of exercise as a chore you have to do....like shaving or doing the laundry.  Exercise is something that you do for yourself, to treat yourself....to make you feel better.  Look at exercise as a much needed medication in which you cannot afford to miss a single dose.    

You Want It?

One of the really crappy things about getting older is that the body is slower to respond to exercise.  When you are young, you can whip yourself into great shape just by walking to the fridge for beer and dip.  Fast forward 20, 30, or more years...and it seems that you gain weight just by looking at food, regardless of all the workouts you are doing.  It's probably not that bad, but it seems like it and it is a major reason why so many get discouraged.  I mean; spend weeks and months busting a gut to get rid of your gut and see very little change or, sometimes, even more weight....and it's understandable why so many say fuckit and give up.

The thing is, the body changes as it ages (duh).  A big part of that change is not the gray hair or the wrinkles but the way the body processes fuel....aka food.  When you are young, the body can burn anything you put into it with great efficiency.  Hamburgers, fries, burritos, ice cream, pork rinds...hell, you could probably digest plastic.  Add a few years though and the machinery starts to gum up and slow down.  A fifty year old can't eat like a twenty year old without looking like Jabba the Hutt.  It's sad and sometimes it makes me mad; but there it is.  Getting old is not for sissies.  Getting fit when you are old takes more than working your ass off in the gym.  You have to change the way you have been eating most of your life.   

I guess the big question is....how bad do you want it?

Next Level

Wednesday Cat Blogging

I'm Feeling Great....Really

Okay now....I have huge bruises on my hip, arm, knee, and back.  My ribs ache.  I can barely walk a straight line.  And it hurts to do much moving around, not to mention even stand up.

But I'm happy.

Why?

Because I've done these things to myself to get healthy.  I will heal...eventually....and will be stronger afterwards.  Pain just reminds us that we are alive.