We Can Work It Out

NOTE: At long last… the post that starts my weekly workout progress, and only 3 weeks late. I appreciate your patience.

WORKOUT – The Beginning – Part 1

It takes balls to post semi-nude photos of one’s self on the interwebs – (but unlike other bloggers, I’m not showing you mine)

Huff and Puff

I knew I had to take action when I ran out of breath doing what seemed a mundane task…. tying my shoes… WHAT?? Since when does tying one’s shoes become that challenging?

This was over a year ago. Obviously, not much action took place. Since then, I’ve gotten used to the “out of breath” while leaning over to put on my shoes. Walking up the stairs at work produces the same result. So does going outside to get the morning paper. And many more simple and effortless tasks. It’s now more than an annoyance. It’s something I am genuinely concerned about.

Let’s go back in time. August 2000 to be exact. I joined Bally’s gym and started going three days a week. Part of the motivation was caused by a bad breakup and I needed to fill my time doing something other than chain smoking and watching Jackass. After a couple of months, I was healthy [but still smoking and watching Jackass] and could easily run around at the park, climb stairs and be in a general fit state.

Fast forward to August 2003. My gym membership expired and I didn’t renew. It had been at least two months since my last visit and I barely made enough money to afford the renew option. I did stop smoking and had been smoke free for almost three months. Fit wise, I was still in good shape and didn’t have any issues.

From August 2003 to the present day, I’ve found an extra 22 pounds, I run out of breath doing most things and I lack the motivation to do much about it. Well, that’s not true. I made an attempt when I signed up at Bally’s in April 2007. Good you say… well, not really. In 18 months, I went to the gym maybe 40 times, and that’s being generous. That’s pretty common for people to join a gym and then not go [So that’s how the gyms make their money]. But since then, the few attempts I have done at trying to be fit, have pretty much gone nowhere. Until now.

Changes

At various stages of my life, I tend to get motivated, which produces very good results for a short period of time. I excel at work, I have a lot of positive steps in completing projects and tasks. I get healthy and start to get in shape. It’s nice, but at some point I know it’s going to end. But something different happened this time. I realized I am 45 years old and I’m not getting any younger. I thought about family and friends that had parents with poor health. People I see in the public that carry way too many pounds, I think about their health. Then I would look at myself and think about my health. I don’t consider myself overweight, but there’s some shape issues that are obviously a factor, which is my second reason for wanting to start an exercise program. [as you can see from the photo above and the photos that will follow shortly with more details]

Taking this age concern and wanting to do something permanent, I sat down and started thinking of how I needed to push myself to get back into shape. The first step was already taken care of: I still had 18 months of gym membership paid for at Bally’s. Instead of focusing on the first 18 months that I didn’t go that often, I decided to look forward, considering I didn’t have to make an additional financial investment.

The Evaluation

Even with health being my first concern, looking at myself and seeing the out-of-shape person I’ve become is a very close second. I wanted to have photo proof that I need to trim down, so once I reached certain goals, I could look back to actually see some progress. This photo shows two things I want to reduce: my chin and my stomach. They are the things I pull on, suck in and try to hide every occasion I can.

“HEY… I’m working on it!!”

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Here I’m showing both left and right sides of me. You can really see the double chin and the protruding stomach here. This is the photo that should be posted where I can see it when I don’t feel motivated enough to go to the gym.

“uh.. no, I’m not going to do that tummy touch scene from WILL & GRACE”

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From the back side, it’s not so bad. I’ve got some love handles going on there, but it’s the part of me that needs the least amount of improvements. The plus side is that any exercise I do, this part will just firm up more. Yeah… Baby!

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Routine

The biggest issue for me in the past has always been getting into a regular schedule of going. I can always find a distraction, but this time, I’m looking for ways to stay on track. This first four weeks, I am doing just the following workouts:

• 45 minutes of brisk walking on the track at the gym
• 10 minutes on the stair stepper
• 10 minutes in the spa/hot tub

I have been going twice a week, but starting November 1st (that’s tomorrow), I add a third day per week and including some minor weight lifting and 20 minutes of treadmill to each workout session. After two weeks with the above, I will add in the crunches and the elliptical, reducing some of my walking time. My next blog post update will show a grid of what I’ve done and where I am. Each week, I will update my weight and how I am feeling about my progress and providing as many details as I can.

Some of you have asked if my wife is joining me and I am happy to say she is starting November 1st, but doing her own workout plan. I will not be detailing her progress, per her wishes [she doesn’t get the blogging thing and doesn’t want her details public], but at some point, I’m sure a general update will be posted in my posts.

Keep It Going

So that’s the start of it all. Next post will be numbers, details, grid, progress update and all that. On occasion, I will post new pictures and any other helpful hints I’ve found along the way. And I will be doing this each and every week, or at least working to make my best efforts. It’s a change that I want to happen and one that I think will bring some great results.