New year, New goals

At the beginning of 2010 I was over 190 lbs, which was a good 35-40 lbs heaver than I was when I graduated high school. In the last few years, the back problems I've always had have gotten worse and I've developed tendinitis in my knees. The knee pain was seriously so bad one day that I was convinced that I had torn something (I'm one of the few soccer players I know who hasn't, so at least I still have that going for me).

It's funny how that weight just kind of sneaks up on you. You keep eating and drinking all the same bad (delicious) stuff you did when you were younger, but now instead of playing soccer damn near everyday like I used to and burning it off, I sit at a desk for 8+ hours a day. Then I come home and enjoy a bit of TV and probably something fried before going to bed and doing the whole thing over again.

Last January (2010), I told Kim that I would work out with her. We already had a gym membership that got used sporadically, but at the time it had been a few months since we had gone (at least, since I had). I promised to begin when we got back from our Christmas in Arizona. Well, we got back and I planned to make good on my promise. I took the standard "Before" picture, and it was bad. It's hard to believe that when you put that much weight on that you just don't seem to notice it. I see pictures of myself at my heaviest though and sometimes I don't even recognize me. You know, it's just a few pounds a year for a decade!

^Heaviest^ Recent >>>

I went to the gym a few times as promised, then life got in the way again. It's easy to find excuses not to do something when you feel like it's hard or if you are doing it for the wrong reasons. I'm not sure why I didn't go consistently, I just didn't.

Leave it to a physical to give you a good reason.

At 27, I was overweight and had high cholesterol. Surprisingly, to me at least, my BP was 120/80 which I think is supposed to be good. Anyway, as if the view in the mirror wasn't enough, this gave me plenty of reason to get my ass to the gym.

Beginning the week after the Super Bowl, I was there 4 times a week or more. At first it was just light weights and a lot of cardio. I've never been a gym guy, so it kind of took me a while to find a routine that worked for me, but eventually I found some stuff that I liked and kept me coming back.

The combination of working out and other outside factors caused me to shed weight faster than I thought. At my lowest point, I was down to 161. I lost a full 30 lbs by the end of the summer and I felt great. However, I almost looked to skinny. Yes I was light, but I wasn't real happy with it. I didn't want to just be skinny at that point, I wanted to be solid. I wanted size and definition. Once again, I changed my routine. I began doing more weights and less cardio (although I probably am not doing enough cardio now), and since I had dropped so much weight already it was easy to see the results quickly. The weight that I used to struggle with is now what I use for a warm up.

Besides seeing the change in my body, I can feel the positive effects. Between working out, physical therapy, and the chiropractor, I've got the knee and back pain to where I am not downing 1000mg of Naproxen a day just to function. I'm actually able to do squats without worrying about how my knees will feel in the morning, and it's nice to be able to take stairs without going one at a time to keep the weight off the bad knee.

Now, that brings us to now. It's been roughly a year since I really started working out. I'm currently around 173 lbs. I think 180 would be good as long as I get there the right way. To help me do this, I am going to attempt this P90X that I hear everyone talking about. When I first looked into it last year, I thought it was crazy. How do people find time to do that? Well, like I said, it's easy to make excuses and not work out, but ultimately I need to look at it as something I need to do. I certainly don't want to balloon back up to where I was, and I'd definitely like to be a healthy individual. Even if I don't follow the schedule exactly, I'm sure I'll see some benefit from it, and that is really the goal.

Now, as most of you know, there is a slight uptick in gym memberships at the beginning of the year. The gym I go to is fairly small, but it was never really busy at the times of day that I liked to go. This year, however, they are running a special for $10 a month and no contract which means that the gym is now HELLA crowded when I want to work out. Not Cool.

So, to remedy this, Kim and I are now working on our own home gym. I purchased a set of Bowflex SelectTech adjustable dumbbells and bench (which got here today) and an elliptical (which will be here next Saturday). We're pretty excited about it because it eliminates most of our excuses to not work out (the first being we don't want to leave the house and the second being the gym is crowded).

Now, no more excuses. We have the equipment, we have the motivation, and with this blog, I will have the accountability. While I won't post before and after pictures, I will post periodic updates. It's really more for me than for anyone who happens to read it, but I think it will help.

For now, it's off to finish laundry and head to bed. I've got a big Day tomorrow- Day 1 of 90.