Day 365 plus 1

It’s almost day one, so it starts.

While the idea here is obviously to get thinner, it’s also to eat healthier (and better), making changes that are sustainable in the future. Yada, yada, yada – I know. Same old, same old. But I’m one incredibly lucky guy and I really do have the wife I want, the kiddos are in good places, the business is growing, my fiction writing is going remarkably well (at least at the moment!), and all I really lack is my health being where I want it. This was somewhat of a snap decision, so please bear with me as I am new to both this somewhat-odd-off-the-cuff approach to weight control and to blogging.

Without really meaning to, my wife and I have been doing a little unconscious prepping for this journey, trying different healthy recipes the last few months (new salads, oven roasted veggies, more fish, less whatever really tastes good, etc.), and we were already rethinking meals even before I made the decision to make this journey over the next year. I’m a standard male product of the 50’s/60’s, so I grew up mostly a mainstream minimalistic veggie sort of guy who considered the entire vegetable group to be potatoes/beans/peas/corn, so the occasionally odd can of V-8 juice will probably have to supplement my adventure into new vegetables and the suggested three veggie servings a day. I can’t mention my wife without saying she is a truly marvelous maker of soups, though she’s entirely unable to duplicate most of them as they tend to be one-of-a-kind each time. Being cool weather at the start of this journey will help get me started on the right foot, as I’m not really a soup guy when it’s warm outside. Thanks to her, I am much more venturesome with food, I have actually learned to like salads over the last few years, and several different types of dressings work for me so variety there is a possibility.

I only mention my wife as she’s someone who commits completely to such ventures, but in a different way than I want to try this time. She can change lifestyles radically and can make the switch-to-celery–sticks-and-peanut-butter for a meal smoothly while this time I plan to try to simply be very aware of food, calories, portion sizes, and blood sugar levels. I’ve never been a breakfast eater, but that changes as of today. Breakfast is now a daily event for me and I’m hoping it will help with blood sugar/insulin levels and general hunger during the day. Over the last few years (okay, most of my life) I have always been a sometimes/sometimes not lunch eater and a always-too-big-dinner eater and I feel that is probably one of my problems at the moment. The old metabolism is screwed up I do believe, and hopefully three regular meals will help with getting that back on track. I’m also planning on some vitamin/mineral supplementing too, so I’ll keep you posted on that as I try a few things us old guys seem to need more of at the moment.

It would be really easy for me to say that the old injuries that plague me daily, or the issues in the past with children, or job-related stress, or whatever else I pick out of the air is to blame – and the truth is it probably is at some level. But I plan to go past that to lifestyle changes I want – and need – to be all I can as an older guy. My current weight is double-digit pounds more than I hope to be a year from now, and while at the moment - to me - it seems like a lot, I’m giving myself a year to get rid of it, so it should be doable – we’ll see.

It’s New Year’s Day, and we are making plans to pick up one of our sons later today when he comes in from California – he’s an Army medic, his wife too. Did I mention worrying every day about them both when they were in Iraq? Oops. I digress. He will be here a while, so there may be some out-to-eat going on I’ll have to be careful about.

I guess that’s it for the moment. I know I’m going to ramble and I’m likely the only one reading this, but that’s okay. One day at a time. See you tomorrow.

-Average Joe

And the adventure begins.

It is my plan to be at - or very near - my ideal weight and near my desired fitness level on or before Christmas of 2010, and this blog will be my attempt to share that journey. Make no mistake about it - I know how unhealthy the extra weight I carry is and how much it slows the life I want to live now. There is no doubt it will be difficult with day-to-day life, temptations, work loads, and the thousand and one distractions that daily try to keep us in a life we really do not want. I have, at present, all a man could ask for - a good wife, great kids, a beautiful little green and eco-friendly home in the country on a small acreage, and a job I really love. I am also a writer, so some of the daily trials of getting a novel finalized and published might creep into this journal, but that should be okay too, as writing is a big part of who I am and I know for absolutely certain my writing projects contributes to my current level of stress.

It is my hope that someone wants to track this trip with me, but if no one does, that is also okay, as it is, essentially, my journey alone. It is my attempt to see if an "average joe" can transform where he is into where he wants to be, even at 60.

Briefly, and for historical reference here, I have been an athlete, playing both organized sports (football mostly) and individual sports (running) in the past. I've raced motorcycles semi-professionally (road racing and flat tracking), and all have contributed to issues I have with a hip, both knees, all the fingers of my left hand, my left wrist and elbow, and other assorted hurts I will only remember later tonight when I try to sleep.

I am also no longer simply the meat-and-potatoes guy I grew up to be in the sixties, having discovered there are fruits, vegetables, and assorted "good-things-to-eat” along the way. The plan is to not make unrealistic radical changes but gentle ones so I end up where I hope to be weight-wise while making some of the changes I need to make to stay there once the target number has been reached.

Officially I start this trip on January 1, 2010, but as I get used to blogging, I may have another entry or two before then. Hope to see someone else with a similar interest along the way.

-Average Joe
Somewhere, USA