Journal of Getting in Shape

I was looking for a picture of myself to include in my Japan post. There were few to choose from because the camera tends to point away from the person pushing the button. But then I noticed something... I did show up in 2-3 pictures, but not as myself... I showed up as some fat guy that only vaguely resembled me. How and when did that happen?

This is not some self-absorbed "I'm not pretty anymore" post. I have none of those kinds of self-esteem problems. But I did decide it would be good to get myself into better shape. So here is a journal of that effort.

May 18, 2009: Weight: 215 pounds. It would sound better to say, weight is the same as Michael Jordan's weight when he was at the peak of his game. But unfortunately I'm not 6' 7" tall. Typical foods: hamburgers and similar sandwiches, steak, tacos, pizza, brocolli beef or sweet and sour chicken. Typical amounts: No breakfast. Sometimes no lunch. Then lots for dinner. (Ah... so that's how it happened.)

Week of May 18 - 24: Started simple exercises with a chart: Monday + Thursday: Pushups. Tuesday and Friday: Situps. Wednesday: Curls. Only did 45 pushups or 75 situps depending on the day. Have no proper weights for curls, so used a PowerMac G4 which was too heavy, so I only did 10. Started to focus on food. Switched to chicken soft tacos for a couple of lunches. Walked to safeway to buy a banana for others.

Week of May 25 - 31: Managed to increase to 75 pushups and 90 situps. Searched for my weights... Did I give them away? Can't find them anywhere. Did deep knee bends instead. The point is to exercise a different set of muscles on a 3 day cycle. This should give the muscles a chance to heal and grow between workouts. (Thanks to my friend Allen Sneidmiller from 12 years ago in Korea for that tip... It's a good one.) Also focused more on food. Looked at and bought a whey protein suppliment. It's basically a multi-vitamin with 50 grams of protein included. Why not?

May 27: Made a great wilted spinach salad. Stir-fried about 3 oz. of thin sliced steak. Cleaned and threw a big bunch of still-wet spinach in the pan and covered it. Paul Neuman's light vinagrette... Easy, healthy, and good.

May 30: Bought a book, "Men's Health Home Workout Bible", on the recommendation of my friend Jay Carter. I'll let you all know if it's worth the read once it gets here. But working out, like anything else, can be done well or poorly. It seems wise to hear what one or two experts has to say, to hopefully get the most out of the effort involved.

May 31: Dug about 2 cubic yards of hard clay dirt. Mixed it with about 3 yards of compost and other ingerdients. That was about 4 hours of fairly aerobic exercise with some lifting in the middle. Had lemonade througout, and a protein shake when I finished. More wilted spinach salad for dinner. Weight: 204 pounds. Nice to see 11 pounds lost over 2 weeks, but I know the first 2 weeks are the easiest. It gets harder from here.