The Biggest Loser

Since high school, I have gained forty pounds. You might not know it by looking at me, but it's true. I played three sports in school and kept myself in really good shape. Of course, I may have been too skinny. The point is that I've put on forty pounds in 16 years.

I attribute this weight-gain to three factors: beer, stress, and work.

I never put on weight until my first year of college. Before then, I ate everything I could (including sprinkling wheat germ on everything I ate) just to put some weight on. College is when I discovered beer. Even then, I could take the weight off by running, working summer camp, or picking up smoking.

After several years of drinking, I put on maybe 10-15 pounds. This amount of weight was fine in that I was probably too skinny in high school. It sort of filled me out. Even R says the weight did me some good.

Then, we moved to Misery. The stress of moving away from friends and family along with a great job teaching in Columbus stressed me out. For anyone who knows me outside this blog, the first two years here were extremely stressful. I finally made a career change and have relieved much of that stress, but the weight gained stayed.

Currently, my job requires me to drive all over central MO. When you're on the road, you make bad eating habits. After 7.5 years of vegetarianism followed by a couple of years of good meat eating, I finally found myself on a fast food diet. My last two years on the job have been rather Morgan Spurlock-like.

On top of all this, my exercising habits have become nonexistent. Getting up early to visit teachers and staying out late to facilitate professional development has left me little time to work out. I've tried at various times, losing the first five pounds from my gains about year ago, only to see it return with five more.

So, the guy who couldn't buy more weight in high school suddenly finds himself 40 pounds over his fighting weight. It's been hard to motivate myself now that my hobbies (blogging, beer) counteract any healthy choices I make.

This week, I feel, is the beginning of me getting back on track. I obtained a jogging stroller last week that has been used twice in the last four days. I even made it out to the gym tonight, making that three-for-four days of working out. While on the road, I've made a conscious decision to not buy junk food. When I do have to eat out, I've made healthy (er) choices.

I'm not totally sure why I'm posting this tonight. Most of you read for the music commentary or to see what beer I've had last. Maybe I'm doing this so that it's on record that I'm trying to become healthier, lose a little weight. I set a goal last December that if I lost 20 of the 40, I could get another tattoo. It's too bad that I've waited so long to commit, but it's better than never committing at all. Right?