Tammy should be pleased at the non-technical nature of today's entry.
For trivia's sake, here are some of my known weights from the past fifteen years:
- When I started college (Aug 1987), I weighed 165 pounds.
- When I started my senior year (Aug 1990), I weighed 185 pounds.
- When I graduated from college (May 1991), I weighed 170 pounds.
- When I got married (Aug 1993), I weighed 180 pounds.
- On 07 May 1997, I weighed 200 pounds.
- On 03 Nov 1997, I weighed 157 pounds. (Though Halloween was the black day when I fell off the wagon.)
- On the day that we first played bridge with Mac and Pam (approx. 15 Jan 2000), I weighed 180 pounds.
- I now weigh 200 pounds, and have been hovering there for two years.
I've spent the past week preparing myself, physically and mentally, for yet another weight loss attempt. Or fitness attempt, which is probably more accurate.
I probably seem a little like the boy who cried wolf by now. Every few months I announce that I'm ready to make another attempt at getting in shape, make a big noise about it, and then gradually the noise founds to a whisper, and then silence, as any weight loss becomes a temporary thing.
I hover at two hundred pounds.
I'd been planning to make another attempt starting today. Then I stumbled upon John Stone Fitness. At this site, an average guy describes his transformation from a 215-pound chunker into a 165-pound beefy kid (a Kris and J.D. term for a muscle-bound fellow) over the course of only a few months.
I have no desire to become a beefy kid; I do wish to be in shape, though, to be able to bike and play soccer. I want to be able to go into the hot tub with friends without being overly self-conscious. I want to be healthy.
Two great things about John Stone's site are the detail in which he describes his methods and the philosophy behind them. His philosophy, and theories, closely match those that I've developed over the years I've spent coping with my fat. (e.g. One should consume daily calories equivalent to approximately ten times one's body weight in order to achieve 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week, which is a safe pace. One should eat nutritionally sound meals (i.e. don't avoid carbs, or fat, but eat a balanced diet). One should drink copious amounts of water.)
John Stone's transformation is impressive (side view). I'm not aiming for the rapid weight loss he achieved, or for his final physique. I'm aiming for slow, consistent weight loss — the kind which I achieved seven years ago — and for a final, healthy body that will last me another four or five decades.
Here are more of John Stone's pages: Why I Got Started, Frequently Asked Questions, Weight/Cardio Schedule and Program.
Here are some of my fitness-related pages, from my one previous successful attempt at weight-loss: 1997 Fitness Journal (near the end of my forty-pound weigh-loss) and 1998 Fitness Journal. Literature which I find both educationally sound and inspiring: The Hacker's Diet, Understanding Nutrition (a textbook by Eleanor Noss Whitney, who, in a strange non sequitur, also wrote the outstanding Mah Jong Handbook), and, especially, Realities of Nutrition, the book that first made it clear to me how the body worked, and how nutrition and exercise affected personal fitness. The latter two books are not diet books; they're books about nutrition and fitness. They won't give you a plan to follow. Instead, they give one the information necessary to create a healthy, personalized fitness plan.
Rather than bore you all with daily updates regarding my fitness, I've set up yet another weblog: J.D.'s Fitness Journal.
I hope that it lasts more than just two weeks this time.
On this day at foldedspace.org
2005 — Saturday, Freezing Rain It's going to be a good day.
2003 — News Bites Mac on Harry Potter, Dana on copyrights, Dave on wireless networks, and Pam on eggs.
You go, my love!