I know that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Let me start at the beginning. See, I was
always very skinny. I could read all day and sit in school and never have to worry about gaining weight. I could eat anything and everything and never worry about gaining weight. This is what I looked like at 25 when my schedule consisted of working at Starbucks
and spending most of my days in college. I think I weighed about 130 in that picture. I didn't do anything special. Didn't diet, didn't exercise. I was a size 28 and never thought twice about it.
Time went on and at about age 27, I packed on some pounds. There were boring extenuating circumstances that involved me spending a lot of time hiding food in my bedroom from my roommate and eating a lot of Wendy's. I was at about 185ish and a 32. I was horrified. I went to the gym and got myself into shape. Down to 155 and a 30 waist. That was also the same time I was going through EMT and Fireman training. Then last year, right at about this time, I realized I'd gotten up to about 195. I was planning a Sept Europe trip and I wanted to be my best, so I went back to the gym and got down to a 32 waist and about 165 lbs.
Now I'm at about 200 lbs. I'm at a 35/36 waist. It's not so much that I eat unhealthy, though when stressed (like the last month while doing revisions) I tend to go through phases of
cravings. While submitting Deathday Letter I ate a LOT of frozen juice bars. Mostly my problem is that I spend 2-4 hours a day writing, which is time spent sitting. My day job is in IT, so I spend 80% of my 9 hours sitting.
It doesn't leave a lot of time for being active. I don't live in an area that's practical to do things like walk to work, and even if I did, the major problem is that (especially now) it's so darned humid that I'd be disgusting by the time I got to the office. I've joined the gym again and I've been a few times. Generally, I like the gym. And now that I'm starting back, I'm sure I'll be able to get back down to a healthy weight, but what I want to create is a sustainable lifestyle that ends this tired back and forth.
So I'm going to make a list of Challenges and Solutions. I'm going to put some of the solutions I'm trying over the next few months and if anyone has any others you think I should try, I'm game.
Challenges:
- Work requires me to spend 12-13 hours per day sitting
- Lack of local farmer's market for healthy food solutions
- Lack of time to cook (also lack of skill)
- Time restraints (two days a week I don't get home until after 8pm)
- Local environment isn't conducive to integrating exercise into daily activities
- Watch Too Much Television
- Lack of Motivation
- I set a goal to run a Marathon. It's doubtful I'll be ready this year, but I'm going to try anyway. When I was in the academy I was doing 7 miles a day easy.
- I'm declaring the rest of July and all of August, TV Free!
- I'm going to attempt to eat only fresh foods or frozen, healthy options.
- Spend a min of 40 minutes at the gym 5 times a week.
- Possibly bicycle to work?
Okay, that's it. I don't have too much more. This week I'll be hitting the gym fairly hard and trying to structure some kind of sustainable diet that's not a diet.
I've been holding off commenting on more recent posts because I wanted to respond to this one first. The problem is all my responses are lame.
ReplyDeleteWay to go!
You can do it!
Juice bars rock!
It's great you recognized your challenges along with your goals. And TV-free months? Awesome. If your company has showers, definitely consider biking to work (it's the only reason I'm able to walk to work - we have full theatre dressing rooms).
Have you ever considered using a stand-up desk? My husband + the tech crew here helped me put mine on blocks so I can stand instead of sitting for 6+ hours at a time. It's tiring the first week, but if you stand on a cushy mat (via a restaurant supply store), it's good. I'm convinced it's helping me shape up. Plus, it freaks everyone out. ("You... stand?") If you work in a cubicle space, though, it could make you a target. :D
They're not lame, they're AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem with biking is that I don't have showers at the office, so doing it during the summer (7:30am and the heat index is 88) isn't realistic.
I failed my TV a little already, but I'm starting to work on a new project, so that's always good for helping me keep away from TV.
See, I think the standing and moving are most of the problem. I used to work on my feet 9-10 hours a day and only really started gaining weight when I moved to the office. I'll have to look into raising my desk. I have my own office, so I'm not too concerned about being a target :)