Aches, Pains, and Withdrawals

I'm a only week into my workouts (nothing serious yet) but I'm already feeling it.  I have minor aches in my shoulders and knees;  my chest and legs are sore as hell........And it feels great.

Before the insanity of kids and organized sports I was always immersed into some kind of exercise whether it be lifting weights, swimming, biking, or playing basketball.  By nature, I have a hard time sitting still.  I have to be doing something (um, other than home improvement projects).

Then, as the kids got older and got into sports things changed rapidly.  I was suddenly working full time and coaching full time; exercise fell by the wayside.

I say coaching full time because organized youth sports in America has gone absolutely stark raving nuts.  How?  Why, somebody turned into a profitable business, that's how.  Hooray for capitalism.

Ok, I'm going to veer away from the organized sports right now before it turns into a long winded tirade.  I love it, but I do have my gripes.  Let's just say that when you step into coaching organized sports you are basically taking on another part time (one team), or full time, (more than one team) job.  It's a great gig, but it's a grind, too.  A grind that really wears your body down.

Anyway, back to exercise.  My goal is to get back to one hundred and sixty five to one hundred and seventy pounds.  If it was just exercise I would have no problem reaching this goal;  I love to exercise.

These are two pics taken over two years ago --- when I was in the best shape of my life at nearly forty years of age:

Honestly, I'm not real comfortable posting these pics.  I've always been a baggy T-shirt kind of guy.  But I posted it because, now that it's out there, I feel like I need to uphold a standard.  Nothing drives you to success quite like the perception, whether it be real or in your own head, that someone out there is going to hold you accountable.  I simply can't afford to sit on my ass now.

 However, I have one big road block in the way ----- fighting off the withdrawals of giving up junk food.  Not an easy task considering that junk food is everywhere you go.

The good thing is that I've been through all of this before and succeeded.  So I know it can be done.  The bad thing is after all those months of hard work and diet discipline I let myself fall back into my bad eating habits.  All it takes is one pizza or greasy hamburger before you find yourself craving more and more.  Just one meal morphs into a few, a few turns into a way of life.  Things can spin out of control in a hurry.

As an example.....I used to (no, seriously) go to McDonald's and order not one, but two, super sized big mac meals for myself and down it all without even thinking twice about it.  That's, what, about four thousand calories in one sitting?.......No doubt about it, before I got on the health kick I was a quadruple bypass waiting to happen.

Having said that, I have never in my life had a serious weight problem.  Thanks to a high metabolism I have never been more than twenty five or thirty pounds over my ideal weight.  That sounds like a lot, but if you've ever seen me eating at my worst, you'd wonder how I couldn't possibly weigh at least three hundred pounds.  I could pack away a lot of food and I could eat all day long.

But I became all too aware that just because I looked ok on the outside, I was setting myself up for some severe health problems on the inside.  High blood pressure and diabetes runs in my family and, after my granddad passed away from a heart attack, I knew I had to make some changes.

Let's face it; when you grow accustomed to a diet of fat, salt, and sugar, trying to go back to cucumbers, oranges, and skinless chicken breast sucks.  For a while nothing tastes good because all you want to do is go back to McDonald's and wolf down that beautiful big mac meal then wash it down with a super sized coke.  It's kind of scary to think that we, as a society in general, are so accepting of the self destructive habits that we have so deeply immersed ourselves into.

Just the other day I found myself ripping through the kitchen cabinets trying to find something to satisfy the demon growing inside my mind and stomach.  In the fridge were a ton of fruits and vegetables, but I was having none of it......I needed processed food.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, I had found the temporary cure for my cravings.  Wedged in the back of one of the cupboards I found a package of Ramen noodles.  Joy.......You'd have thought I had hit the lottery.  Yeah, buddy.....Serve me up that sodium bomb.

As I fired up the microwave, Tera entered the room and bore witness to the package of tasty, empty calories, that I was about to nuke up .  I could see the longing look in her eyes, but I went total Alpha Male on her and wolfed it down without sharing.  "It's for your own good -- you gotta start eating healthy."  (Om, nom, nom)

Yes, it was a fine parenting moment filled with self sacrifice and love........I'm a dip shit.

But, in a psychotic way, keeping the Ramen from Tera was what was best for her.  You see, her eating habits are atrocious -- just like mine when I don't keep my cravings under control.

And so out of the house went all the boxes of Little Debbie cakes, packages of Ramen noodles, boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese, and countless bags of potato chips. And CHOCOLATE.....ALL THAT WONDERFUL CHOCOLATE...

 Gone also was the twelve packs of coke, sprite, and diet Dr. Pepper.

In it's place entered the tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, apples, oranges, spinach, lettuce, bananas and, most importantly, water.....Lots and lots of water.  (My bladder feels like it's going to explode)

The crazy thing I noticed right away was that after we got rid of all the processed food, Tera quit eating.

The new law in the house is that you can eat in between breakfast, lunch, and supper; but it has to be a fruit or a vegetable.  Initially, Tera did not respond well at all.  In fact, for the first couple of days she just moped around the house and muttered, "I'm hungry."

"Well, pumpkin, we have fruits and vegetables on the counter and in the fridge."

(Big sigh)  "No, thank you."

But now I'm starting to notice Tera digging into the good food we have laying about the kitchen.  She's starting to eat tomatoes and has really taken a liking to grapes and, if I juice it for her, she will drink apple and orange juice.  So, while we are nowhere close to out of the woods yet, things appear to be getting better.

In fact, Tera has become my inspiration.   I realize now that since Tera and I are so much alike, we can work together and help each other out.

The most important thing for me to keep in mind is that I need to lead by example.  I can't have another Ramen slip up or I will be seen as a hypocrite.  Tera -- a little girl with all the subtlety of an axe to the forehead -- will now be responsible for holding me accountable.  My daughter and I are now joined at the hip......We will exercise together, we will eat right together, we will win together.