Fat Boy's Lament

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Listen to me now, and hear me later...

OK, I admit it, I'm back in the gym... I've avoided them for a long time, but I'm back.

In my cop days, I was there 5 or 6 days a week, slammin' the cardio and the weights, which is how I got as big as I am now... Well, hang on - Actually, getting into my late 40s, moving to Texas and becoming a lot more sedentary than I used to is how I got to be as big as I am... Seriously though, I have always been big, and have been pretty well muscled since high school when I first discovered weightlifting. Through my early 40's, I played hockey 3 or 4 times a week, baseball, (Yes, hardball, with wooden bats, in a men's over 40 league), a couple times a week, and volleyball on Thursdays. When I did that, and worked bike duty at work, I weighed about 210 and had about 17% body fat. And then I retired from that business and moved to Texas, and with life intruding on everything as it seems to, I've just done less and less sports wise and more stuff that isn't very cardio, to say the least. And I don't like it any more. Just because I'm heading fast for 50 doesn't mean I shouldn't be in good shape. I'm 6' 00", (And thankfully, that hasn't changed, yet). Today, I am about 28% body fat and I weight 238 - So, that means I've got 30 pounds to loose, and realistically, 8% body fat to drop to get to where I need to be...


So it's time again. I'm cutting way back on booze. I'm giving up junk food pretty much altogether. And I'm back in the gym... I'm actually very fortunate, in that I work for a company that has a very nice gym, Three professional trainers, all of whom have experience and college degrees in this stuff, too. We have the ability to check body fat pretty accurately, weight, cardio output, all that jazz... Oh, and it's all free, so what kind of idiot would I be if I wasn't using it? Taking it one step further, I have a boss who's into working out at lunch, and about 5 or 6 co-workers who do to, so we all head over at 1 p.m. and come back at 2:30 after a nice long workout, shower, etc... It's pretty neat, really.

But last week was my first week, and I am sooooore. Amazing what actually using things again will do to ya! I'm going on a regimen that Courtney, the head trainer and I worked out, which will be about 55% cardio, about 20% gut work, (Ever tried doing crunches on one of those pilates balls? Now those burn, baby!), and about 25% weights to gain strength back. I don't need muscle mass, believe me, but I do need to get strong again, so it's back to the free weights...

They say it takes about 6 weeks to make something a 'habit', or in other words, about 45 days of real suffering before you start getting back into a routine. By that formula, I should be getting a bit more comfortable and starting to see some results by around the end of May...

That's the plan - I'll keep ya posted when I can type again - Right now, it's hard to get my arms up like that...