Getting started again...

Back when I was a kid, 8 or 9, my family moved from a neighborhood where I had a lot of friends. We would easily start in the early morning & stay out till nightfall, just playing. Be it football, kickball, ride bikes/big wheels, explore the woods, what have you, we were busy being kids.

The new home was on a lake, but a lot less kids. My new friends: the Atari...Saga...Nintendo. I'd played with my sisters, especially Tammy. No surprise that I put on some lb's. I was 11yrs old, 5'3" & 165 lbs. I was growing but in proportion - out & up. Luckily, my got me to at least try out for my grade school's JV basketball. Not my year to be on the team, nor was the next 2 years. So you tried Tae Kwon Doe. I was still quite chubby. Come 8th grade, I score the sympathy post on the varsity team. Never scored an official bucket. I learned to hussle, however, basketball was not to be in my future. Still chubby.

It wasn't until the summer before H.S. that I decided to do something about it. My Panasonic bike was my vehicle. I dropped 30lbs until I got into my 1st bike-car accident. I blame a narly dog that wasn't on a leash. I drifted in to oncoming traffic to avoid getting bit by the dog. Luckily, the oncoming truck had come to a stop before I smashed into his grilled. The impact crumpled my frame before I tipped over on to the asphalt, all in slow motion. Truck was perfectly intact. go figure.

In HS, I went onto play football, putting back on more weight as a lineman. I peaked out at 220 in my senior year. Due to really getting into weight training, it was predominantly muscle. Along came college, beer, less weight lifting & actually got into some more biking, running & swimming. It wasn't until yrs later /after college that I put those 3 together to do my 1st Tri.

A year after College, I did my 1st 1/2 marathon on a whim. It wasn't too bad. 2 years later, my 1st marathon, it was quite tough. With the brilliant idea that since, now that I had a marathon completed, I could do an Ironman. I started picking up increasing longer races around Pittsburgh. Just before grad school in Maine, I completed my 1st Ironman.

After college from 200, often I was struggling to save money on my salary. I became resourceful at budgeting to the point that I could eat for about 5$/day. A bowl of oatmeal w/ raisins is only 10cents; that's organic oats & raisins, w/ a sprinkle of cinnamon. Some frozen peas, rice & maybe some protein, or PBJ (multi-grain bread, natural PB & whole fruit style jam) for lunch is only about 50 cents to 1 dollar. Dinner was some sort of carbs, like spaghetti or rice.

It wasn't a complicated diet. I took a multi-vitamin. I was training for my 1st Ironman. Weight was coming off without much difficulty. My usual weight was 185 - 190. I steadily got down to 170, then chipped away to 159 just before the race. I may not have been that fast in a triathlon, I knew I finally reached my ideal weight - 160.

In Aug 2003, on came gradschool, alot of studying, a steady income from my stipend & more calories. My trim build popped back up, 175. And now, after this year of completing 2 ironmans; heck I even PR'ed in one of them & recovered from herniated disk in my low back. One IM in May & other July, plus 2 other mid distant triathlons, about 12-20 hrs/wk of training, I'm still about 180. I only got my weight down to 174 after the 2nd IM.

Being poor paid off. Now, not so poor. Calories are too readily available. Will power no so strict. This is my re-starting point. I'll be blogging to explain a gradual process of returning to my 'poor' diet in the face of abundance, add more functional strength training to my exercise plan. Additionally, I'll be writing about getting back studying for my job & plan to get into residency, maybe some info about family & friends along the way. Hope you enjoy the stories & can take something from it all.

Today's Sat:
Breakfast - Oatmeal w/ raisins, 1/2 of a multi-V at 9am, calories - 350
Lunch - something reasonable w/ peas or other veggies. I'm thinking Hummus.
Dinner?
Snacks - probably not, have to learn what it means to be hungry vs. actually needing food / calories.
Dessert - nope

Weight in AM: 184
Exercise: will do some strength training, maybe bike ride. Limited at the moment & probably next wk or so due to Plantar Fascitis. Miss running with the wife.