Much healthier

I got some good news in my diet/nutrition class today. Today we received our "Risk Factor Profile". When I started my diet program, 1-1/2 years and 205 lbs ago, I filled out a medical questionaire concerning my eating, exercise and lifestyle habits. You can imagine what it might look like for a 400 lb dude. Not good. According to the way this chart works, a healthy American has a Risk Factor Score of zero (0). Mine was +26. Biggest hits were being very overweight, not doing any exercise, high blood pressure, and not eating enough fruits/veggies. Poor. Today profile 1-1/2 years later, is much better. I now have a Total Risk Factor of -12! That is a net change of 38 risk factor points. My doctor says that I've added another 15 years to my life. This makes me very happy.

Tuesday Skippage

Tuesday and I skipped my workout. Tuesday is the day I attend HMR weight management class and it is the start of a new week in my diet program. So this means that everything resets to zero and I have 7 days to meet my exercise, recordkeeping and eating goals so sometimes I procrastinate and just use this day to run errands. I had some TnT fundraising stuff to organize during my lunch hour, including sending reminder emails to bunches of people. Shook loose another $200 today! I'm approaching the half-way point but the raising the remainder of my $6,500 commitment is starting to look daunting. I'm quickly running out of family, friends and co-workers and am going to have to really start thinking outside of the box.

I attend class immediately after work and today filled out a questionnaire to determine how healthy I am. I filled one out last year when I was much heavier and was determined to be in a very high risk category; like crossing the interstate blindfolded high risk category. I'm very curious to see how this evaluation compares to last year. Should be much better.

I need to have blood drawn as part of this evaluation so I'm going to get up early and head in before work tomorrow. It's fasting blood work which means that I can't eat before I leave for work, which is going to throw off my whole routine. I've found that a large part of weight loss and maintenance is all about how you deal with disruptions to your normal routine. There are two paths to go down. 1) hit Denny's for a Country Grand Slam after getting my blood drawn. 2) pre-blend my normal morning protein shakes and take them with me. It comes down to choices like that, sometimes.

Should have gone to the gym after class but went to pick up my new Laser Disc player that I was having serviced by Ross and decided to play with it instead. Laserdiscs may be a dead format but I love them. I was finally able to track down a Pioneer CLD-704 after years of searching for one. Great player and hard to find, made in 1994. Ross lubed it up, replaced the belt, fine tuned the laser focus and got it working like a champ. Threw in some audio heavy discs and got the pad rockin'. My neighbors must love me.

Back on track tomorrow.

The Story So Far

Those that know me personally are aware that I've made some major changes to my life over the last year and a half. Turning 40 is a real kick in the pants. One major thing I've done is lost a lot of weight. I've lost 210 lbs since March 7, 2006 and am now weighing in at a semi-svelte 180lbs. It's a good feeling and my feet, knees and probably my heart are very happy. I participated in a medically supervised weight loss program recommended by my doctor. It's a great program called HMR and incorporates, dieting, exercise, record-keeping and nutritional training to change your lifestyle. I can't recommend the program highly enough.

I've really embraced the exercise component of the program and now exercise daily. Changed my life, that kind of stuff, I'm super into it. Well, I'd also been kicking around the idea of trying to volunteer some of my time for a while now. I had thought of tutoring math, mentoring programs like Big Brother's, assisting in my church's Sunday school classes and stuff like that but hadn't really found the time with my busy work schedule and increasingly growing workout schedule. One day, I got a Team in Training flyer in the mail. I'm not even sure how I got on the mailing list. I've had two very dear and close family members pass away from Leukemia and then it all clicked. I could donate my time, energy and enthusiasm to promote a great cause that has personally affected my family and incorporate my newly found love of exercising. Sychronicity, the Police wrote a song about it.

So here I am. More to come but I've gotta sign off now. Have to go on my daily lunchtime walk and log some miles.