Thursday, June 20, 2013

Getting Back to Being Athletic

Hi world, I'm Dave and I just turned 33 on the first of this month.  I'm married to an incredible woman and we decided that we wanted to be healthier parents to our wonderful two-year-old.  Of course we have our own individual goals and aspirations, but big picture we want to be around a long time and we want him to grow up in a household that exercises and cares about nutrition.  This blog is about my piece of that journey and was inspired by my wife who already started a blog and invited me to read it.

The first thing to get out of the way is I am not a writer.  I envy people who are writers because I have always had trouble trying to find the way to say what is really on my mind.  When I write its often in spurts, deleted, edited, rewritten, proofread, and then posted.  So it looks very polished but it takes forever.  I don't have the time for that.  So I hope that writing this blog may help my writing overall, be a way to document my own fitness progress, and hopefully let me be a bit more supportive for my wife Julie.  It doesn't seem fair that she lets me read her blog and I can't do the same.  So cards on the table, you could be in for some awful reads.  Set your expectations low and hopefully I can surprise you.

Now that I knocked my own writing style, let me tell you a little more about me and where I want to go.  I was always a tall skinny kid growing up.  I graduated high school at 6'3" and weighing 165 pounds.  No idea what my body fat percentage was but it was very low.  I raced mountain bikes, ran track, and just had an insanely fast metabolism.  When I say this now a lot of people who are trying to lose weight and get fit are jealous.  But being a skinny man is not something that society accepts. I've been asked if I was anorexic, was really shy, and had no confidence in myself.  Fortunately we all grow out of some things and after my body finally stopped getting taller I was able to add on some muscle weight in college.  I graduated weighing around 185 and in the many years that followed I continued to work out and maintain a good level of fitness.

That went off the rails in about 2006.  We bought a house that needed work.  Going to the gym was replaced by hanging drywall.  I wasn't happy with my career and started taking night classes.  We got married.  The house needed more work.  The classes got harder.  We needed a new kitchen.  We had a baby.  You blink and you are out of your mid-twenties and into your mid-30s and you gained nearly 30 pounds and are told you have high cholesterol.

My weight doesn't really bother me.  Having been as skinny as I was growing up finally having some weight was not a bad thing for me psychologically.  What really bothered me is being weaker and slower than I have been in 10+ years.  The good news is school is done, I walked in May and got my Masters.  The house is in decent shape, still plenty to do but manageable.  And our baby is now a very active toddler.  So the time is right to focus on rebuilding what I lost and hopefully making many more gains.  It will let me feel better about myself and will let me be a better dad and husband.  Here's to the journey!

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