Long-Haul Living

Ok, I'm starting a blog. It's ironic that I'm starting a blog even though I don't follow any blogs. I read a few once in a blue moon but I don't really "do" blogs. My wife follows a bunch of blogs but she doesn't even have a FB page much less a blog. We don't even "tweet" (birds chirping in the background) and we don't have smart phones. We had a friend over this evening and she explained how Tumbler (sp?) worked.

My wonderful Mother-in-Law has been on me for almost a year to do a blog. I was like "a blog? I'm not a writer and my grammar, well it's terrible." At the time I was on a Weight Watchers kick and I was losing weight and I had started posting my exercising regiment on FB and talking about my challenges. My M.I.L kept on me about the blog but I put it off which is normal for me to do with things and I was also bouncing all over the place with my weight. Enter two weeks ago. I recently accepted a new job and I had to travel to the Corp. HQ for training, meet people and then go visit the client I would be working for. This meant that I had to buy new clothes. NOT GOOD, my clothes were "years" old and I had lost some weight and my dress pants didn't really fit and my shirts were pretty dated. Oh my...Standing there in the dressing room, trying on dress pants and realizing that I had to go up a size was humiliating. I felt terrible and it was embarrassing. Every little roll on my body was mocking me..."look at you. You fat little piggy." Uhhhh, the mirror just screamed at me.

Understand something...I'm not obese nor am I at a point weight-wise where I'm in a dangerous spot and need to try out for one of those T.V shows where some buff, 20-30 something year old who spends every waking minute in the gym busts through my front door and takes me on for a year and lives in my house forcing me lift weights before I go to bed and turns my living room into mini-gym. I'm not that guy. I'm the guy next door. I'm married, I have two kids, a dog, a great job, church, etc...but I'm over 40.

"42" to be exact and "43" is creeping up in the next couple of months. So here it is: it's the clothes, I have children, I have family and I'm involved in a lot of things that really matter. That said, I wake up every morning and bones crack and make noise. When I push myself up out of the bed it almost hurts a little. I don't walk down the stairs, I waddle until my muscles loosen up. I over eat and lack control and my exercising has not been consistent. I also have a family history of cancer and Alzheimer's that keeps me up at night sometimes.

Here is the game plan:
1. Get healthy - that means not just body but mind and soul
2. This blog will be my journal and will help me stay motivated, track my successes, failures and I will post humiliating photos of my pudgy body. A little self humiliation goes a long way.
3. Perhaps I will encourage others (over 40 or not) to get off the couch, put down the chips, lose some weight and stick around for awhile.
4. Short term goal: Lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks
5. Long term goal: I'm in it for the Long Haul. This is "Long Haul Living" from now on for the Glory of God, for myself and for my family.

Here we go....