Health

This is my current personal interest outside of work. I've been adding steadily to my workout routine, but very slowly over the 15 year period; I became serious about it (that is, actually exercising) about 11 years ago when lots of my clothes stopped fitting. Have you experienced that?

I'm 60. Right now I'm probably more fit than I've ever been over my whole life. I've always had the potential to be fit, but never got to it. And if it weren't for my knees having some problems, I'd be doing even better.

When I started out exercising it had been with a secret goal of being able to eat more than I should. While I was in that mode, my weight didn't go down that much with exercise. I probably lost 20 pounds (from 240, height 6-2) with the exercise I was doing initially, then plateaued there. I had to get serious about my food to get down to about 200 lbs, which was "easy" because I was away from home and had to cook for myself or get takeout. Getting home made cooking again and an excessive emphasis on work undid about 20 lbs that I had to lose again.

In 2001, I discovered the Atkins diet, and I've been loosely following that since then. I've been lowering the carbs I take in little by little over time, mostly eliminating sugars and low quality carbohydrates (white bread, pastries, cakes, etc.). I rarely drink soda with sugar, or eat anything with sugar with the exception of oatmeal raisin cookies. I can not resist those. Foods with partially or fully hydrogenated oils I always avoid. If I can't see the ingredients (from the packaging) I won't eat it. But that's just me.

When I joined a men's soccer league in Virginia Beach about 8 years ago (2004) and found out I had no stamina to run for very long, I started running as an exercise, making extremely slow progress. What I had thought of as running was actually limited to sprinting -- speed but no endurance. I've always been pretty good at sprinting, but soccer forced me to stay moving continuously, and I was getting winded all the time.

Not that I'm a marathoner or anything now, but what I can do is better than I've been able to do ever. I keep pushing my boundaries -- slowly -- because I'm expecting it to kill me. But I'm surprised all the time that I can do what I'm trying to do. And that made soccer the most exciting thing I've ever done possibly ever. Ya, woohoo!

Right now I can run 3.5 miles in under 30 minutes -- ya, that's kinda pathetic, but its far better than I could do 8 years ago. It isn't an exaggeration to say progress has been slow until now. And continues to be for the most part.