Dean's Blog

I remember 10 years ago when I used to think nothing of eating 4 grilled cheese sandwiches, or an entire large homemade pizza. Maybe even a dozen perogies, boiled, then pan fried with several slices of bacon, topped with a healthy bit of sour cream.

Well, needless to say, that ship has long since sailed, and I hope it has sunk or been dashed to bits on some reef somewhere. I’ve been engaged in the battle of the bulge for about two months now, and much like the trenches of World War 2, victories are an inch at a time.

So what brought about a desire for such a change? Feeling pathetic would be one of them, questionable blood pressure is another, but mainly it’s because my wife and I hope to have kids in the near future, and I want to be around for them, and able to chase them around in turn.

It took me a little trial and error to get going. First I had to start making use of my gym membership, which took a while to ease into, as well as dietary adjustments and general lifestyle changes. I call this Phase one, where I’m focusing on improving my health to a certain goal weight and fitness level, at which I’ll enter the long term Phase Two, which is maintenance.

Interested in detalis? Well here is a general rundown. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, I get up at 5:00am and head down to the Gym for my workout, which alternates upper and lower body training, plus cardio. Those workouts last about an hour, which gets me to work around 8:00. You figure out the transit time. I’ll very shortly be adding an additional intense cardio workout in the evenings 6 days a week, which should expedite the process a bit more and improve conditioning.

Dietary changes involved reducing processed foods as much as possible, mainly processed grains such as white bread and the like. I’ve also cut out the high glycemic index foods as much as possible. (you did know that carrot sticks are basically sugar smacks with vitamins in them, right?) I’ve added a good multivitamin, and the wonderful protein shakes (I used to call them cement shakes) several times a day.

It’s working. I’ve lost 10 pounds over the space of about 5 weeks, and as I further refine my program, I’m hoping to shed another 30 over the next 4 months, leaving me at my goal of 220 in time for Christmas. At that time I’ll make an assessment of where things are, and decide if things need to go further before maintenance can begin.