About me.  Hmm.  As far as this blog is concerned anyway, I’m a runner.  Of course, that wasn’t always the case.  Where to begin…

When I came to the ‘States at age ten, I was a normal, healthy, atheletic kid.  I played rugby at school, was often mucking around with soccer or cricket, and kept myself in shape.  Turns out I was the fastest kid in school when I got here, which was fun for a while, then became yet another way in which I was “different.”  Besides, as we started playing more organized sports, I was penalized for not actually knowing the rules to things like football, basketball and baseball.

Combine that with standard adolescence, and I ended up doing not a whole lot.  Which made me a chubby kid, which made me less likely to work out, etc, etc.  By the time I was 21 I weighed about 190 (overweight for 6′ tall, but not obese) and was in very poor aerobic shape.  Then I messed up my knee, needed surgery, and in hindsight used that as an excuse to “be careful,” which meant not doing anything.

Now add in a love of fine food, and lots of it, whether cooked at home or eaten away, and you have a recipe for disaster.  Or at least obesity.  In mid 2001 I had a wake-up call and realized that, while I could make a wicked gougere, I weighed in at a bit over 240 pounds.  Damn!  I was wearing 38″ pants, and they were getting tight… damned if I was going to buy 40s, though.  Looking in the mirror I knew that I should lose weight, so I decided to do something about it.

That’s the most important step, by the way.  Deciding.  Not deciding that you should, which is easy, but actually and honestly deciding that you will.  The rest, while not easy, is a lot more managable at that point.

So I wanted to lose weight.  I got a gym membership, but really didn’t feel like I was ready to get a lot out of it (and the intro-person there didn’t exactly encourage me, either).  I started walking a little, and then a lot, until I was doing 1.5-2 hours every evening, often just walking around my townhome (since 90+ degree weather isn’t conducive to exercise when you’re fat) listening to director’s commentaries from various movies.  Oh, and I started to eat less.

Eating less wasn’t that difficult either.  A few simple rules:

1. Don’t “forbid” yourself anything, but think about everything.  Putting it into terms of “minutes of walking” worked well for me.  If you still want it, go ahead and eat it.
2. Use smaller bites.  Food should be a pleasure.  Conversation is wonderful.  And if you realize that you’re getting full sooner, hey, that’s a bonus!  Actually it takes your body about 15 minutes to “recognize” food, so the slower you eat the more accurately you can judge your appetite.
3. No “free” food.  No breadsticks at your favorite Italian place.  No chips or tortillas at your local Mexican joint.  This was especially painful.  There is an exception: you can eat them with your entree.  But not before, and not after.  Which brings me to:
4. You only get to eat your entree.  Let’s take enchiladas, for example.  When they come, you can take nice, small bites of rice, beans, and tortilla-wrapped-cheesy-goodness to your heart’s content.  But once you take the last bite of enchilada, you’re done.  Leave those sides alone.
5. Er, there is no #5.  That’s it.  Pretty simple, eh?  Maybe that’s why it works so well.

That’s it in a nutshell: I ate less and exercised more, and was down below 200 pounds within four months.  Every time I looked in the mirror though I would think that I was getting better, and that 10-15 pounds away would be a lean, toned body.  Funny how we fool ourselves, isn’t it?  I mean, we don’t want to admit that we’re 80 pounds too fat.  But 15?  That’s managable.  Excusable.  Anyway, I’m big boned.  Right?

Heh.  So here I am, some five years down the road.  I weigh about 170, and I’d like to drop about (go figure) 10 more pounds.  The difference is that this time I can tell that I’m much closer to my ideal weight.  I’ve gone from a 40″ waist to a 32″ waist, from not being comfortable wearing watches (they wouldn’t slide under my shirtcuffs) to having toned arms, and from not walking more than a few feet at a time to training for my fifth marathon.  I’m healthier, and I’m happier.

Any questions?  Advice?  Requests for inspiring blog comments?  Leave a comment, drop me a line at my-first-name @ this-website . com, or you can even call me at (512) 422-3233, although you’ll probably get my voicemail if I don’t recognize the number.  If you’re visiting from out of town, let’s get some pasta or a beer. Until then, I’ll see you on the trail…

-Richard