pre launch

Tomorrow I am rebooting my life. A big part of that will be increasing my exercise and activity to get healthier. Earlier this year I made an effort to lose weight based on diet alone. Over four months I lost 17 pounds from my highest ever weight of 233 at the beginning of the year. I have since gained some of that back.

A large component of my new life style will be putting one foot in front of the other as I start a walking program. I mentioned this to my doctor and got an encouraging green light. I went in for a check up a couple weeks ago to see where my baseline is. I thought the initial reading of my blood pressure at 124/74 would set the positive standard of my other tests. In the past I've had cholesterol issues and my previous reading had things going in the right direction. But a couple days after my doctor visit I learned that my cholesterol had reversed course. My HDL or "good cholesterol" had not improved from being too low and my triglycerides sky rocketed. So now I'm on Niaspan and low dosage aspirin.

At 45 its not too late to get things back under control. Its not that I have an aversion to activity. I grew up playing baseball and basketball. In adulthood that became softball and sand volleyball. After college I took up running and trained for a few 5 K and 10 K races at the encouragement of friends. The last 10 K I did I had the goal of doing it under one hour. I'm not a natural runner and have tree trunk legs so it is a task to move this mass. I missed the goal by one minute and continued running for a few more months until I was doing 7.5 miles. I was 32 at the time and in the best shape of my life. Winter came and my running went on hiatus until spring. That spring I made it out a few times until I developed a stress fracture in my left foot and basically ended my running career. 

That left softball and sand volleyball as my main outlets for exercise with the occasional bowling or golf outing thrown in. Then in 2005 I had a melanoma removed from my right pectoral and that ended my time in the sun. It derailed me more ways than one but exercise fell off the priority list for a long time. Now it is time to change that. 

Tomorrow I'm starting with one mile. I know the half mile point away from our house and for the first week I will walk there and back each day. After the first week I hope to build from there. The postal credo has them delivering in all weather and my intention is to do the same. 

This blog will be daily updates on my walks and a tally of the cumulative walks. I will weigh myself on Monday and Friday of each week which is something I already do. If I happen to eat something healthy I may include that too along with any additional exercise I may add. 

First steps are tomorrow.