John for Life

Cartier park's bike path

Okay, so in the past I have been very healthy.  My wife and I first did the Body for Life Program (BFL) in 2002 with the hopes of looking good in our wedding pictures.  We did two successive 12 week programs, and by May 4, 2003, we were both looking fit and thin for our pics.  I have evidence of this.

But then life happens.  Once we were settled into married life we had Callie. So when you're wife gets pregnant, you gain weight with her.  So my wife and I had to once again do the body for life to, once again, lose 40 pounds.  So by 2004, when we moved to our new home, I personally was 180 pounds and looking and feeling good.  

In fact, I remember running laps around Cartier Park's scenic paths with ease.  

Of course then we had Laney and Myles.  There was a five year gap between Callie and Laney so we were both able to maintain our weight loss.  For about five years I weighed around 180 pounds, which is an ideal weight to maintain for me (like you care).  

So I gained weight once again with Laney.  Then we lost some, but then came Myles.  I promised myself this time I wouldn't gain weight with her, and I succeeded.  But then the burden of having two kids resulted in me getting over 200 pounds again.  

Yep, that's life.  Life with four kids is not the same as life with no kids, or even life with one kid.  I have many friends who have one kid and are able to stay in shape, and I only have a few friends who have three or four kids who are thin.  The reason, I am now convinced, is because it's hard to do.  Married life, and kids, make it hard to stay in shape.  

Some people just accept this as a fact and they go about their lives.  They just go to Walmart and buy larger clothing (fat clothes).  They go to McDonalds or Burger King and enjoy foods that make them happy.  They are normal.  

But then you have people like me.  I don't want to refer to myself as abnormal, but I probably could.  With a lung disease, I find that once I get beyond a certain weight life becomes increasingly difficult -- I should say that breathing becomes increasingly difficult.  As you may know if you follow my posts, fat tissue may actually cause and trigger asthma. 

On January 1, 2015, I made a New Year's Resolution that I was once again going to get in shape.  So every Monday I start, and by Tuesday something happens where I fall off the wagon.  Sometimes it's a friend asking me if I want to go out for a beer, sometimes it's stress from work, and sometimes it's something else. Either way, I keep falling off.  

So here I am on June among the 92% of people who fail to keep their New Year's Resolution.  Yet then I started thinking: the year is not over.  So I calculated it out that if I lose 6 pounds in week one of the BFL -- which I like to call John for Life (JFL) , and I lose two pounds a week (minus a week for hunting camp and a week for a Florida vacation) I can easily (with a lot of hard work -- lol) achieve my New Year's goal.  

I have written about the benefits of exercise more than once. Now it's time to get back on the path to enjoying those benefits once again.  Here's wishing good luck to myself on my journey