Milestone 1

So back a few months ago, I found my life changing in unexpected ways, and having a few mental cycles to burn off, I decided that it was time to make some changes.

First up, I've been carrying too much weight around for too long. It'd fluctuate a bit, but nothing significant. Here's a picture of me from 2006 where I weighed about the same as I did in May of this year when I started seriously thinking about it:

(I think my brother likes to use the term "man mound" in reference to that picture)

So I'd start going for walks, and quickly remembered that walking bores the hell out of me. Took a picture of the scale (below) with some loosely-formed goals in mind.

Skip forward a month and I found myself at the DMV renewing my driver's license and filling out the form it dawned on me that the weight basically started accumulating the day I started driving. I used to walk or bike everywhere before that when I needed to get around.

So another week's worth of research and I found a bicycle I was interested in purchasing. High risk of folly there, as I'd not ridden a bike in nearly 15 years, but it seemed like the right time to start getting things in order.

Decided that if I could break the 200lb mark, then I'd get a chance (this) to brag a little. Something to work for.

So, here's the scale on May 18th at 232.6:


And here's this morning (August 13th) at 199.8:


(if you click through to Flickr on those, you can see the "Taken On" dates that were embedded in the EXIF data)

No fancy programs or anything dropping 30+ lbs in just under 3 months. Exercise more with the biking and the walking. Eat more vegetables. Cut in half meat consumption. Doubled coffee intake. Doing a little resistance stuff now.

My goal is to get to 175. I don't know if it's feasible if more muscle replaces fat (muscle being more dense and all), but it's what I'm aiming towards.

As for some of the other things in my life I'd like to change, well, I figure one thing at a time for right now. I'm trying to make permanent changes I can live with rather than jump off Cliff Gung-Ho and then rescind a week later. In due time for some of the other things.

But I'm feeling rather proud of making it to today.

Oh, and I checked: The camera does not add 10lbs.