Day 1

So today is day 1 in my 30 lbs and reckless challenge. I’m going to try to do something reckless 5 days a week and I’m going to do something with my health 6 days a week. Notice I didn’t say diet. I don’t think diets work. You get to be the weight you are by eating and burning a consistent number of calories a day. Yes, if you go on a “diet” you lose weight by eating less calories than before, but once you go back to your previous eating habits your weight is going to go right back to where it was. Your body is like a funnel in which you pour sand. The sand going in is the calories going in, and the sand coming out the bottom of the funnel is the calories going out. You can change the amount of sand by either changing the rate at which you pour the sand in or change the rate of the sand flowing out. Making a temporary change will change the amount of sand in the funnel, but when you go back to the previous rates, eventually the amount of sand returns to the same level as before. So we’re talking lifestyle change here.

I guess I should mark for myself a starting point of sorts. I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m going to post my weight and be brutally honest about it. I’ve always lied about my weight, even when I was in high school and reporting my weight to my swim coach on a weekly basis I told him I was 115 whether I was above or below that. 115 was the minimum he’d allow me to be at, which isn’t much on my 5’9” frame. My freshman year of college I lost 5 lbs thanks to a rigorous training schedule and a bout of mono courtesy of a cute member of the soccer team. Eventually I gained that back, along with another 20 some odd pounds. But still, 135 is pretty small for 5’9”. I used to prance around the pool deck in my Speedo, (size 26 TYVM, which I had to shop for in the children’s department) and a pair of men’s boxer briefs. Until my boxer briefs inexplicably disappeared during one meet. Still pretty sure someone on my team swiped them so I wouldn’t wear them anymore. So enough of looking back fondly on that body I was too naïve to appreciate. Where am I now? Well, I weighed myself this morning at 178.2. I never thought I’d be so close to 200 lbs. But still, I weighed myself 2 days ago at 181.8 so I’ve made a pretty good start so far.

As for being reckless I failed at looking cute today. I didn’t wash my hair let alone do it and it now is confined into its normal “messy bun on the lower right side of my head” style. I’m wearing cords and a sweater I knit myself and never actually put a zipper in. I did put on makeup and got a little reckless with some eyeliner, which I normally don’t wear to work. Grey though, black eyeliner on a weekday is a bit too reckless for me still. But on the seriously reckless side, I am going to go to have drinks tonight with my most recent ex. Hey, I want my stuff back, particularly my yoga pants and my sorority sweatshirt, and this seemed like a good way to get it. On the even more reckless side, I am going to the Bengals game with him this weekend. Turns out most of his friends and family like me more than him (hey, I do too!) and a friend he knows wanted to give them to him but only if he was going to take that “seriously cute” girlfriend of his. I really can’t argue with that, and when my options are going to the game with him or staying at home by myself and not watching it on tv because it likely won’t be on, I’m going to pick the game. And he’s not a bad guy, we just make much better friends than we did a couple. Plus, football games are full of cute sports and beer loving guys J might meet one there.

I’ve decided what this blog needs is pictures. So that’s my other vow – I will carry my camera around and take a picture whenever it suits me. Maybe one of myself every once in a while. We’ll see, that would be pretty reckless!