LAST. DITCH. EFFORT.
Hi. My name is Eric Weaver. I'm a 43-year-old advertising executive, and this blog is being repurposed into my Last Ditch Effort.
As a kid growing up in Michigan, I was a popular nerd. I was never encouraged to do anything with sports...in fact, it was very discouraged by my mother. Grades were always top priority, so I never developed any affinity for sweating or the typical eye-hand coordination sports that the other kids were into. I had a very high metabolism so I could eat ANYTHING, and LOTS OF IT, and burnt it off within seconds.
My entire life, I've abused this body. Ate poorly, never drank enough water, and never exercised. During my 20s, I ate McDonald's food twice a day for YEARS, and put away enough Coca-Cola to keep their stock price artificially inflated. Despite this, I stayed relatively slender...wiry, and never overweight, at around 165 lbs. for years. But then, between the ages of 30 and 40, my weight increased to 200 and stayed there. And my cholesterol jumped to the mid 200's.
The kicker happened in 2002. An unbelievably stressful and toxic workplace created a severe heart arrythmia. I'd be working and feel the weirdest feeling in my chest. My heart would stop... for up to 5-6 seconds... and then double-beat to catch up... pump 5 times or so, and then stop again. Each time, I was overcome with a kind of low-level anxiety as I could feel my circulation stop. It's a very very weird feeling and one I wouldn't recommend to anyone!
Scared the crap outta me, and I quit the stressful job, changed my eating habits...sort of. As of the beginning of this year, I weighed 214, cholesterol at 257 and continue to be "thick" in the waist without having a true beer gut.
I have a wife and three children who love me dearly, and finally, FINALLY after all these years, I've come to realize that it's time to stop living in my 20s, time to stop abusing this body, time to get off my ass. I need to make a change in diet and exercise, start monitoring my health and investing the time and effort needed to keep me around for another 40. Because if I don't, at this rate, my body will tell my brain one last time to F*CK OFF.
I hate exercise. HATE IT. Don't know a rep from a burn, an elliptical from a free weight. I hate the competitive and narcissistic environment of gyms and feel awkward and self-conscious there. Every five years or so, I'll go a few times and then quit, wasting months of membership dues. I can't run through airports like I used to. I get winded after very short periods. And I have the extremely untoned look of a Mouse Potato.
But today I begin work on-site at my new client: Nautilus Group. Makers of Bowflex, Nautilus, StairMaster and Schwinn Fitness brand exercise equipment, they are EXACTLY the kick in the ass I've needed. For once my work is tied into my health. And I intend to change it.
This blog will record my efforts to get back down to 170, cholesterol down to acceptable levels, and to change my Red Robin/steak/garlic mashed/martini diet to something that much healthier.
TODAY'S WEIGHT: 201
Time to drive to Portland to kick off my Last Ditch Effort.
posted by Weave @ 05:26
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