Finding Fitness after 40: The Male Perspective

Tod and I have known each other a scary amount of time...in fact not even sure how long...maybe 13ish years?� Anyway, though for as long as I can remember, I had always wanted to give running a try, Tod was the one who inspired me when he took it up a few years ago.

Finding Fitness over 40 the male view!

Okay, first of all this should probably be fitness facing 50 but I am just a guest blogger, so here goes.�



Three years ago if you asked any of my friends and co-workers if I was overweight and out of shape the answer most likely would have been a solid no.� A few honest ones might admit I could use to lose a couple of pounds but overweight, no way.� Well they were wrong and I knew they were wrong but didn't have the motivation to change.



The motivation finally came in the form of a challenge.� A group of people at work had all been complaining about their weight so I proposed we do our own version of :"The Biggest Loser".� Each participant put $20 in a pot.� The person who lost the highest percentage of their goal weight won the money.� I found money and the challenge to be a great motivator and at the end of the contest had lost 102% of my goal weight, a total of 23 pounds.� I felt great.



I continued to walk and eat better for sometime but then came the winter.� I swear I was a bear in a previous life.� I store up fat for the winter and want to sleep until spring. And store up the fat I did.� I gained back 15 of the 23 pounds I lost over the winter.� Got the flu in February and lost 11 pounds. Then gained most of it back.� I was determined to lose it all again.� So that spring the healthy eating started again and the walking and it worked just like it is supposed to. Then it stopped working.� Well that really sucked..I was walking all over town, to the store, to work, to the outlets, everywhere but I had plateaued.



Plateaus are supposed to pleasant places.� A place to view all that surrounds you.� Beautiful vistas! They are not supposed to be a horrible place with no escape.� I decided that if walking wasn't going to do it, I'd try jogging a bit.� OMG Becky it just about killed me!� But I kept at it.� I set a running course and each time picked a new spot to get to before I would let myself walk.� Each time I got a little farther some days more so than others. I started this in May of that year and decided that by Labor Day I would be running the entire course. I missed it by one day. It was a great feeling. I continued to run into the fall cutting back to 3 days a week and maintaining my weight loss. But then lo and behold, 2 weeks before Thanksgiving my appendix ruptured.� Three days in the hospital, two weeks off work and 6 weeks with no physical activity. The good thing was that I reconnected with my Kimmie.� The bad thing it gave me a most excellent reason not to exercise.� It was winter and I once again gained weight but not horribly.



Spring arrived and I started running again and eating better again and the the weight came off again.

My arch nemesis arrived again in the form of cold weather and I was really bad.� The weight came back and I once again had to kick myself in the butt to get moving and eat better.

What can I say I'm cyclical. How long can I continue this pattern?� The answer is until I figure out how to break it, not until it breaks me.

The weight is back off and I'm maintaining.

I haven't been ill since my appendix episode.

I sleep better.

Life is good.

You are never to old to start. I started running at 46.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.�

Enjoy your Summer and get up and move!