A Bit of History…
Cherry Blossom Trees in Mutsu, Japan
I’m writing this blog first of all for myself and then for any friends and family who might be interested in what I’m up to with regards to fitness and the personal goals I’ve set for myself. Not that the blog will be solely about fitness. I’m sure all the other things I’m interested in such as movies, music, books, television shows, games and family life will also creep into here…but the initial idea that helped spark this project was born from a little experiment that I started on January 1st of this year.
Also, I used to love writing as a kid and over the years I grew more and more disconnected from that hobby as life got busier and, truth be told, I got lazier. I always wanted to keep some form of diary / journal just for kicks but never had the motivation or discipline to keep it up. Ironic, since I spent several years of my life teaching English / History both here in Canada and in Japan and always stressed to students the importance of ‘regular journal writing’ to keep their talents sharp. Haha… kinda hypocritical too I think. Having said that, don’t mind the spelling and grammatical errors that will riddle this blog. I’m doing this for pleasure and not as a professional submission into anything.
Where to begin? I guess in many ways this all started with my younger brother and sister-in-law and a treadmill. My brother has always been a fit, slim guy. Actually, my younger sister is too. Both of them take after my dad who is slim and they don’t seem to need too much effort in order to stay that way (my sister I think actually has difficulty putting on weight). I, on the other hand, take more after my mom who is…. how shall I say? Round? When she was younger my mom was incredibly thin and svelt… a real looker with a good head on her shoulders. She was a poet but ended up being a psychology professor and then a banker and then a community service worker…. Ugh. But I’m getting off topic. I’m sure at some point in the future, I’ll write a novel about my parents as their story is a weird one, full of love, romance, and heartbreak that span several continents.
Where was I? Ah yes. Well, my mom is round. I took after her… so I’m round. We pack on weight a little easier than others in the family I think. Over the past few years I let myself go as I got married and my wife and I began work as teachers then travelled to Japan and back again (both as EFL teachers). Ironically, I lost a crap load of weight upon first arriving in Japan as I had to bike everyday to work and I was unfamiliar with a lot of the cuisine that was offered (I hate sushi). However, over time I learned to really love a lot of Japanese food so by the time I finished my overseas adventure, I had gained the weight again. It only got worse as I picked up a regular work routine back here in Canada and, knowing how way leads onto way, never got back to the regular exercise I had started to do in Japan.
To compound matters, I returned to Canada with a bit of money in the year of our lord two thousand and five. Know what cataclysmic event happened in 2005? That’s right. We’re both thinking it. WORLD OF WARCRAFT! I had the cash, so I plunked down enough money to buy a brand spanking new computer which (at the time) was top of the line just to play this game (a friend in Japan had actually introduced me to WoW in late 2004 when it came out and I was floored by the experience. I had to continue it, no matter the cost). For those who don’t know (and if you don’t know, I don’t know where you’ve been for the past four years as this thing has been one of the largest games in existence, receiving pretty extensive media attention even outside the gaming press),World of Warcraft is a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG or just MMO) where you create a hero, go on quests with friends and slay monsters, getting treasure and become more powerful as character. Basically, it’s dungeons and dragons on a computer. Well, it’s also highly addictive and a HUGE time sink. By this, I mean, in order to do anything substantial in the game generally takes a couple of hours (people would debate this I’m sure but, really, in my opinion, the only thing that you can do in less than an hour is maybe some quests and perhaps 1 quick dungeon run… but where’s the fun in that? Part of what makes the game so damn addictive is that it also masquerades as a social network not unlike Facebook for idle gossip and chat with friends while you wait to get something done in game).
My wife would say I can sometimes have a very single-minded, addictive-prone personality in the sense that when I get into something that I enjoy, I thoroughly immerse myself in it and live, breathe and eat it. This is what happened to me and WoW. I became “one with my character”. Hahaha… I look at that statement and realize how big of a nerd I am. I will never begrudge my time spent in Azeroth as it netted me a great set of friends (co-workers from Japan and their friends back in the states who also play) that I loved chatting and hanging out with. HOWEVER, over the past 5 years or so of playing WoW on and off (mostly on), I have logged in probably over 75 days of play time across 4 or 5 characters. THAT’S 75 DAYS OF MY LIFE I’M NEVER GETTING BACK! But.. it was also 75 days of pretty good fun…
Why am I telling you all this? I dunno really. Other than that I think WoW contributed to my downward spiral into lazy, fatness.
So by the end of 2008 I was weighing in at approximately 175 lbs. I’m approximately 5’3. Not tall by any means. According to the BMI scale, I dug up online I was OBESE! I had never considered myself OBESE! Geez, maybe plump and a little soft but not OBESE!
This brings me back to my brother. He’s always been slim and fit and over the past few years he’s gotten into weight training and exercise. Growing up because of the age difference, I was always bigger and stronger than him and used that to my advantage whenever we tussled (and that seemed more often than not… sometimes in a good natured way… but other times out of anger or annoyance. People have heard me say it before, but I’ll put it down into writing now just for the record. I don’t think I was a very good older brother to him and wish I had been different. I think we’re cool now but there were times growing up when we … how shall I say did not get along very well. “Oh… if I only knew then what I know now….” But then, isn’t that always the case? Age and time gives you hindsight and with it wisdom… but also regret. I’ll touch on this again in the future I’m sure.)
Back to the weight thing…
Well, at the end of October 2008 he found a great deal on a terrific treadmill. He bought it. I love gadgets. Any type of gadget really. When I saw this hulking monstrosity in his (my parents’) basement, I thought to myself “COOOOOL!!!” … “I really should get one… it will help me not be so obese”. My wife was pretty cool about the purchase as she too wanted to get into shape. So, following his lead we shopped around and bought the exact same treadmill (we didn’t get the same deal he did as the offer had expired already). My wife and I had bought ourselves a home in 2006 with a finished basement and so when the treadmill arrived, my brother and his two friends (Terence and Jeff… or is that Jeff and Terence? I never get them straight) helped us haul it down. Actually, not helped. They did it for us as I didn’t do much of anything because a) I have a pretty bad back and b) there wasn’t really any space in the stairwell for me to stand in to help in the first place. We paid them in food and compliments such as “Good job guys! Don’t worry about the large hole you left in our wall!” (my brother said he could have prevented the hole but it would have been at the cost of his crushed hand).
So, November 2008 we had a shiny new treadmill all roaring to go. I tried it. Once. My wife tried it a few times. Then it sat there. And sat there. And sat some more. From lack of use, the treadmill looked like it too was getting obese.
January 1st, 2009 rolled around. I had just finished a tremendous New Year’s eve meal the night before and was still feeling stuffed. And, yes, a little disappointed with myself. I went to the basement. Looked at this monstrous unused piece of machinery sitting there then did something I had not done in YEARS. I pulled out a scale we had lying around and weighed myself. 175.5. I put up a calendar on the wall facing the front of the treadmill, stretched for a few minutes, wrote down “175.5” in the first square of the first month, put the plastic key into place and turned it on. And that’s how my year long experiment began.
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I’ll get back to this again later on. But right now I want to get on the treadmill and do my daily run, shower and head to work.
