paganodiet

OK, here’s the thing. Much has happened in the past few months of my life. Much more important things are to come, but I’ll get to those when the time is right. Right now, I’m trying to get to grips with turning 40. Those who are older may scoff, and I appreciate that. Those who are a good bit younger may breathe a sigh of relief that the number is way ahead of them, and I appreciate that too. But as far as my life goes, I’ve been evaluating different aspects of my existence. For example, as you can probably tell, I have spent a lot of time over the past few years developing an online presence. Whether it’s one of my many blogs, my Facebook page, or my recent addition of Twittering, I’ve put a lot of energy into getting my opinions and observations out there. And where has it gotten me? Well, I know a lot more people than I did when I started, most of them good people on a similar cyber-journey, which is a good thing. But I’m wondering - is there another level I can take it to? I reckon so. See, my online persona isn’t the only thing I’ve had to ponder while turning the big four-oh. I also have to consider my health. No need for long-winded explanations here – I’m overweight right now, and the reason for this is that my diet sucks and I get little or no exercise. I have made petty attempts at using the blog as a motivational tool before, to no avail, mostly due to said pettiness. So let’s see if I can give it a go for real. Sure, I could easily join a gym and get a personal trainer, but I want to see if I can do this for myself and off my own bat. So consider a year’s membership fee in 24-hour fitness or such places as a “last resort”. I went to the doctor a while ago, and he checked my bloods and poked and prodded and did all the tests, and his answer was simple. Eat better, exercise more. Next patient please! So while this isn’t exactly a crisis, I have to ask myself how I can possibly motivate myself now in a way I haven’t before? At 11am today I sat down to a meal that would make my doctor cringe, but I did so for a reason. It was meant to be my final hurrah before finally taking my diet seriously. Then, at noon, I went to my friend Wayne. His last name is Scales. He told me I was over twenty stone. He didn’t tell me how dangerous that could be for me, but he didn’t have to. (BTW – for American readers, the weight reading is in stones & pounds. For pounds, take the first number, multiply it by fourteen, and add the second. Yes, I know.) I’m going to go back to Wayne every Tuesday and see if he has better news for me. I’m going to create my own hashtag, #paganodiet, and tweet my daily progress. The key here is to report my failures as well as my successes. Some tweets will end in WIN, some will end in FAIL. Sure – I can try and hide by not tweeting the fails and/or reporting the bad Wayne readings, but who am I really fooling if I do that? I will also endeavour to provide an end-of-month report on my progress here on the blog. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I plan to motivate MYSELF to lose weight and get somewhere near fitness. I hope you wish me luck in my quest, and by all means leave a comment and/or use the hashtag to spur me on.