It's Time to Get Serious...

Let me share a bit on how I got here.

When I got married back in 2010, I weighed around 145 lbs. I greatly enjoyed my size, which allowed for small t-shirts and pants with either a 30 or a 31 waist. Growing up I was always a smaller dude, which I liked. I was fast at sports and agile enough to escape the hands of bullies and would-be pursuers (young girls included—elementary school was a strange time). In college I put on minimal weight, but it was nothing I was afraid of.

*Notice how I ignore the lame-o rule where you shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition. Rules were made to be broken, right?

Moving on…. Shortly after I got married I took a job in a call center. I never imagined I’d find myself working in a cube and sitting down for 8 hours at a time (sometimes my shifts moved up to 12 hours). The hours were insane. There were times when I’d go in at 3:30 pm and not head home until 2 in the morning. Talk about brutal. Working in a call center is incredibly painful: the hours are horrible and the stress makes you eat the kinds of food you wouldn’t even find in a prison. I became self-destructive, and my body started showing it. I was simply trying to survive the 50-60 hour work weeks that eventually became the norm. I remember breathing a sigh of relief when I saw an 8 hour shift on my schedule. That’s crazy.

After a year working in that cube, my weight was around 167 lbs.—quite the change. And how was my mindset? Miserable. I hated what I saw in the mirror. Sure, 167 lbs. is still small, but you have to understand, I hadn’t added healthy weight, only fat. I no longer looked like a small guy in a small shirt, I became the large guy who still wears his high school t-shirts. Add to that the fact that my pants had become tight. Snug doesn’t even describe it. I was so unhappy. I can’t properly convey it.

In August of 2011, I decided to make some efforts to get this snowball under control. My company made a deal with a local gym which provided all of the employees with a serious discount. I hopped on that. Also, I downloaded a calorie counter application on my phone. I tried my hardest to get my butt in that gym. The problem was that I didn’t know what I was doing. I would basically do cardio for 20 or 30 minutes and then walk around the rest of the gym, using random machines that didn’t seem too complicated. Utilizing the calorie counter proved useful, as I was gaining knowledge into just how terrible all the food I was eating actually was. This encouraged me to start dropping pointless stomach-fillers and begin striving towards healthful alternatives.

My calorie counting/random “gym-ing” proved unsuccessful. I wasn’t seeing any results. By the time January 2012 rolled around, my weight had dropped to around 163—not exactly the success story I was hoping for. By March we were sitting pretty at 162. It’s in this same month that I became 28. Oh man…28 and unable to wear my “go-to” dress pants or my favorite band shirts. I hit a new bottom. I knew this couldn’t go on. I made a decision as March came to a close to take my “gym-ing” seriously….

Here we go!

A friend recently said I should start writing a fitness-related blog. I jokingly responded that I know nothing about fitness, but maybe one day I could take a stab it.

Now, after thinking about it, perhaps I’ll take that stab. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen, right?

Regardless, I’ve officially started a brand new blog that will focus on all things fitness. In it I plan to share my new life as a “gym-goer” and all of the excitement, frustration, highs and lows, insights, discoveries, progress, etc. that goes with it. Sound exciting? I’m not going to lie: I’m pretty excited about it.

*Side note before we begin this journey. I make money and provide for my wife by writing/editing. It is literally my world. With that said, expect to find literary references, grammatical quips, Dickens-styled narrator interruptions and all sorts of English-language-related insertions that may or may not be necessary—or called for.

Still reading? Good.

Welcome to Speedy’s Fitness Blog! …we’re still working on the name….

First things first, I need to let you know how and why I got here.

 1.  How – I started going to the gym. Yeah, it’s that simple. But wait! There’s more!

     

     -I committed to going to the gym. That’s a LOT different than simply going. I’ll talk about that more in detail in a later blog.

2.  Why – I got tired of being what’s known as “Skinny Fat.” Scratch that. I’ve always been tired of it. I decided to do something about it. By the way, the relationship between saying and doing is something you’ll probably hear me run my mouth about often; so, prepare yourself.

    -For those who don’t know/can’t figure out what “skinny fat” is, it’s when you’re not exactly skinny, and you’re not exactly fat. It’s a very popular body type that’s prevalent in good ‘ol America: The Land of Fast Food.

So with all of that out of the way, and now that we seem to know each other, yeah, I go the gym. I go the gym a lot. I also don’t use “alot”, since it’s not a real word. The little red squiggly is currently making my eye twitch. I try to go to the gym every day, and I don’t often miss. When I do, it’s typically for a legit reason.

Bodybuilders say that working out is addicting. I agree. I look forward to it. I love the feelings I get when I’m there. I crave the highs I experience immediately following a good lift. When I miss a day, my body knows it.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, I want you to know what’s up. I want you to know why I’m doing what I’m doing. If you care, you’ll check back. If you couldn’t care less, I’ll shed tears later.

By the way, it’s “couldn’t care less,” not “could care less.” For goodness’ sake, get that right!

And so concludes the first entry into Speedy’s Fitness Blog.

Again, we need to do something about that name.

*Editor's note: I changed the name to "SpeedyFit".

Next time I’ll share my workout plan and talk about setting goals. Interested?

Be there.

-Speedy