I am a colossal fatty
And I don't like it. That's why I'm doing something about it.
I've been telling myself for years that I would get in shape. It never materialised. Coming to uni and discovering a love of ale didn't exactly help, nor did the highly sedentary compsci lifestyle. Thank god for Cambridge's encouraging me to walk everywhere and gigs & metal nights for giving me some way to let out some of my energy, otherwise I probably would've balooned so much I'd've dethroned the blue whale as largest animal on earth.
The problem, I believe, is that I never had a plan. I told myself I would go to the gym occasionally or do some more sports, but these were always vague wooly notions of things I might start doing in the near future. They were never concrete plans and so I never acted on them. Sure, I started going to the gym once or twice a week for a while before I came to uni and I took up frisbee on and off, but these only slowed my weight gain rather than doing anything to halt and reverse it.
Now I have a plan.
The plan is to go to the gym three times a week (currently mondays, wednesdays and fridays but possibly switching to sundays, tuesdays and thursdays when I get back to Cam as it fits in better with Churchill Ultimate Frisbee practice) for weight training and do some form of aerobic exercise two or three times a week on the other days. For now it's jogging (although I will admit I've been slacking off lately) - I might switch to cycling as I've been meaning to learn for years and it'd be handy in Cambridge - and when I get back to uni I'll probably use Frisbee (although that can be a bit explosive depending on who I'm marking).
And this isn't something I'm going to start doing in the near future. This is something I am already doing, something I've started. Better yet, I'm finding I enjoy it, which gives me the desire to push myself harder (and makes me disappointed when I feel I don't work as hard as I could've). Also, since these are all things I can do as and when I please as opposed to at specific times of the day on specific days of the week, I won't fall into the trap I've fallen into in the past (e.g. with taekwondo which I did for a while) of getting bored of the routine and losing enthusiasm.
In addition to this, I'm gradually starting to pay more attention to what I eat - calories and macronutrient ratios and the like - and learning more about nutrition. One unfortunate side effect is that I've learnt that alcohol has a massive calorific content (beer especially given what it's made of!) and so I'm cutting down heavily on the drinking. By heavily, I mean apart from Wacken & Bloodstock I don't plan to drink at all this summer. After that, we'll see. No drinks at the Kambar for definite (nor anything from the Van of Death after!). Not only will it help my efforts to get in shape, I'll save a hell of a lot of money as well!
So yeah. That's my plan. Let's see if it works.
In addition, I'm keeping a sort of photodiary showing how my body changes with training. At the moment I'm keeping it to myself, but if anyone is particularly desparate to see a fat, pasty nerd in his underwear I'll start sticking them up on LJ (maybe Facebook if it has sufficient granularity of security) under an opt-in friends filter. Otherwise I'll publish the photos when my body's in a state that I can look at myself naked in the mirror and not feel a burning self-loathing inside for being such a big fatty fat fat fat.
I've been telling myself for years that I would get in shape. It never materialised. Coming to uni and discovering a love of ale didn't exactly help, nor did the highly sedentary compsci lifestyle. Thank god for Cambridge's encouraging me to walk everywhere and gigs & metal nights for giving me some way to let out some of my energy, otherwise I probably would've balooned so much I'd've dethroned the blue whale as largest animal on earth.
The problem, I believe, is that I never had a plan. I told myself I would go to the gym occasionally or do some more sports, but these were always vague wooly notions of things I might start doing in the near future. They were never concrete plans and so I never acted on them. Sure, I started going to the gym once or twice a week for a while before I came to uni and I took up frisbee on and off, but these only slowed my weight gain rather than doing anything to halt and reverse it.
Now I have a plan.
The plan is to go to the gym three times a week (currently mondays, wednesdays and fridays but possibly switching to sundays, tuesdays and thursdays when I get back to Cam as it fits in better with Churchill Ultimate Frisbee practice) for weight training and do some form of aerobic exercise two or three times a week on the other days. For now it's jogging (although I will admit I've been slacking off lately) - I might switch to cycling as I've been meaning to learn for years and it'd be handy in Cambridge - and when I get back to uni I'll probably use Frisbee (although that can be a bit explosive depending on who I'm marking).
And this isn't something I'm going to start doing in the near future. This is something I am already doing, something I've started. Better yet, I'm finding I enjoy it, which gives me the desire to push myself harder (and makes me disappointed when I feel I don't work as hard as I could've). Also, since these are all things I can do as and when I please as opposed to at specific times of the day on specific days of the week, I won't fall into the trap I've fallen into in the past (e.g. with taekwondo which I did for a while) of getting bored of the routine and losing enthusiasm.
In addition to this, I'm gradually starting to pay more attention to what I eat - calories and macronutrient ratios and the like - and learning more about nutrition. One unfortunate side effect is that I've learnt that alcohol has a massive calorific content (beer especially given what it's made of!) and so I'm cutting down heavily on the drinking. By heavily, I mean apart from Wacken & Bloodstock I don't plan to drink at all this summer. After that, we'll see. No drinks at the Kambar for definite (nor anything from the Van of Death after!). Not only will it help my efforts to get in shape, I'll save a hell of a lot of money as well!
So yeah. That's my plan. Let's see if it works.
In addition, I'm keeping a sort of photodiary showing how my body changes with training. At the moment I'm keeping it to myself, but if anyone is particularly desparate to see a fat, pasty nerd in his underwear I'll start sticking them up on LJ (maybe Facebook if it has sufficient granularity of security) under an opt-in friends filter. Otherwise I'll publish the photos when my body's in a state that I can look at myself naked in the mirror and not feel a burning self-loathing inside for being such a big fatty fat fat fat.