And we're off....

It's wednesday of my first week on Body for Life (keeping in mind that I started on Tuesday). I've been through two workouts and one full day of trying to stay on my meal plan. I've had problems getting enough protein, since we eat vegetarian at home. But I was way under my calorie target yesterday. I did upper body strength training last night. I really struggled on some of my lifts and had to reduce the weight a lot. I'm sore today, so I guess I accomplished something. I did an extended workout on the bike this morning. I felt like I really pushed it hard for 20 minutes. I went 30 minutes total, just to burn a few extra calories. I clocked my heart rate at 150 bpm at one point. I need to see if that's out of the training zone.

We got a set of calipers and a Tanita body fat scale from Bodytrends.com yesterday. Cheryl and I took several different measurements with the calipers and I did a series of readings with the Tanita to see if it was consistent. According to the Tanita, I weigh 183.7 lbs with a body composition of 22.7%. With the calipers, using one measurement, I got about 22%. Using the four reading system, I got more like 25%. Cheryl's body fat numbers were pretty good for a woman (I won't repeat them here, since she said she didn't want her weight published anywhere). We're supposed to do our "before" pictures tonight. There's a new tanning place within walking distance of our house. I'm thinking about getting some "color" for the after pictures.

But all of that is more the sort of thing to put on my web page, which I need to work on tonight. The purpose of this blog is to talk about the experience. Well, for two days, I haven't collapsed on the couch immediately after work. I was early to work this morning, thanks to the momentum I had going from my aerobic workout. I still need to sort out a lot of the details as I go, but I'm feeling good about being in the process.

I don't know if it's the best use of my time to be working on my body. It feels a little vain. But there are so many benefits beyond looking good in a swimsuit. And it's not just about being healthy. It's about setting goals and reaching for them. I look around me lately and I see a lot of out-of-shape people. I don't look down on them, but I don't want to be like them either. Being healthy feels more like being "me". To quote Shakespeare, "to thine ownself be true".