Refine and Repeat

Well, after all my talk, or writing, I’m just like everybody else. Or most people. In the last year, I’ve gained back ten pounds.

I was sitting quite nicely at 162, but now I’m back up to 172. How did it happen? No surprise:
– I went to the gym much less frequently.
– I ate out more.

Basically, that’s it. Because I’ve become busier due to my courses (teaching and taking), I’ve felt that I didn’t have the time or physical/cognitive resources to also go to the gym. No time — got to study. Well, all of us know those people WITH KIDS who make it happen. They have the resources. So suck it up, Steve. As for the eating, I’ve found that the more I eat out, the more I gain weight. Portions are bigger and I tend to eat stuff that makes me feel good. This may be normal or odd, but I’d rather eat a salad at home than at a restaurant … unless it’s a great Cobb salad,, such as the one at Prohibition on Queen. But I digress.

So, let’s see how it goes. We’re going back to the gym for the usual mix of cardio, stretching and weights: nothing new, no P90X, no plyometrics, just running, squash and mostly body-weight exercises. Of course, we’ll still do Zhan Zhuang, since that helps us sense what’s going on inside pretty well. As for the food, no fancy diets, except for this: less bread, brown-bag when at school, and “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”. We want this to be sustainable.

The motivator is to study Chen style Tai Chi at the end of July. Sure, we could sign up now and start classes (instant gratification?), but we don’t want to feel we have to stay with a routine because we paid for it — that hasn’t worked in the past. Instead, since we want to do Chen, we’re treating it as a reward for staying with a routine, rather than a motivation to create one.

We’ll let you know.