• When I lost 40 pounds in 1997, I did so because I counted calories.
• When I biked 2000 miles in 1998, I did so because I logged my progress in an increasingly elaborate spreadsheet.
• When I paid off my debt, I did so because I tracked every penny I spent.

Although record-keeping helps to motivate me, I still view it as a sort of a crutch. I’m not sure why. Still, I’ve decided that it’s a crutch I need to use. I’m trying to get back in the swing of using FitDay.

The problem is, I’m finding it difficult to actually get into the flow of things. When I spend money, I generally have a receipt, which makes tracking my financial affairs much easier. But when I eat, nobody gives me a receipt for the calories.

I find that I can keep good records at FitDay for a couple of days, but then somehow I lose my focus. I forget to enter a breakfast, and then a lunch, and then I’m off track again. Or I “cheat”. I eat a cookie, but don’t enter it into the database, thus invalidating the whole point of recording data.

Obviously, this is a behavioral issue. At my money blog, I often write about circumventing personal finance problems through the use of “money hacks” — little mind-games and tricks that you can play on yourself to force the desired outcome.

I guess what I’m looking for here are some suggestions of “fitness hacks” that I can use to make sure I record my data. I’m sure that many of you count calories, too. How do you make sure that you get the information recorded completely and in a timely manner? Do you carry a piece of paper with you? Do you force yourself to log the information immediately after a meal? Are there iPhone-friendly apps for doing this sort of thing?

Make no mistake: I do not love lifting weights. Sometimes it’s a chore. But it’s a chore I perform dutifully and well. Three mornings a week, I’m at the gym, following my plan. I’m making slow and steady progress. There’s something faintly pleasurable in the work and the routine.

Lately I’ve been asking myself why it is I’m able to follow my weight lifting plan so well, while the other aspects of my fitness have struggled. I think there are several parts to the explanation:

• I have a plan, and I stick to it. After each workout, I come home and I draft a schedule for my next workout. When I go to they gym, I follow the schedule. If something hurts, I back off.
• I came into weight lifting as a novice. (Hell, I’m still a novice.) Other than thinking lifters were meat-heads, I didn’t have any preconceived notions. (And I was wrong about that one!)
• I stay within myself. Partly because I’m afraid of hurting myself, and partly because I simply cannot lift more, I do not push ahead. There are weeks at a time during which I make no progress, but I don’t let it bother me. Over the past six weeks, for example, I’ve done the exact same bicep routine each time I work on my upper body. I haven’t bumped the weight at all. I’m okay with that. I know that eventually my arms will be strong enough to increase resistance. I have time.
• I’m not competing with anyone, not even myself. When I lift weights, it’s all inside. It’s all in my head. I don’t get mad at myself if I have a bad day, and I don’t get cocky if a lift is easy. All I do is focus on my daily plan.

I would love to find a way to apply these principles to the other two aspects of my fitness: aerobic exercise and food. In a way, Sally’s pursuit of self-care relies upon these techniques.

Could I really apply them to other parts of my life? I’ve always been a measurer. (Just last week I talked about tracking my calories again with FitDay, for example.) Could I really do aerobic exercise without measuring every little piece of data? Could I just go run for the sake of running?

I don’t know, but it’s something to think about.

During our winters, he spends a few months in New Zealand, helping friends on a dairy farm. And for two brief windows, John is at home, here in Oregon. From what I can tell, he spends his time watching football and doing yard work.

I like him.

When I saw his car in the driveway on Saturday, I went over and knocked on his door. He was delighted to see me. “Let’s set outside,” he said. And then, a courteous host, he asked, “Can I bring you a Mountain Dew?”

“No thanks,” I said. “I’m watching what I eat.”

“That’s great,” he said. “You do look thinner.”

“I’ve been dieting and exercising,” I said.

“Oh, I hate that stuff,” he said. “I stay healthy by working. I’ve never led a sedentary life. I’m 72 and feel as healthy as I’ve ever been. Well, my knees give me trouble sometimes, but otherwise, I try to stay active.”

We sat for an hour on his porch, discussing boats and neighbors and politics. He sipped his Mountain Dew. I munched on some grapes from the vines that grow wild around his property. He told me about fishing (I don’t know anything about it). I complained about how overgrown our yard is becoming. “It’s too much to handle,” I said.

John told me how fun it was to see my personal finance blog in Money magazine. “I told my friends that the guy who wrote that was my neighbor!” he said.

After a while, I took my leave. “I should go,” I said. “We have company coming, and I have chores to get done.”

“It’s good to see you,” John said. “Hey. You should come up on the boat next summer,” he said. “You’re welcome to come.”

“You know what?” I said. “I think I will.”

I was late for the gym this morning. I just felt like I had to get some writing done before I lifted weights.

When I went out to the car at 11:30, John was in his yard talking with another neighbor, Tom. Tom is 82, and has had heart trouble recently. He looks fit and healthy at the moment, but I know he’s concerned. I went over to say hello.

“What are you up to?” John asked, pointing at the piece of paper in my hand.

“I’m off to they gym,” I said. “That’s my log. I keep track of the weights I lift.”

“That’s crazy,” John said. He’s not the sort to hold anything back. “I’ve never understood why anyone would pay for a gym membership when they can get plenty of exercise at home. Look at me,” he said, and he motioned to his lawn. There was a pile of trimmings and lawn tools — he was in the middle of yard work.

“I’m active,” John said. “I don’t need to go to a gym. Just look at that yard of yours. If you were outside pruning things, you wouldn’t need to go the gym, either!”

We laughed, but I knew he was right. Hadn’t I just been complaining about my lack of time for yard work the other day? Still, I said good-bye and climbed into the car and drove to the gym. I lifted weights. I drove home.

But a part of me wondered if I couldn’t come up with some sort of weekly yard plan that gave me 30-60 minutes of labor every day. I’d kill two birds with one stone! I think that’s a great idea for the future, once I’m trying to maintain a certain level of fitness. But for right now?

Right now I want to keep plugging along with Body for Life. It seems to work for me: I feel strong, happy, and healthy.

There’s so much information out there, and so many different areas of “child health” that I could focus on every day; I sometimes feel totally overwhelmed.  This morning, after my 4:30 gym session (that’s 3 in a row for all you doubters out there) I found a new “Well Guide” on the New York Times web site.  It’s pretty interesting for us parents.  There’s a lot of information about raising healthy kids and it covers a variety of topics ranging from picky eating habits, to “screen time”, to exercise.

I haven’t taken the time to read all of this site, it’s pretty big.  And I’m not saying that I agree with everything I read on it.  But, it is a decent website with some helpful information.  And if nothing else, it will at least get us thinking about some of the topics that affect our children’s health.

Pam has often referred to studies that show that the majority of people who consistently exercise do so in the morning.  So off to the internets I went, searching for answers to this controversial topic.  It seems that every time I do some research, I never find a definitive answer.  It seems that in order to find one, I’m going to have to change my question to “Is it safe to smoke?” or “Should I blow dry my hair while standing in a bath tub full of water?”

Yep, I found articles that supported exercising first thing in the morning and articles that said this was a bad idea.  But, the most overwhelming piece of advice I found was that it’s better to exercise than not to.  So if early in the morning works for you, then that’s what you should be doing.  Here are some of the tidbits that I found while poking around:

Pros for early morning workouts:

• Early morning workouts may boost your metabolism throughout the day.  This is a great perk for those of us trying to lose weight.
• Exercise may increase mental acuity. If this is true, then why not take advantage of it during the whole day instead of just part of it.
• Exercise in the morning may energize you throughout the day. I definitely feel better when I’m working out than when I’m sitting on the couch.  And the few hours right after the workout are often the best in the day.  So maybe, if you start out your day well every day, you’ll have more better days and continue to exercise.
• If exercise is a priority in the morning, then it’s harder for other things in your life to push exercise out of your routine.
• More than 90% of people who have a consistent exercise routine do it in the morning.  If consistency is your goal, then this one is hard to overlook.

Cons for early morning workouts:

• Muscle strength peaks during the late afternoon. Some studies suggest that workouts performed in the afternoon are more beneficial and also decrease the likelihood of injury.
• Many people are more awake and alert in the afternoon. It’s easier to pay attention and work harder if you’re alert.  People who have a tendency to skate through an early morning routine also have a tendency to concentrate and work harder in the afternoon.
• Circadian rhythms prepare your body for an afternoon workout. Blood pressure, body temperature, and some hormone secretion peak for many people between two and four in the afternoon.  All three have been linked to better performance in the gym.

So again, it’s not really hard to find an article on the internet that helps you believe what you want to believe.  This, I have found, is especially true regarding exercise and nutrition.  Remember, the main point is that exercising–no matter what time of day–is better than sitting on your behind all day.  Do what works for you.  For me, I’ll stick with the 4:30 AM wake up call.  This week.

My grand plans for hitting the gym once Megan got back into school lasted for about 5 minutes.   On Monday, I suited up for my workout and headed out the door.  After dropping Meg off, Liam and I headed straight for the gym.  I paid my three bucks, plunked Liam down in the daycare, and listened to him scream as I turned my back and headed out the door.  FIVE minutes later, they hunted me down and told me to take my kid because they couldn’t calm him down–and I didn’t even get my 3 dollars back.  I was mad.  Mad that I didn’t get to work out, mad that they made hardly any effort to pacify my son, and mad that I had to rethink my workout plan.  This was not a good start to getting back on track.

I spent the rest of Monday thinking about how I was going to get my workouts in.  I could take 2 kids to the gym daycare every time I want to work out.  I think Liam would be OK if Megan were there with him.  But then I’ve got to haul two kids worth of stuff every time, and pay for two kids instead of 1 every time.  I don’t think I want to deal with that.

So the solution is simple, right?  I’ve got to get my butt out of bed in the morning and get to the gym.  It’s 6:25 in the morning, and I’m back from the gym, workout completed, muscles sore, wide awake, and feeling awesome!  So the new plan is a 4:30 wake up call on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to renew my efforts in the stronglifts 5X5 program.  For my cardio, I’ll be using my treadmill during nap times on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  I’d like to get some cardio in everyday, but we’ll see how this goes for a few weeks.  Small steps, right?

I feel great after my workout this morning.  I was able to complete my 5X5 program with no muscle pains.  I’m tired and sore, but not injured.  I warmed up properly, correctly performed my “ass to the grass” squats with a very light weight, and even added in the 15 minute core routine from my personal trainer.

So, I’ve woken up at 4:30 one day in a row.  Friday morning will be small step #2.  So you see, things aren’t as gloomy as they seem.  We’ll get back on track, slowly.  And we’ll continue to…get fit slowly.

On Friday, Mac explained why he is fat. For him, it’s because it’s easier to be fat than it is to be a healthy weight. For me, it’s because of two things: I lack innate self-discipline and I have a fear of success.

Earlier this year, I managed to override my normal self-defeating behaviors by focusing on a couple of goals. Goals work for me. They point me in a direction and keep me motivated. They’re not as good as external structure imposed by some sort of authority (think class schedules in high school), but they do the job.

Then things began to fall apart. As has probably been apparent from my posts at Get Fit Slowly, it’s been a rocky two months for me. First I was injured, then my mother was in the hospital for three weeks, and lately I’ve had an inability to work on what’s important. In fact, I’ve been actively choosing things that hurt my health rather than help it.

Last night, I finally confessed to my wife all of the little things I’ve been doing to self-sabotage my life. (And now I’m confessing them to you.) I haven’t been exercising. I’ve been eating too much (yes, including Sno-Balls). I’ve been drinking too much alcohol. I’ve been playing too many computer games.

Kris wasn’t happy (which is understandable), but she agreed to help me get back on track. While she watched, I trashed World of Warcraft from my hard drive. I pulled out Body for Life and made a schedule for the morning. I woke at 6:30 to, got dressed, and went to the gym.

I tried to recreate those successful workouts from March and April. I turned on my iPod and cranked up the high-intensity dance music. I lifted light weights slowly. I focused on form. I worked efficiently, and when I was done I felt great.

On the way home, I made a decision. Rather than scatter my attention right now, trying to pursue several goals at once, I’m going to concentrate on just one. I’m going to do the Body for Life plan from start-to-finish, 12 full weeks, without trying anything else. While I was doing this earlier in the year, I lost ten pounds and felt good about myself. I want to capture that again.

A detail from today’s exercise log. Click for full log.

Get in my belly
By one measure, eating at Claim Jumper is a good deal — you get two or three meals worth of food for your money. But by another measure, dining their is dangerous. And it’s no just Claim Jumper. Portion sizes in the United States have been increasing for some time. According to a USA Today article from a couple years ago, “a typical restaurant meal has at least 60% more calories than the average meal made at home.”

Portion size wouldn’t matter if we were able to limit our calorie intake. We’d eat what we needed and take the rest home. But that’s not how our minds work. As portion sizes have increased in the past twenty years — not just in restaurants, but in pre-packaged foods, too, and even at home — Americans have done a poor job of compensating. When offered large portions, we tend to eat large portions. And we do a poor job of adjusting what we eat later. Larger portions in restaurants make larger portions at home more acceptable, leading to a dangerous spiral.

Portion size research
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control published a wonderful plain-English review of the research into the effects of portion size. Among the points the paper makes:

• The fundamental rule of weight management is that people gain weight when they eat more calories than they expend.
• Short-term studies show that people eat more when they are confronted with larger portion sizes.
• Even though there is information available about appropriate serving sizes, people generally do not correctly assess the amount they are eating.

The paper recommends the following steps to reduce overeating due to portion size:

• When dining in a restaurant, either split your entrée with a companion, or ask the server for a doggie bag before the food is brought to the table. Reduce the portion size first.
• When eating at home, take steps to reduce the desire for “seconds” and “thirds”. Don’t bring the serving dishes to the table. Dish up reasonable portions on individual plates.
• When eating in front of the television, allow yourself a reasonable amount of food. Put the rest away before you begin eating.
• Control hunger between meals with healthy snacks like fruits and vegetables.

Grandma Jean’s pasta
I’ve noticed the affect of larger portion sizes in my own life. Though I try to do a good job in restaurants, it’s easy to give in. One of my favorite dishes is Grandma Jean’s Pasta at a nearby Italian joint. It features an enormous plate of penne coated in tomato sauce and sauteed with pepperoni and pork ribs. It’s great stuff. But the portion the restaurant serves is — I’m not joking — enough for three or four meals. Most of the time I’m smart, and I stretch this food over a few days. Sometimes, though, I give in, and eat most of it in one sitting.

Worse, though, are the pre-packaged foods. If a manufacturer is going to put a certain amount in a container, I’m often going to eat it all in one sitting, regardless of the “serving size” stamped on the label. That’s a habit I’ve been working to break, too.

Small and cheap
One final note: because I’ve become a frugal fellow, I’ve noticed something interesting. There are restaurants that still offer reasonable portions. They’re not the norm, but they exist. These restaurants generally seem to offer smaller prices. (Subjectively, I think the food tends to be better, too, but I have no data to back that up.)

One local Mexican place, for example, offers high-quality $2 tacos. Each one is just a bit of meat and salsa on a small tortilla. Simple, but delicious. I’m able to order one, two, or three tacos depending on my hunger and my calorie needs. I like this “build it yourself” approach better than only being offered four tacos for eight bucks.

[See also: Super Size Me.]

As with an RPG, you roll a virtual character, manage your inventory and resources, and try to achieve a goal. Weight Watchers’ points function precisely like hit points; each bite of food does damage until you’ve used up your daily amount, so you sleep and start all over again. Play well and you level up — by losing weight! And the more you play it, the more you discover interesting combinations of the rules that aren’t apparent at first. Hey, if I eat a fruit-granola breakfast and an egg-and-romaine lunch, I’ll have enough points to survive a greasy hamburger dinner for a treat!

Even the Weight Watchers web tool is amazingly game-like. It has the poke-around-and-see-what-happens elegance you see in really good RPG game screens. Accidentally snack on a candy bar and ruin your meal plan for the day? No worries: Just go into the database and see what spells — whoops, I mean foods — you can still use with your remaining points.

And those 35 extra points you get every week? They’re like a special buff or potion — a last-ditch save when you’re on the ropes.

I’ve never used Weight Watchers, so I can’t comment on its game-like aspects. However, I’ve spent long stretches of my life carefully counting calories, and I can attest that this, too is very game-like. So, too, is exercise. One of the reasons I keep detailed stats on my running and biking is that the stats keep me motivated. I’m able to seem my progress. It’s fun for me to watch my improvement. It really does feel like a game.

Many other people have realized that people can be more motivated toward health and fitness if it’s disguised as “fun”. The one hundred pushup project sort of operates on this principle: make the gradually increasing pushups into a challenge in order to motivate participants. It works.

I believe Nintendo has actually tapped into this with their latest video game console. Kris and I don’t keep our Wii in the media room — we keep it in the exercise room. With the yoga mats, fitness ball, and weights, we have an old television and the Nintendo Wii. Kris uses Wii Fit nearly every day. Last winter, I played hours of Dance Dance Revolution. She and I both like the idea of games that require more than just sitting on the couch. (We have only a single chair in the exercise room — we always stand to play the Wii.)

Making fitness fun can help motivate those who might otherwise lose interest. I do suspect there are dangers in making people think that eating right and exercising must be a game, but at the same time I think any move toward fitness is better than none at all.

Footnote: Dance Dance Revolution II is coming out for Wii in under a month! Time for me to practice my dance moves.

As part of getting “back on the bus”, I’m remedying that situation today. I performed a one-time exhaustion test as a sort of reset switch. I was able to do 33 pushups, which is more than I’ve been able to do at one time before. So, even though I took a break, I haven’t lost too much stamina.

Starting Monday, I’ll be back on the project, but with week three column three. This may be too ambitious. If it is, I’ll drop to column two on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I’m continuing to try to make smart food choices. Kris is helping me. (She nixed the trip to Dairy Queen last night after we made another trip to clean up my mother’s house, for instance.) This morning I had one chicken sausage, an egg, some toast and jam, and a cup of tea. Very nice.

Right now, I’m going to walk one mile to the bicycle store. They tell me my bike is ready to pick up. As I walk, I’ll eat an orange. Then, if all goes well, I’ll do a quick twenty mile ride to be sure the bike is working properly.

As I said on Thursday: it feels good to be making the right choices again. When I make the wrong choices, I beat myself up over them. But when I do the right thing, I feel good both physically and mentally.

The last month has been difficult for me, both mentally and physically. My mother has been in the hospital, I’ve been injured, and I’ve done a poor job of prioritizing fitness. If you think I’ve been whiney here, you should try living in my head!

“You need to go to the gym,” Kris told me Tuesday night after losing patience with my mopiness. “It’ll make you feel better.”

I knew she was right. (She’s always right!) Mental health professionals extol the virtues of exercise as a deterrent for depression. I’ve experienced this in my own life. Yet somehow when I need it most, it’s most difficult for me to do.

So yesterday morning I said “enough is enough” and hauled my ass to the gym for the first time this month. I spent half an hour stretching and then about twenty minutes lifting for the lower body. I also did my first set of pushups in a week. (Yes, I had even dropped my pushup routine. I’ll pick it back up now, though.)

Though this was a modest workout, it felt great. It was also good to have people say, “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while. It’s good to have you back.” I’m not the most social guy at the gym, so it kind of surprised me that people had noticed my absence.

In the afternoon, I went to physical therapy. Dana put me through a couple of terrible routines (”the frog” sucks big time). Then she examined the IT band. “It’s still tight,” she said. “But it’s getting better. In fact, the right IT band feels tighter than the left today.”

When we were finished, she said, “You can run a little this week. You can run every other day, and no more than five miles at a time. If you have intense pain, though, you need to stop right away.”

Throughout the day, I ate well. I had a sensible breakfast (yogurt and fruit), a sensible lunch (chicken sausage), and a sensible dinner (fish and snow peas). I did snack a little, but I did so consciously. I didn’t just gorge myself on Hostess Sno-Balls!

Things feel like they’re finally moving again. I did more stretching this morning. In a few minutes, I’m going to go for a mile walk, try to run for three miles, and then finish with another mile walk. Afterward, I’ll have something healthy to eat for lunch.

Why is it that I tend to forget the connection between physical activity and mental health? When I’m blue, exercise seems like a chore. But exercise isn’t a chore — it’s a treat.

It turned out my fears were unfounded. I’ve been going to the gym regularly. (Sometimes just once a week, but other times six days. I use it probably 10-15 times a month.) Meanwhile, most of the gym’s clientele is over the age of 50. And those of us who are younger are more interested in our own fitness goals.

There’s one guy who looks like a preening lunkhead, but turns out he’s a nice guy. In fact, Elvis is the glue that holds the weight room together from 9-10:30 most mornings. He’s funny, smart, and dedicated to improving his body. (I’ve written about Elvis at my my personal finance blog.)

None of the regulars are in to showing off. We’re not competing with each other. Some of the guys lift big weights, but they don’t make a big deal about it. Many of us — including Elvis, who is just about the strongest guy there — focus on lighter weights. And, as I say, we all pursue our own goals. We chat and kid each other and give each other advice. It’s a good group.

Interlopers
Today (Friday) I went to the gym to resume my modified lower-body exercise routine. I had my first visit with a physical therapist yesterday afternoon, and she’s asked me to work more on stretching and on strengthening my legs. (More about this on Thursday.) I spent an hour on the aerobics floor, doing my pushups, doing my stretches, and doing the new exercises from the physical therapist.

When I’d finished, I walked down to the weight room.

As I descended the stairs, I was startled to hear loud grunting coming from the weight room. All of us grunt when we push ourselves, but none of the regulars grunt like this. It was a showy “look at me” sort of thing, not a grunt of exertion.

There, at the bottom of the stairs, a big bald-headed guy was doing triceps extensions with a huge weight. Another big bald-headed guy was spotting him. (This, also, is unusual. It’s very rare that any of the regulars does anything that requires spotting. We stay within our limits.) The spotter was encouraging the lifter, “Yeah. That’s right. You can do it. One more.”

All of this seems fairly standard for most gyms, I think, but it’s strange at the gym I go to. But the real problem was this pair was loud. They were shouting. No conversation in the gym was possible. It was bizarre.

When the lifter finished, he shouted, “How much was that?”

“Seventy pounds,” shouted the spotter.

“Only seventy pounds?” shouted the lifter. “You gotta be kidding me. Bring me one hundred.” And so the spotter did. The grunting and shouted encouragement resumed.

I sat down on a bench and prepared to do one of my exercises. Elvis was sitting on the bench next to me. He was staring at the loud lifter and spotter, glaring. He tossed his head at them, his way of telling me he couldn’t believe the pair. I shook my head in agreement.

“That’s more like it,” the lifter said when he’d finished. “That’s the sort of weight I’m used to.” He stood up and preened around the gym. He walked over to Elvis and continued what must have been an earlier conversation.

“If you want any of those multi-vitamins, you know where to find me,” the big bald guy said.

“I don’t want your multi-vitamins,” Elvis said. “I have my own program that I’m happy with.” The big bald guy handed his card to Elvis and then the interlopers left.

The weight room was silent for a few minutes.

Like a family
Finally, Elvis broke the silence. “Can you believe those guys?” he said. Apparently they’d been in the weight room for a while, grunting and shouting and pushing multi-vitamins. Elvis showed me the business card: Mr. Muscle.

“Yeah,” I said. “They don’t really fit in with the culture we have down here, do they?”

“Not at all,” said another guy. We talked about how each of us has our own goals, and none of ever tries to show off to the others. Elvis pointed out that the guys weren’t even fit. They could lift a lot of weight, sure, he said, but they had a lot of body fat. It was as if they were specialized for one particular exercise.

It’s been a while since I thought about my gym’s culture and how much I like it. I’ve just become accustomed to it, I guess. I take it for granted. But today’s episode was a good reminder of why it’s nice to see the same familiar faces every day, and why I don’t mind being surrounded by older people when I’m exercising. They’re not trying to prove anything to anyone other than themselves.

After Saturday morning’s aborted attempt at a sixteen mile run, I was feeling miserable. It wasn’t just that my physical condition was poor — my mental condition had fallen off a cliff.

“We’re going out to eat,” I told Kris on Saturday afternoon. “We’re going to Buster’s barbeque and I’m going to eat whatever I want.”

But we didn’t go to Buster’s. I had a little more sense than that. I did pick up Safeway Chinese food, though, and a package of pre-formed chocolate chip cookies. Kris frowned. “You’re not going to be happy,” she told me.

“I don’t care,” I said.

At home, I ate half the Chinese food and threw the rest away. I made the chocolate chip cookies, but they sucked. I still ate too many (ten? twelve?) but most of those ended up in the trash, too. A waste of time, money, and food. And I still wasn’t in a good mental space.

On Sunday, I had okay food, but too much of it. On Monday and Tuesday, I ate whatever I wanted. Again, portion size was okay, but food choices were poor: donuts, soda, etc.

Meanwhile, I wasn’t exercising. From the end of my marathon training run until Tuesday night, I didn’t stretch, I didn’t bike, I didn’t walk. All I did was Monday morning’s pushup routine.

To top it all off, I didn’t write. I played computer games. I watched videos. I read comic books.

For four days, I turned into a wallowing mass of self-pity.

The whole time I was doing this, I knew that it was a mistake. I was even trying to put brakes on myself, limiting portions, not giving in to the worst of my impulses. But I was still eating compulsively. I was still avoiding exercise. I was still shirking my responsibilities. And all because I felt like my body had betrayed me.

None of these choices were conscious. They were just reflexes. I was doing what I felt like. I was the old J.D.

Fortunately, I woke up Wednesday with a better attitude. I ate a sensible breakfast (oatmeal and berries and a hunk of cheese). I did my pushups and then spent an hour doing my upper body workout at the gym. I got confirmation of my physical therapy appointment (which I’ll go to in a few hours). And then I began to tackle the enormous backlog of work for my web sites. (When I ignore them for a few days, things get out of control!)

In the past, I might not have been able to correct my course once I’d lost my way. This time, I did. But how do I keep from losing my way in the first place? How do I prevent setbacks from moving beyond physical and into the mental realm?

I don’t know.

I’m learning, of course, though slowly. My body actually craves exercise right now. It’s been five days since I did anything aerobic. As soon as I finish typing this, I’m going to get up from my chair, stretch, and then go for a run. I want to be able to tell the physical therapist exactly what my body feels like right now…

So before dinner, Megan and Pam made the brownies–mixing and stirring and frosting and sprinkling and of course carefully placing a few “M’s” on top. All was fine and dandy until dessert time. We all had a brownie and the kids went to bed. And then every time I walked past them for the rest of the night, I took a small nibble. A bite here and a bite there added up to at least another portion of brownies on the evening. I even had a bite this morning at 4:45 as I was leaving to go to the gym. Yep, I went to the gym this morning–before my family woke up. I did it on Monday too!

So you might think that I’m tempting myself today every time I walk by the brownies in the kitchen. But, I did the smart thing and set aside two brownies for the kids and painfully put the rest of the brownies on a plate for Pam to take to work so that her coworkers can get fat. Victory! At least for me.

What’s the moral here? You don’t need to deprive yourself of all the treats in the world. But you do need to recognize your weaknesses and exercise moderation. Then get your butt up early and head to the gym.

A couple readers were taken aback. “Do you have a full time job? How can you afford a whole lot of exercise?” Juan wrote. And Mike said, “How do you fit all this exercise time into a day if you have a 9-to-5 job?”

The simple answer is: I quit my job.

Big changes lead to big changes
Sometimes in order to make big changes in our lives, we have to completely alter our daily habits and routines. For years, my biggest excuse for not exercising was that I didn’t have time. Between work, writing, and Real Life, there was no time for physical fitness.

When I quit my job in March to become a “professional blogger” (a term that, while accurate, sounds ludicrous, even to me), I no longer had any excuses. But I didn’t need them.

My first day as a full-time writer was also my first day of regular exercise. The results have been astounding. In the past four months, I’ve developed a dedication to physical fitness that has surprised me.

Small changes lead to big changes, too
Though I had to quit my job before I could make time for fitness, that’s certainly not a requirement. You don’t need to go to the same extremes to make big changes in your life. You don’t need to quit your job to make time for regular exercise. The key is to analyze your own life, to know your strengths and your weaknesses, and to change your habits in small ways that lead to big results for you.

In 1997, for example, I lost 40 pounds by making a few simple changes to my lifestyle. When I got up in the morning, instead of reading the paper, I spent half an hour walking (or, eventually, jogging). I began to bike the six miles to work. During lunch, I’d go for a walk or ride my bike instead of loafing in the break room. I also began to track my calorie consumption. Individually, these changes were only minor alterations to my lifestyle. Taken together, they yielded 42 pounds of weight loss in six months.

More recently, my wife, Kris, has begun to make small changes to her habits. She’s going to bed a little earlier so that she has more free time in the morning before she leaves for work. She uses this time to go for a walk or to practice yoga. (Since our Wii died, she’s been unable to use the Wii Fit for her yoga fix. Instead, she’s developed her own routines which she does in the kitchen while listening to NPR.)

Together, Kris and I are trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, and we’re making an effort to have fish a couple times per week. (We both like fish; in the past, however, we’ve never thought to prepare it.)

Eight easy ways to change your habits
It can be difficult at first to determine just where you can squeeze exercise and healthy diet into your life. But I’ve found that, with time, it’s surprisingly easy to make the small changes that lead to big results. (And which lead to bigger changes of habit down the road.) Here are some techniques to make this process easier:

• Do what you love. If you don’t like to run, then don’t force yourself to run. If you don’t like broccoli, don’t force yourself to eat broccoli. Find exercises and healthful foods that you enjoy, and then make them a priority. You’re much likelier to stick to a new habit if it’s something that brings you pleasure instead of something that feels like a chore.
• Remove barriers from the things you want to do. If you bring home a bag of carrots, don’t stick it in the produce drawer. If you’re like me, you’ll never remember it’s there! Put it on the top shelf. Better yet, open the bag and dump the carrots into a ziploc bag or other easy-to-access container. Make it easy to do the right thing. Here’s a real-life example: I used to keep my bike and helmet in the garage. Makes sense, right? But that small thing was a huge barrier, which meant I rarely rode it. Instead, I brought the helmet inside and chained the bike to a tree in front of the house. Now it’s easy to go for a ride.
• Create barriers to prevent poor choices. On the other hand, it’s vital to make it more difficult to choose those things that are counter-productive to the life you want to lead. For me, that means not bringing crap food into the house. If I have cookies or ice cream or cold cereal close at hand, I’m going to eat them. If Starcraft is installed on the computer, I’m going to play it. If you, too, struggle with self-control, make it more difficult to do those things that sabotage your goals. (Developing self-control is, of course, the key to long-term success. I’m still working on that.)
• Devote space to the good stuff. If you can, set aside space for your exercise equipment or for your healthy food. Nickel at Fit 36 created an exercise room in his home in which he installed a rowing machine, some dumbbells, and an elliptical trainer. Though we never set out to do so, Kris and I have been gradually converting one room in our house into a yoga/Wii studio. (Yes, we really think of the Wii as a piece of exercise equipment. Dance Dance Revolution is very good exercise.) Meanwhile, I’ve devoted the top shelf of the fridge to healthy food.

• Tap the power of groups. Peer pressure can be a marvelous thing. If I had tried to trainf or the marathon on my own, I would have failed by now. But Pam, knowing her student well, suggest that I train with a group. This has made all the difference. My sister-in-law does Pilates with a group. Jim at Journal of Healthy Living even lifts weights with a group. Many people, of course, play team sports. Others seek group support to develop healthy eating habits. Working with other people can be a powerful motivator.
• Make use of “dead” time. Have a little extra time in the day? Go for a walk. Prepare a salad for the coming week’s dinners. Since my doctor prescribed stretching several times a day, I’ve learned to squeeze my routine in at odd times: while talking with friends after a meal, while waiting in line, while helping Kris in the garden. You might find a way to exercise while watching Lost, or during your lunch break, or first thing in the morning. (For me, using Saturday morning for a long marathon training run is a great use of “dead” time.)
• Don’t sweat mistakes. Everyone takes days off from fitness and diets. We all indulge ourselves now and then. I used to view a couple bad days as failure, and this made it even more difficult for me to return to my healthy habits. This isn’t the case. Diet and exercise are not “all or nothing”. If you make a mistake or take a break, enjoy the moment, then move on. Return to your new routine as soon as possible.
• Get fit slowly. Don’t try to do everything at once. This is difficult advice for me to give — I am the King of Compulsion. When I begin a diet or a fitness regimen, I want to do it full bore. But I’m beginning to learn this isn’t always the smartest technique. Change your habits slowly, starting with manageable chunks. Make more changes as you master the easy stuff.

The best way to begin eating healthy food or to exercise regularly is to make these choices habits. Sometimes it’s possible to make big changes to your lifestyle that yield impressive results, as when I quit my job and suddenly freed time to work out whenever I wanted. But it’s also possible to develop good habits in a normal nine-to-five world. It just takes a little planning and a willingness to make small changes to your lifestyle.

This was easy at first. Water is fine for a week or two, and I don’t crave alcohol under normal circumstances. But the last few days of the project were a trial. I began to crave jazzier beverages. I wanted a Diet Pepsi. Or some fruit juice. Or, especially, a glass of wine.

Actually, I only craved wine on two occasions, both of which were social gatherings with friends. Since then, I’ve come to realize that nearly all of my alcohol consumption comes in group settings. I use it as a social lubricant.

The results of my water-only experiment were great. I felt healthier and more alert. I lost weight. As Lazy Man noted recently, drinking water is an excellent weight-loss aid. Water is non-caloric. It’s essential for proper body chemistry. It helps to encourage a feeling of “fullness”. It doesn’t contain sugar or caffeine or man-made chemicals. And when you drink water, you’re making a conscious choice not to drink something else.

Ugly bag of mostly water
I’m ready to try this experiment a second time. During the month of July, I plan to drink only water. Though my fitness has been improving steadily for the past few months, my weight loss has slowed to a crawl. That’s fine, but I’d like to jump-start it a little.

“You get a lot of calories from drinks,” Kris told me the other day, and I realized she was right. By drinking only water, I have an easy way to reduce my calories and resume my weight loss.

I’ll make a couple specific exceptions to my water-only rule, but they’re minor:

• I have three chocolate protein shakes in the fridge that expire mid-month. My frugal nature doesn’t want to see these go to waste. I’m going to drink them. (Or maybe give them to Mac, if he wants them.)
• On my weekend training runs, I may drink forego plain water for sugar water.

These exceptions shouldn’t affect the overall experiment. My primary goal is to purge the caffeine, alcohol, and sugar from my beverages. This is going to be a challenge, but I know I can do it. I’ve done it before!

Image by Bohman.