New beginnings.... new horizons.... new shape....
I was sitting comfortably slouched, sipping on a cold brew at my local watering hole..... my lovely lady sitting opposite me. I was feeling good, having just had a good win on the bowling green. The sun was shining, wild flower fragrance permeated the air and there was no pressing business to be done.... ahhhh, heaven is.
That's me, doing what I do best {grin}
And then my woman made what she thought was an innocuous (how the hell do you spell that word??) remark..... "you know, bowlers all have funny bodies, bellies hanging over their belts, slightly slouched and stooped"... she paused and then carried on... "except for the two you played against. They were rather slim and upright".
I doubt she noticed the fact that I stopped breathing, but I did. I was mortified, horrified..... in fact every 'fied' thats known to man. My opponents were 30 years my senior... and I was under the (obvious) illusion that I was in great shape. Pulling in my midriff, slowly lowering my beer to the table, I sat upright. Before I could open my mouth... my lady suddenly realised her gaff, and blurted out..."My love, that did not include you of course. You do have a bit of a boep.... but I still love your body" reaching out to pat my hand, still damp from the chilled beer glass.
Well dear reader, where the heck is this going you may ask ? Good question? It is going direct to the heart of the matter. My ego, damaged self image and my love of the good things in life (ok, that's quite a few heart of matters..)
At that very moment I did some real soul searching, had a good look in the mirror and actually saw myself in the flesh, as opposed to my image of what I was. I saw an ageing, pot bellied male. I was shocked. I was galvanised into mental action .....
And this is the start .....
It's so easy to let ourselves go, especially when we get older. I put on almost 35lbs from 31 to 35, just got complacent. Lost over 15 back while putting on some decent muscle, but it's a lot of work, crossfit about 4x/wk, dropped almost all carbs (except beer no more than 2x/wk) no bread, no grains, few fruits, I basically eat greens, meat and cheese. It's worth it though, look good, feel good, become more able.
Good luck to you!
Agreed Alanc ... although my posts are a bit tongue in cheek they do reflect the fact that I am now trying to lose 8 kg's, reduce my waist by 7 cm's while starting from a very low fitness base... I intend to use these articles as a sort of cathartic exercise as well as sort of progress meter ... thanks for reading it though !!