Note this post appears in North Queens Runner in addition to I’m Not Grandpa
I’m back in a familiar place—in front of the keyboard writing another how do I resolve my weight gain post. I’ve written several over the years, like this one and this one.
Keeping fit gets tougher as you get older, this year was more difficult than past years. Being a stay-at-home Dad, managing my Dad’s health care during his illness, and caring for Mom, were among the challenges I faced. A sedentary consultant gig didn’t help much either.
It’s not like I’ve been completely inactive, I haven’t been able to maintain consistency. Every time I’d gain traction, something came along and derailed my progress.
The way my clothes fit and how my bulging belly looked in pictures, I knew I gained weight, I just didn’t know how much. A few weeks ago I replaced a broken bathroom scale—it was a wake-up call. Like recent pictures of me, it wasn’t flattering.
The scale said 225. Stupid scale. This was before celebrating the Christmas holiday with the family. Two days of solid eating, lasagna, ribs, pernil, chased with beer, wine and coquito (Puerto Rican Egg Nog) and lots of desserts during Christmas Eve spent with my family and Christmas Day with Esther’s pushed the scale to 228 as of yesterday morning.
Now it’s time to fix the problem. This isn’t a resolution post—I don’t make resolutions—I set goals. My current goal is more about creating new habits, than resolving to lose 15 or 20 pounds. My first goal is getting active or more accurately fitting activity time into an already busy schedule.
Over the past few days I started with slow runs, actually run/walks. Sunday Morning Esther and I bundled the baby up taking him for a long walk in his jog stroller. This morning I woke up at 5am before things got hectic and ran for 30 minutes, it was more of a challenge since Cristian woke me up at 1:30 this morning for a bottle.
My second goal is eating healthier and smaller portions. Although I started running again, unless I consume less calories than I burn, I’ll keep gaining weight.
Motivation is important and mine is simple, it’s not about race times, personal records, or about maintaining my brand as the Badass 50-something marathon running first-time dad, it’s about Cristian. He’s getting bigger and more energetic and deserves a dad who is there for him. I owe him that.
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