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Wow. It’s still here. It’s been more than a year since I seriously updated this blog, and six months since I’ve even posted something as simple as a weight update. And it’s easy to tell. My last post: 267.5. My weight today: 266.5.

I’m tired of waking up every day and thinking “this is the day that I get back on track.” A cheeseburger here, skip an opportunity to exercise there… and another day, another chance to improve my health, has passed me by.

But a confluence of actions have brought me back here today. Each one, in it’s own way, helped to tear down an armor of denial I have been building up since that half marathon I ran almost two years ago. When you’ve done something like that, torturing your body through 13.1 miles of road torture, you think you can do it whenever you want. It’s like flipping a switch. “Run in a half-marathon? Yeah. Been there, done that. Got the t-shirt. I could do it again, no problem.”

Memory is a funny thing. I remember that the run, well, wasn’t that bad, really. I trained properly for it, and was ready to tackle the challenge. I wasn’t fast, but I accomplished the goal. In fact, it almost seems easy… in retrospect. But the reality is, it was hard. Very hard. I got up every morning to do my training runs. I ran in New York City in late October in 30 degree weather so I didn’t miss training. I ate right at virtually every meal. That’s what’s hard. That’s what deceives you. The run is easy because the preparation is hard.

The first attack on my armor came a few months back when I was introduced to “Trainer” Joe Fulir. Joe is  a personal trainer in Jacksonville, and has inspired some coworkers to really transform themselves over the past few months. I was talking to Joe about doing some consulting for the EmPower Magazine (formerly Power of Prevention) at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. In the conversation, we talked about having a Boot Camp for staff members at AACE. A group of others quickly signed up, and our group was born. I’ve been working out with this awesome group for a couple of months now. I can already tell that my muscle groups are becoming stronger. [chink in the armor] But I’ve still been slacking on my eating habits and cardio workouts.

Lucille is a coworker at AACE and one of the individuals that has been transformed by Joe. Maybe one day I will (with her permission) share some pictures of Lucille just a year ago and then today. She is so excited about her new lifestyle, and she has been a cheerleader for the rest of the staff to get on board. One day, we were talking about the weight that I had lost, and the fact that I’m working out now, but not eating right. She asked me what was different, and I said it was this blog. When I was blogging every day, I was accountable to it, to you, and ultimately to myself. She told me that I needed to start blogging again, immediately. [chink]

At a Board of Directors Meeting just two weeks ago, the President of my Association, who has taken a strong interest in my personal health, asked me what happened to all of the weight that I lost. Many would take this as offensive, but I believe that we mollycoddle too much with people’s weight. When you lose it, everyone is excited to tell you how good you look. It’s incentive to keep going. But when you start gaining weight, no one tell you that you are going the other direction. you don’t regain the weight overnight, and I’m convinced that this type of negative reinforcement could help people catch themselves before they get too far gone.

But I digress…

So, when I told the doctor that I’m in the Boot Camp, he asked when would he see the results. Knowing that I will see him again in October, we made a gentleman’s bet that I would make visible progress before the October meeting [chink].

The final step to bring me back here, and hopefully officially on the path to better health, happened in an elevator. I was checking my Facebook on my phone while riding to my office. I saw a post from Shonali Burke with a post-Boot Camp picture. I knew that I would be going to Boot Camp later in the day and commented on her photo. What happened next was a perfect example of the viral nature of social media, and the tenacity of Shonali. [Chink]

Within hours, a Facebook group was formed for individuals taking part in Boot Camps. [Chink!] Members were already sharing inspiration and goals with each other.

Understanding from my PR roots that goals must be measurable, I decided to share mine:

1. Run a half marathon on Thanksgiving Day
2. Lose 30 pounds by January 1 (Currently 270)
3. Blog at least one time per week

OK. I can check that last one off… this week, at least! [Chink, chink chink!]

It’s not an unimportant goal. I hope that some of the new readers will go back and read some of the posts that I made back when I was making my push toward the half marathon in 2009. You will see that without question, being held accountable to this blog kept me on course to attain my goals. I recognized at the end of the journey that I needed new goals to keep me moving forward. But right there, my own words betray me. “End of the journey.” There is no end. Rather, the “end” is one I’d rather not see for about 70 years or so.

So, I’m tired of not fitting into my newer “skinnier” clothes. I’m tired of not having the energy I once had. I’m tired of not being able to run a 5k without stopping. I’m tired.

And now I’m inspired. Inspired by you for me. All I can ask for are your words of encouragement and prayer. Help me get to my short term goals. Help me move beyond them. And, if somewhere along the way I can provide a sliver of inspiration to someone else, then that’s even better.

Let’s get to it!

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