OT: Who would have thought it?

We interrupt this blog to bring you a long and almost certainly rambly post that is completely and utterly unrelated to WoW. In excess of 1300 words without mention of a paladin, Blizzard or anything you have come to expect from me, this is not signifying a change in the blog, it is just something I wanted to write. I usually keep my RL and my blogging very separate, but hey, it's my blog, if you read on,  you have been warned! :)

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Six weeks ago, I was a pretty normal IT nerd, depending how you define normal :). I didn't get a heap of exercise - maybe walked to work once a week or so, and my diet was hardly wonderful.

I had switched to lite milk from regular on my cereal, and I had switched to carbonated dishwater instead of real soft drinks (Coke Zero, Pepsi Max).  I had takeout multiple times a week and lollies and chocolate most days at work.  On the weekends I'd hoe into chips or biscuits while watching the TV.

The little diet changes weren't making a difference, and my waistline was continuing to expand.  One of the genetic things that guys have as part of their very makeup is that they hate shopping, and especially clothes shopping.  Now if there is one thing I detest with a vengeance, it is having to buy new clothes because the perfectly good clothes already in my wardrobe no longer fit.

It's a pretty simple equation I know, the calories out must be greater than the calories in to lose weight generally speaking and medical conditions not withstanding.  But I like my food and don't want to eat like a rabbit just to lose weight. This left only one, very drastic course to take. I would have to r... r... run. See, I can barely even say the word! :)

I must give you some background. Being an IT nerd isn't something that is new, and being un-sporty isn't either.  I was terribly proud at high school because I set a new record for the 12 minute run - 20 minutes! :) It takes skill to be that unfit. So the thought of running, for pleasure, I really must question my sanity. Oh, what is that I see, a purple unicorn outside my window? Yup, moving on.

I have several friends who have been running for some time. They go out rain, hail or shine and run obscene distances most days of the week. I have previously mocked them mercilessly, and that makes this even more embarrassing.  I had heard about a program called C25k. It's designed to get anyone, and they do say anyone able to get off the couch (that would be the 'C'. lol) and run 5k in a reasonable time, over a period of nine weeks, three sessions a week.

I decided that this couldn't be a bad thing to try - even if it took me double the time to get there, I would be doing something to help stave off immanent purchase of larger clothes.  I am not trying to run a marathon next month or anything crazy, I am just trying to get fitter.  So I started - the program has you initially running for 60 seconds, then walking for 90 and repeating this for 20 minutes, bracketed by a warm up and cool down five minute walk. I managed this first session without my heart actually stopping, but I sure was knackered after it.

Some time in the now distant past, I did a similar thing. Well, I started a similar thing, but the constant looking at my watch and trying to work out whether I was meant to be running or walking and now long I had to go just didn't work. It was clunky, it involved much frustration and it was doomed to failure.  I lasted maybe 3 sessions, then gave it up.

Smart Phones change your life in many ways, and here is a good one.  There is an app on the Market, yes market as in Android, not Store for you Apple fanbois/fangirls ;) … no, cheap shot, it’s available on both.  This app is free, fully featured and this has been the difference to me keeping going. It doesn’t yell at me, it doesn’t try to motivate me, it doesn’t try to be cute in any way, it simply beeps when I need to change pace, and beeps again when you are finished.  App goes on, phone goes in the pocket, and off I go. Nothing could be simpler. There is also a paid version with extra stuff like being able to play music etc.  The app is called C25k Lite and has a red sneaker as its icon.

In addition to the running and walking three times a week, I have made some more diet changes.  They aren’t big ones, but they are sustainable for me. I have cut out one or two meals of junk food in a week, but not all of them.  I still have burgers and fries, I just try to have medium not large ones.  I have cut down on some of the chocolates and lollies, and started drinking a LOT more water. Literally liters more a day. I have also bought packets of mints, and try to have a mint instead of chips, or chocolate etc. I also do my run in the mornings before breakfast as that is meant to be better as it is burning fat from dinner the night before.

So here I am, some six weeks after I started (I did have to repeat a couple of runs in the fourth week as I was just not able to get them done), and this morning, I ran for 20 minutes. Without stopping. Seriously?? Wow. I just ran for 20 minutes. That is still sinking in. No, it wasn’t fast, in fact it was probably barely above a walk for most of it and the people who passed me must have been laughing mightily at this puffing, panting wreck. But when I started, if you told me that I would be able to run for 20 minutes after a relatively short time I would have referred you to a mental practitioner, after laughing so hard that I would have probably caused myself an injury!

So, I am obviously making a difference in terms of my endurance, but what about the weight.  I know that I am probably putting on muscle … at least I hope so, and muscle weighs more than fat. For the first few weeks I didn’t lose anything, but the last two weeks, I have lost a kilo each week (and if you are still reading and from somewhere that uses imperial, sorry, no idea what that is in pounds).  Apparently I don’t just put weight on around my middle, I put it on everywhere, and so it must be coming off everywhere. I suppose. I can’t really see it, and I just have to trust my scales. To quote a well-known Australian car manufacturers slogan, Bugger!  Presumably the waistline will start to contract once I get some of the rest of the weight off - I was hoping for some instant difference, but then again if I had the instant difference I probably wouldn’t still be doing it!

TL:DR: Pretty small diet changes and some exercise that you didn’t know that you could do will help. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen (second dodgy advertising reference in the one post. lol) and when it does, it is a great feeling. Oh, not the I-am-completely-stuffed feeling, because you will get that too, but the sense of achievement from being able to run for 20 minutes? Priceless. (3rd ad reference. Fail)