The Power of Making a Decision

It takes only a microsecond for the mind to make a decision. A flitting spark across a series of synapses changes everything about a person in less time than it takes a lightning bolt to strike the ground.

When I woke up on April 8, 2018, that spark, for whatever reason, flashed across my brain, and I decided to change everything about myself related to health. I decided I wasn't going to have soda as my exclusive source of fluid intake every day. I decided I wasn't going to eat fast food at every meal every day. I decided I was going to purposely move my body with the intent of melting fat.

That April morning, I weighed in at 219 lbs.

I can't explain how that decision happened. I just made it.

Perhaps it was the fact that I constantly had to look at myself in the mirror when training karate and seeing that giant belly bulge. Perhaps it was the ongoing gastrointestinal distress that I was experiencing. It may even have been the fact that a high school friend of mine - someone I hadn't spoken to face to face in nearly 30 years - hit me up on Facebook on March 22 and asked if I would run a marathon on the 25th (three days later), an offer I was forced to decline because, well, such an endeavor could have quite literally killed me.

Whatever the motivation, the decision was made. Perhaps most miraculously, the decision has not been recanted at any point. I'm still going...

Let me share with you a typical week prior to this decision to change:

• Monday - Get 6 hours of sleep; go to work; stop at a fast food restaurant for breakfast; work until lunch, with a soda and a bag of chips at break; go to a fast food restaurant for lunch; finish work; go home; go out to dinner at a restaurant; go to karate (where there are lots of mirrors); go home; eat junk; surf the internet until after midnight; fall into bed.
• Tuesday - Same as Monday, but no karate.
• Wednesday - same as Monday.
• Thursday - Same as Tuesday
• Friday - same as Monday.

Saturday and Sunday would see variations on a theme, but I would at least eat one or two meals at home.

I had been working that same routine for years prior to April 8. Yeah, I wanted to change (as my previous entry on this blog indicates), but breaking a years-long habit is no easy feat. And then I woke up one Sunday morning and put an end to it all.

Just in case you wonder what kind of result such a diet has on a body, here's a picture of me teaching a self-defense class in 2016:

That's 40+" of visceral fat and bloat right there. I look like Buddha's kid brother.

Lacking the requisite svelte that I believe should accompany someone of my bearing as a self defense instructor (and husband, father, teacher, and role model for our dojo students), some things needed to change. And they did.

On the food intake side of things, I had to be accountable to myself. I downloaded a food tracking app on my phone and documented everything I ate. I cut out most fast food (finding acceptable items at restaurants I did visit). I stopped having soda entirely. I started taking a multivitamin, a probiotic, and (because of my age) an OTC free-testosterone booster. Breakfast became scrambled eggs and oatmeal with coffee. My snack became a healthy alternative to a candy bar. Lunch became a salad, a turkey and veggie sub, or some other lean option. We started eating a whole-foods dinner at home as a family. I allowed myself to splurge a little on Saturdays, but I still kept my intake at respectable levels (i.e. not eating 4000-5000 calories in a day).

Yes, there were days when I royally screwed it up. I was, by no means, perfect in my pursuit of dietary cleanliness.

The exercise piece I took slowly. At first, I just started walking at a faster-than-casual pace. Before my karate classes on MWF, I would do laps around the building in which our dojo is located. Each lap is half a mile. I would walk four laps before class. Eventually, I started walking longer and longer distances in my neighborhood. After about a month, I decided to mix running and walking. I would run three days a week and walk the other three. Saturdays I would keep to rest. I would take a long walk on Sunday morning before breakfast. At first, the walk was three miles. These days, I walk five miles before Sunday breakfast.

The running was hard at first. I never wanted to be a runner, even when I ran track in my senior year in high school. Yet there I was at 48 years of age chugging along the streets of my neighborhood. At first, I could run about a quarter mile before having to walk. During each run, I would force myself to run just a little further than I did last time. Just a couple of days ago, I ran a bit more than two miles without stopping. I just try to increase the actual running time every time I go out.

At the beginning of June, I started going to the gym three times a week to lift weights. I chose to coordinate those gym trips with my walking days.

After 15 weeks of work, the results of all of this effort include:

• I have shed 24 pounds of body weight, which includes probably 27-28 pounds of fat (with some muscle gains in there).
• I have dropped four inches around my waist.
• My cardiovascular and pulmonary health is much better, as indicated in the running endurance. The change is also quite evident in karate, where I can engage in strenuous grappling and sparring without becoming winded.
• My gastrointestinal discomfort is minimal.
• Flatulence is minimal, and stools are normal (sorry, TMI there, but it's true).
• My resting heart rate is in the mid-70s (as opposed to the low-90s).
• People notice the difference in my overall appearance.

Today is my 49th birthday. My goal is to get to 50 looking as fit as a 30-year-old. I think I am well on my way:

July 18, 2018

I took that shot in the dojo locker room after finishing a 3-mile run. I am a work in progress.

So I'll be back in a day or two with another post about exercise mindset and setting goals. I hope you'll come back for that update.

Be well.