The Reason

On December 30th I stepped on the scale for the first time in about 8 months.  I weighed a little over 224 pounds.  It was a bit shocking to me.  I didn’t know that I gained so much weight.  Now, it’s not the heaviest I have ever weighed, which was about 235 pounds, but the weight gain was a bit disappointing.  When I met Eunkyung about 7 years ago, I looked much different.  Down in the basement in my fishing mancave, I have a portrait of our wedding picture up there.  And man.. I looked different.  I was fit, full energy, and happy.  I look at myself now, and I see and feel like a different person.  I have always been happy, but definitely I have a lot less energy, and definitely not very fit.  I had to do something, I had to make a change.

No, I didn’t get surgery, but I decided to make my health a priority.  I think a lot of the weight gain came from a lot of excuses.  I really thought the reason for my weight gain was because of taking care of kids.  Yeah, I blamed it on the kids, sorry Norah and Ben!  But it’s not true.  I just think that having kids took out all my energy and that the way I looked on December 30th is just normal and inevitable.  But it’s not true… I can change.  So I decided to change my lifestyle.  I can’t go to the gym, because of COVID-19, but that shouldn’t stop me from working out.  I bought a cheap exercise bike and looked up exercises I can do at home, that doesn’t involve yoga.  Also, I knew I needed to check on the amount of food I am eating.  Basically, everything I think I can eat… eat half of it and count every calorie. 

Today is March 9th and I now weigh 177.4 pounds.  I have lost a total of 46.6 pounds.  I am trying to get to about 160-165 pounds, almost there!  The last time I weighed 160-165 pounds was when I was a freshman in high school.  I have always been a “husky” kid, since I was young, which is fine, nothing wrong with that.  But I feel like at my age, and what I want to do physically, I want to be at that 165 weight range.

And if anyone was curious, I am not skipping out on any meals.  I still eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and to be honest, I still eat at McDonalds or any other fast food joint (once in a while), but just really thinking about how much I eat.  Instead of eating a double quarter pounder, with large fries, a coke, and a sausage biscuit, and I am not eating a double quarter pounder, small fries, and a diet coke.  By doing little things like that I can cut out like 300-400 calories easy and still feel satisfied. 

I am losing weight, not to look better, but mostly feel better.  I want to not worry about my health when I get older.  I want to get older and still be active and mobile.  OK.. honestly, my big motivation to stay healthy is because I want to fish more.  I don’t want to be that guy that picks one spot to fish.  I love exploring, I love fishing and getting to fish areas that people don’t fish.  Hiking through woods, brush, up and down cliffs.  I want to hit multiple spots and find fish, not wait for fish.  I want to keep doing that even when I get older. 

Central PA has way too many amazing fishing spots, a ton of creeks to go to, but it involves a lot of hiking and exploring.  There are too many public lakes to fish.  My goal is to catch a 22 plus inch native brown trout, catch brook trout, which involves a lot of exploring and going to remote area of hard to access spots.  I want to land a 10lb largemouth bass (if they exist up here).  Those achievements will take a lot of time to get, and a little bit of luck.  I am 40 years old, and I don’t know if I will reach my goal in the next 5 years, or 20 years.  So… I better stay healthy for the long run, so I can achieve my goal in fishing. 
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Well that is what motivates me right now… so what am I waiting for… better get moving!