Pondering Christian Ponder

On Sat Jan 5th 2013 the Minnesota Vikings will face the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in an NFL playoff game.  Regardless of what happens in this game, I think the Minnesota's quarterback Christian Ponder is terrible and his only redeeming quality is that his abundance of mediocrity is what keeps his team from being good.

I had an idea when I was walking to work this morning and so I when I sat down, I wrote this:

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It's Sat night, January, cold, and it's loud.  This is the playoffs.  This is what he's worked hard for years to get to.  Millions dream of this moment.  Thousands aspire to reach this level.  A few hundred have actually made it this far.  Significantly fewer can say they've made it to a playoff game.  This is it.  Division rival.  All or nothing.  Play big or don't play at all.  Friday night football nights are a long ways away from tonight.  No previous experiences in college or even high school could prepare him for this moment.

It's fourth and goal.  Fingers are numb.  All eyes are on him.  The aches of that last big hit are starting to set in.  Gotta push that aside.  The team needs him to play as though he's worthy of being in this position.  Ignore the naysayers.  He has to forget the past.  The present is all that matters.  Forget the last time he was literally in this same spot months ago.  All of that doesn't matter.  This is it.  The moment has arrived.  He clears his mind and takes a deep breath.  One lingering thought creeps into his mind as he experiences this moment in history:

transformation of a fatty

Last spring I joined a gym.  My friend got me into playing racquetball which was a total blast.  A couple of months later I had a messed up elbow and so cooled off on that and started doing more weights.  The goal was to lose a couple of pounds and feel better about myself.  At one point in February 2012 I was weighing in at 250 on a friends scale.  I carry the weight better because I'm tall but I knew I could feel the weight on me.  I felt sluggish and just clumsy.  It's hard to describe really but I knew something was wrong.

Fast forward to November.  It's cold and crummy out.  Holidays coming up which means lots of food and erratic lifestyle patterns.  I kept hitting the gym 2-3 nights a week.  Weights with some racquetball on occasion.  Weight hovering consistently around 242-245.

My boost came from signing up for the site myfittnesspal.com (MFP) after my doctor recommended it.  It's the first time I've used any site like this.  It's been a way to be honest with myself.  I'll eat whatever I want and do whatever I want still.  The catch is I'm forcing myself to record what I'm consuming and doing.  Not getting too over the top recording every little thing in there but it's been a real eye opening experience.

What I like the most is the way it crunches the number.  It figures out how much you are allotted for different categories like: calories, carbs, sat fat (something i need to stay away from), protein, cholesterol, and sodium (another one for me to avoid).  It shows me more or less what I've got allowed for the day.  After the gym I enter how long I rode a bike and other cardio stuff and so it increases what I'm allotted for the day.  Most importantly, it's a way to immediately what the consequences are for some of my consumption choices.  I had a frozen pizza one night.  Didn't lie about it and entered it in there and saw the outcome.  I've got no one to blame but myself for the results.

I'm not overly religious about using MFP.  I use it during the week.  Weekends is more difficult because I cook and wind up eating out too much with my g/friend.  I also drink A LOT on the weekends.  Even with allowing myself to slip on the weekends, I've had good results from this.  The week before Christmas I weighed in at 238!  I've not seen that weight in a couple of years!!!

So here it is after the holiday season.  It's Friday.  Tonight I'll weigh in and see that I'm in the 245 range again.  I can feel it. I'm OK with that.  I didn't do much at the gym in almost a month and this is all my fault.  I can't dwell on this too much. Next week will be better.  I've had my fun.  It's back to work.

A bad day eating + lots of alcohol and no gym action  :(

A good day eating + cardio at the gym :)

My point is that I'm looking forward making a strong push with this in the coming months.  I'm looking forward to using MFP in addition to my growing workout routine and seeing the results.  I'm happy with my progress in the past year.  From the couch, to racquetball, to weights, all in a year... it's been a (hopefully) life changing experience.  I'm looking forward to that "lean" feel i had just a couple of weeks ago.  I'm looking forward to going to bed at night semi sore from the gym and sleeping like a rock.  I'm looking forward to NOT waking up on a random morning with a sore back or neck because i slept wrong or did something stupid.  I'm doing this for myself.  I'm doing this so I can physically feel the way i feel mentally.  I'm doing this for me and to hell with everyone else.