Getting in shape: Day 1

I believe that an artist, a person who attempts to engage in creative processes through discipline, technique, and the expression of emotions and thoughts, benefits from taking care of him/herself. To that end, and in search of focus, I will begin to track my health progress.

Status quo
The status quo is not good. I have very slowly begun gaining weight. Before my scale broke (unrelated :) ), I was at about 170 lbs. I am 5'9 3/4." To many, this probably sounds just fine, and, indeed, according to the BMI calculator that I used, I am slightly under the borderline for being overweight. The problem is that I feel that I am gradually gaining weight, and it will not be long before I am overweight. Basically, I feel that I need a lifestyle change.

Attempts so far
During college, I always ate lunch and dinner at the cafeteria. This was kinda crappy because I always ate too much at once so that I would not need to eat later on...and eating a lot at once is not a good thing. Since graduation and the subsequent move off campus, I have started making conscious efforts to eat less. I believe that quality of diet is important, but quantity and frequency also are. Something like a big double-chocolate chip cake from KFC, if eaten in its entirety, is surely troublesome. However, if one limits what one eats the rest of the day, it almost makes up for the gorging. Second, frequency. Eating a piece of fried chicken 3 times a day may not be that bad, but the doing of this should be spread out over the course of a day if possible.

Second, I take a multivitamin every day. It would be very time consuming to add up all of the nutrients in the things that I usually eat. I bought a jar of 300 vitamins for about $7.50, which works out to $.025/pill. It's a worthwhile investment of time and money to me.

Inentions
So, having made attempts to take care of diet and nutrition, I have realized that I have left exercise out of the equation. I have largely lost out on exercise's many benefits, including improved breathing and air support for sound production (of great importance for an asthmatic like me), such as singing and speaking. Exercise also helps your system get the crud out.

Therefore, knowing the downfall of my negligence, and believing that an artist must be in good health to make well-contemplated decisions as well as produce good sound such as that important for a story-recorder, and needing a medium through which I can focus on my health development, I now begin a daily recording of the exercise that I do, as well as anything else relating to my health, such as whether or not I took my vitamin and took my asthma medicine twice.

Without further ado:

Today's health progress
I laced up the sneakers and tried to go for a jog. I felt so heavy! I tried to jog to a a neighborhood park that Google Maps says is an eleven-minute walk away. I had not even gone a block when I started feeling like I was carrying dumb bells with me. My feet, my chest, everything felt so heavy. I turned the corner at the park, jogged a couple more blocks, and stopped. I thought, geez, this is so difficult! I then started to walk the rest of the way back. (Along the way, I found a dog and returned it to its owner.) The temperature was 92 F at 3 o'clock p.m. I do not know what my current weight is because my scale is not working. However, I would not be surprised if I had ballooned to 175.

Health notes: Took my medicine this morning and a multivitamin this afternoon. Ate raisin bran for a late breakfast. I should probably eat again before I get hungry; need to keep the metabolism going. I am trying to not rest my fingers on the edge of the keyboard when I type. Did a few ab exercises this morning.