No, I’m not talking about booze. I torched that wagon in college and have been enjoying Guinness regularly since then. That said, beer has certainly contributed to my tumble from an entirely different wagon … which is ‘not being a fat guy’.
In late 2007, I weighed in at trim (for my height) 185-190 pounds just before taking a job as executive director at the Providence Animal Rescue League (PARL). I was eating right(ish) and going to the gym very regularly. Without going into a lot of details, being executive director at an animal rescue organization entailed a huge leap in work hours (typically between 60 to 70 per week) and stress. The latter also led to a sharp change in my eating habits (all bad) and it didn’t help that there’s a great little bar directly across the road from PARL (Alibi Cafe … if you go, tell head bartender Brent I said hello).
Long story short, I gained weight steadily throughout the year I worked at PARL, and more so when it became obvious that my leadership position there was not going to work out. I have stayed heavier than I liked since then, but a recent convergence of family visiting, writers conferences, and other festivities created a kind of ‘perfect storm’ of bad habits. End result, I got on the scale after NECon and saw that my weight had spiked to 228 pounds.
Now, this weight will almost certainly startle my friends and followers who knew me in high school. I remember clearly when I had my freshman physical at Pepperdine University (age 19) I weighed in at 136 pounds at six feet tall. I remember this because the doctor on staff emphatically told me that the campus cafeteria was “all you can eat”. Boy, those days are LONG gone!
So anyway, I’m not terribly happy about my current tonnage. That said, I’ve recently decided that I’m done with the moaning. I’m back to going to the gym and I’ve changed around my eating habits. This will take a while, as it did the first time around.
The challenging thing will be incorporating workouts into an already full schedule. There’s a reason why the majority of writers you meet aren’t also underwear models. Work (the bill-paying gig), museum duties, writing, working out, etc., etc. Typically, when schedules fill up, the first thing to go is the exercise stuff. I can’t let that happen.
In any case, you’ll be treated to the occasional updates. It’ll be an adventure (a long, sweaty adventure…)
