I can remember the first day of football practice my freshman year. For most of the 14 year olds out for football, it was there first time officially playing the sport. Sure everyone had played pick-me-up games in the backyard, but real football isn’t exactly about having 11 receivers.
Our coach loved the mornings; the earlier the better. Practice usually started by 6:30am when the first ounces of sunlight would hit the football field.
I was so excited to begin playing. I was going to be the best. I was going to be the standout.
But at 6am on that first day I had my first revelation about the game. I didn’t have a clue on how to put together my pads. And neither did the other 90% freshman. Guys had thigh pads mistaken for knee pads, helmets had their chin straps on backwards, nut-cups were inserted upside-down.
As we walked on to the field, things only got worse for the Bad News Bears of football. Since I was slightly larger than most of the freshman, I was "thrown to the wolves" and was "privileged" to practice with the varsity and junior-varsity teams. This would have been great except for the fact that when I blocked someone I had a bad habit of putting my hands in front of my face. Helmets would collide, my fingers would get crushed, repeat the process.
Those first three weeks of freshman football practice were the worse days of my life. I felt like the small kid that has an older brother that grabs your wrists, starts smacking yourself in the face all the while screaming "quit hitting yourself, quit hitting yourself!"
Everyone has a freshman year. Starting a workout routine will be no different. Accept that there are going to be awkward moments, and you’ll be much better off.
September 5th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Almost 10 years ago, my then-wife and I found out that we were expecting our second child and I was making minimum wage driving a para-transit bus for the red cross. Lots of warm fuzzies in that job, but not a lot of money. I knew that if I were going ot provide my children with a life worth having, I had to increase my income.
Long story short I got a job as a garbage man. The first 3 months were more than a little rough. Every day I picked up and threw 16 to 25 tons of trash in 20 to 50 lb. increments over a 10 to 12 hour day. I doubled my income, but every night was a new experience in aches and pains. 2/3rds of the new people who accept a position as a route driver for garbage companies quit or get fired in the first 3 months, usually because the work is so hard.
I thought about quitting every day, but I had 3 other mouths I had to feed, so every day I toughed it out for my family, for the people that I loved. And I woke up in pain every day, put on my boots and did it again. My family needed me to, so I did it no matter how tough it was. Yeah, I could have gotten another job someplace else, but we needed an income that big NOW, not later.
Obesity kills you, taking you away from everone that loves you and everything you love. Your family and friends love you, and need you even if they don’t say so. If something as trite as money can move you to get up every day and go to work at a job that is less than ideal, shouldn’t the thoughts of a slow spiraling death at the hands of diabetes, heart disease, and liver and kidney failure related to diabetes provide the fire you need to hit the gym every day? If not, why not?
Most obese people (myself included) are obese because of the daily habits they have placed in thier lives. Most fit people are fit because of the daily habits they have placed in thier lives. RunFatBoy.com is an awesome way of changing ones daily fitness habits. What about a way to change one’s daily nutritional habits? Is there a tool out there for us average Joes to help in that department?
September 5th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Ian -
What a great response Ian. Most of the time when people have to make progress within their life, accepting the difficulties ahead is the hardest part. Once you get rolling, things usually aren’t as bad as initially thought.
I don’t know of an sites that are allow someone to easily get started with nutrition tracking. Most of them are fairly complex requiring you to have a fairly comprehensive background in the types of food you are consuming. Tracking colories is not enough.
I’ve thought about integrating some sort of easy to use nutritional tracking system within RFB, but for the shorter term, I have to conentrate on marketing and getting the word out about the site.