My fitness story

[Big Six]

I've decided to join the group of you who are making a commitment to getting yourselves in better shape and recording the results of your efforts here. I hope I'm as successful as many of you have been.

Here's the story. I teach high school history at a private school in Virginia. Like most prep school teachers, I wear a lot of hats: I coach the track and field teams, I announce football, basketball, and lacrosse games, and I'm a ropes course instructor.

I turned 47 in April. By the time my dad was my age, he had already had a heart attack, bypass surgery, and a number of other health concerns. I've always taken better care of myself than he did; he smoked, which I've never done, and he weighed considerably more than I did. He began to take better care of himself after he had heart surgery for the second time, but unfortunately the damage was done. He passed away just before his 63rd birthday. I want to make sure my chances of a longer, fuller life are as good as I can make them.

I'm 6'1", and probably weigh 215 pounds or so. I'll weigh in before I start my program.

I've always been pretty solid, even when I was in excellent shape, so even at 215, I don't look terribly overweight. I'm thicker than I want to be, however, and I'm not liking what I see in the mirror when I have my shirt off right now.

I weighed about 175 in high school, and stayed about the same until I was about 30. I've been as heavy as 235, after my dad died, and at one point ten years ago, I was back down to about 180. I would love to be back in that neighborhood again.

My wife supports my efforts 100 percent. She's in excellent shape herself, and she'll help me make sure I'm eating right. She teaches at the same school--middle school history and Latin--so we'll pack our lunches together. That will help me avoid eating the wrong things.

For one thing, she doesn't have the weakness for food that I do. I've always loved to eat--especially the kinds of things that put on the pounds. If my job didn't require me to keep on my feet, I would easily weigh a lot more than I do.

I've had problems with my right knee since I hurt it playing high school football. I've also had a few minor problems with my back, which I hope will be lessened after I drop some weight.

We have a Wii console, with Wii Fit Plus and EA Sports Fitness. I'll be using both those programs as part of my workout regimen, and I'll also do some walking and biking. We have a very good strength and conditioning facility at our school, so I'll use it, too.

I'm not sure I'll post daily, but I'll try to post as frequently as I can. I'll be keeping track of what I eat and drink each day, along with a description of what kinds of workouts I'm doing.

I'd like to lose, on average, three pounds every two weeks. That would put me well under 200 by Christmas, and back in the 180 range sometime in early 2011.

Wish me luck!

My first weigh-in will be tomorrow morning, and the story will begin...

[Dodgerchick]

Yeah!! Good luck Big Six!