A new blog is born...

Few people know my complete story.... Most of you who know me on a casual basis simply know that I'm fanatical about my fitness and that I work out like an absolute maniac.

Yep, I work out a lot. Usually twice a day and it's not unusual to see me "hit it hard" three times a day.

The reasons for my radical devotion to fitness are complicated. I do however intend to eventually "come out of the closet" as it were regarding my motivation through the writing of this blog. That's not going to be easy for me. I'll first need to lay some groundwork and provide some background. It'll also take some time to get used to "blogging" and the revealing of my personal and unique story.

I have heard on more than one occasion, from those with whom I've shared the details regarding my unique relationship with the calorie, that it is indeed, a very interesting story. I hope that through telling it, I can bring some motivation, inspiration, information and at least something to contemplate that will help others on their own quest for fitness as they struggle with the challenges that we all face in operating our own, ever unique "Calorie Lab".

A major milestone in my life occurred in 2005. I had a good number of personal challenges that year and it all came to a head with a trip to the emergency room because of chest pain. Two stents later, at the age of 52, I found myself in my cardiologists' office with the sobering prescription: Quit smoking and loose all that extra weight. I then realized exactly how bad a combination of smoking and obesity is! From my perspective, at that moment, it looked like I'd be lucky to reach my 55th birthday. I needed to make some changes.

In that year of 2005, I managed to both quit smoking and lose 93lbs.

I learned a great deal that year and I've learned a lot keeping it off for the past four years. Many of those lessons involved the development of discipline, the true value of delayed gratification, the effectiveness of the habit of goal setting and the cumulative power of many small victories. I was surprised by some things I learned about myself and I look forward to sharing with you all of the skills I've learned and the strategies I've used to obtain a balance between my calorie consumption and my calorie expenditure.

I am by choice a conservative Christian but I can not deny my "Libra" birth date propensity toward a balance that always ultimately resembles a Taoists' perception that the "ying & yang" duality can be observed in virtually every life circumstance. It's a blessing and a curse! (See what I mean!)

About the title of my blog "The Calorie Lab" - My experiences with diet and exercise have helped me develop a truly unique appreciation for the calorie. The calorie is the most basic unit of energy that embodies the very essence of life. Every beat of our heart, every expansion and contraction of our lungs, the electrical synapse of our thoughts and feelings, every conscious or unconscious activity of our brain both sympathetic and parasympathetic can find its enabling power from the calories we consume.

Another aspect that fascinates me revolves around the old "Circle of Life" shtick. As corny as it seems, yep... you know where I'm going.... for every calorie we consume, a unit of life was sacrificed to pass on that unit of energy to us. My general point, and a point that I will probably touch upon with almost every proceeding diet related post is this: The food we eat and the activities that we engage in to utilize these calories demands a much higher level of respect than is often afforded them.

Much today is said regarding the topic of "Quality of Life". I'd like to propose that if more effort and thought were directed towards the food we eat combined with the activities we engage in to expend these calories, our quality of life would improve so drastically that we would have NO need for debate relating to the entire topic of health care today in the United States today! Health insurance would without question be affordable for everyone.

It is also evident to me that there is a direct correlation to the quality/quantity of our calories consumed and the quality/quantity of the activities that make up our every day lives. A diet of soda and snack food will most certainly produce a "couch potato" quality of life.

My intent with this blog is to post a weekly thought on Sunday evening. I intend to include a synopsis of the previous week and a total of my calories consumed, calories burned and the activities I'd engaged in to achieve my balance.

Here it goes....
This week:
I've run 330 floors of stairs (150 real, 180 Stairmaster), Rowed 17,979 meters, Climbed 1 mile on the Versa Climber, Ran 13 miles, Biked 85 minutes and attended 2 very intense crossfit workouts & 1 Workout with 5x5 back squats at 125 on last set.

My current weight is 165lbs.
I've consumed: 19,743 kcal
I've burned through workout: 6,061 kcal
Net Kcal = 13,682 kcal
Daily kcal goal = 2088
Weekly Goal 14,616 kcal
Calorie Deficit of: 934 kcal

Since a pound of fat = around 3500 Kcal

I should've lost almost 1/3 of a pound this week.

I'm presently trying to get "extra lean" to 160lbs. I'm happy with 1/3 of a pound for the Christmas week!

If for some reason you're interested, my details (warts & all) are also available at:

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/diary/who/Stairclimber_D/

Thank you all for visiting. Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy the read!

P.S. If anyone does indeed peruse the details.... Yes I know that 30%+ of total calories is WAY too high to spend on beer for any one day!... Perhaps I'll be able to justify that in a future post! :-)