The Middle

I have had personal physical fitness and health goals for as long as I can remember, and have done various things to help myself get there- with varying success.

Now, I believe I'm finally on the right track. I intend to use this space to record my progress, my discoveries, my musings. 

At some point I will describe where I have been on this journey up to now, but for now I am starting with the present, which is in the middle of my journey to fitness.

Right now I go to the gym hopefully twice a week, I go jogging a few times a week, and I do strength training with and without weights at home irregularly. My current near-future goal is to continue going to the gym as much as twice a week, going jogging every day I do not make it to the gym, and doing a regular (if not daily) home strength training program when it doesn't conflict with gym activity. Current long-term goals include being able to do pull-ups, being very lean (low body percentage fat), being highly flexible, having good enough cardio stamina to run a marathon, and being reasonably strong. When I say reasonably strong, I mean having a rock-hard core all around, a strong-enough upper body to do pull-ups three different ways, do inverted push-ups and plenty of normal push-ups, and lift heavy things easily. In the ideal, I'd love to be able to pick up a 100-140lb friend princess style and carry her as long as I please. Then again, in the ideal I'd have the body and the ability of a cirque du soleil performer.

So far I've been addressing physical fitness, but of course health is also highly influenced by diet. Right now I do not consume mammals, poultry, cephalopods, or most shellfish. I rarely consume soda, fast food, or most junk food. I occasionally consume ice cream, sweets, hot cocoa, other deserts, and obviously unhealthy food like sweet sauce Chinese take-out. I regularly eat sugar-heavy and carb-heavy foods like frosted mini-wheats in vanilla almond milk and bagels with cream cheese. I also regularly eat fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains, and egg.

My goals to do with my diet are less concrete than for fitness (in which there are so many benchmarking possibilities). I generally intend to gradually, and permanently, shift my diet to one high in lean protein, abundant fresh fruits and vegetables, and wholesome grains and legumes. This shift will also gradually reduce the frequency at which I consume the obviously unhealthy stuff like ice cream, animal fries, or ruby shrimp. It will also reduce the frequency of consuming dairy products (which I believe I should avoid). I don't intend to ever completely remove any of these things from my diet, but I don't want them to be featured once a week or even once a month. I want my normal, steady eating habits to not include them.

I have a long way to go but I'm already well on my way. I feel I'm on a steady incline of steps forward with no signs of taking any steps back. Just getting this far is an accomplishment, especially since I've had experience trying to "start getting better" and not getting anywhere. I've said I'll go running every morning and six weeks later not run at all. I've said I'll stop eating trash-foods as much and then had in-n-out 4 times in 3 weeks. I've said I'll go to the gym a ton and do sets of push-ups and crunches daily, and I've failed to get these ambitions off the ground. Now, though, instead of a big drastic plan, or even a gradual but poorly-planned or uncommitted plan, I have gradual, flexible, well thought out plans backed by the commitment that comes with momentum from the progress I've already made on my present program- which I started in mid-September. I'm only going onward and upward from here.