Staying in shape

I used to think I was in shape, I mean round is a shape isn’t it? It is just now towards the end of this deployment that I realize how out of shape I really used to be. The other day I looked at a picture of myself when we were at NTC (National Training Center) in California last March and I could not believe how big I looked. By big I mean round.

I used to get out of breath just wearing my body armor, and by that I mean just wearing it, not even moving. And carrying my .50 cal across the parking lot to my truck would seriously wear me out (it does after all weigh about 80 pounds with both pieces, but still). Now and days I can damn near run with the thing while wearing my body armor and carrying all my other gear as well and I still feel great. It is also nice to be able to go running and actually enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong I am still horrible at running but I used to run like a crippled water buffalo with asthma. Cutting down on smoking has helped a lot with all this. I had actually quit for about 3 weeks but then I fell off the wagon ( I plan on quitting again soon, no really after this pack) hmmmm (or maybe the next one). Smoking and keeping my weight down have been the biggest battles so far. It is actually hard to lose weight here. This is in part because they serve you way too much food at the chow hall and I can’t seem to break the habit of eating every damn thing that they put on my plate. I also go to the gym as often as possible and actually find myself getting annoyed when I can’t go. If you had told me that I would feel this way 2 years ago I would have flicked my cigarette butt at you, poured my drink over your head and then gone back to eating my pizza.

I think my greatest fear right now is that I will get home and fall into all my old patterns and get big again. I plan on getting a membership at the Y when I get home but it will defiantly be a test of willpower to go everyday versus sitting on the couch watching TV and eating pizza. There will of course be some of that as I just plain need a break for a bit. But I think that with my return coinciding with spring / summer it should be pretty easy to get out and about and not spend too much time on the couch. And of course I expect Trevor to hound me about skateboarding which does not seem doesn’t seem like such a bad idea after this experience.

Well that’s all I have to say about that. I would like to urge all my friends that smoke to cut back, even a little, and try and do some cardio every once in a while. It really sucks for the first 4 weeks but man after that it really starts to feel great. I mostly wrote this Blog for myself though so don’t feel as if I am preaching to anyone please. When I find myself sitting on the couch watching too much TV and eating too much pizza I can read this to remind myself to get my fat ass off the couch and go for a run.