Restoring a Classic

Prologue

Okay, so as you may have read on my other blog, Rosa de Rosas, I’ve come to the realization that putting effort into maintaining my body might actually help in my quest for enlightenment. Not that I worship or idolize it or anything, it’s just that it’s the vessel (taken here in the vehicular sense) in which my soul will travel in this life. Considering how hard the journey is at times, I figure I may as well “pimp my ride”.

So with the goal of making my physical self like a Big Daddy Roth caricature of a ’62 El Camino, I have decided to do some ‘wrenching”. First off I’m gonna do a bit of chop-and-section work. I’d like to actually see my ribs again, so some body weight needs to go. To this end I’ve decided I will try Dr. Barry Sears’ Zone Diet. I’m not normally the kind of person who would think of trying a diet from the New York Times’ bestseller list, but I’ve actually witnessed the results in other people. One of my circle of friends has tried it and has offered to coach me. She’s an indie film maker / actress / theater person so she was already in pretty good shape but having shed 40 lbs. over the last year looks like a yoga magazine model now. The surprising thing is that she doesn’t seem to have to deal with the drama of hassling every waiter about her diet when ever she’s out with the gang. She can eat steak, drink wine and you’d never know she was dieting.

I’ve already been reducing my weight for over a year now, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. By the way, my Chiropractor /Physical Therapist scolded me for saying that I’d “lost” weight. To loose something is negative – to reduce or shed it is positive. So after some friends persuaded me that my two-pint-a-day beer habit was not exactly a healthy thing, I’ve stopped drinking beer during the work week, from Monday morning to Friday afternoon. Just this one change in my diet has allowed me in 12 months to reduce by 25 lbs, and two inches in my waist line. Great. To reduce any further will require more work, but I’m ready for that, I think. I’ve also decided that in order to repair my body I need to rest consistently so I’m going to make myself sleep an average of 6 hours a night. My work often keeps me from doing this, but I’m going to try to average it out 6 hours/night over the course of a work week.

Starting Out

So to begin here’s what my stats look like:

August 10, 2006

Weight: 240 lbs

Waist: 41

Wrist: 7.75

% Body Fat: 24

Pulse: 84 (Mid-Day, slight stress)

Zone Blocks per Day: 15

My short term goals are to:

See my ribs and move mi pansa north to my chest.

Sleep an average of 6 hours a night.

My long term goals are to:

Resume martial arts training.

Compete in an endurance sport.

So with these rather simple goals in mind I’m going to report my progress here. I’ve already been on this program for a few days while setting up this blog so I’ll have a report at the end of the week.

PEACE

G