Background

As this chart indicates, my lifelong battle with obesity has included rollercoaster of weight loss and gain. My senior year of high school, I lost around 40 kilos in about 2 months to attain the maximum allowable for the heavyweight class in wrestling. This crash program consisted of around 800 calories a day and 4-5 hours of exercise a day. Other, less dramatic, weight loss periods have been driven mostly by demand side measures, as in lots of exercise and less drastic changes to diet. Previous weight gain spikes were primarily driven by knee injuries, during which I was not able to exercise regularly and did not make the appropriate dietary changes to balance against that. The most recent upward trend is troubling to me in that it has happened in the absence of such injury; it is a result of a lifestyle: long, sedentary hours in front of a computer and too many big business dinners with plenty of drinks. A recent accidental mix of dietary supplement and cold medicine sent my blood pressure soaring and gave me a serious scare about the dangers of poor cardiovascular health. This program is designed to counteract this upward trend and engrain lifestyle changes that will all me to maintain a healthy weight. Quantitatively, the goal is to get down to 100 kilos, weight by body hasn't seen since elementary school, and run a 5K race by 31 December 2007. The 'happy times' begin at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve and the first weigh-in the following morning.

So why make this public via this blog? For reasons more numerous than obvious. One, it provides me with accountability, both to my regular commitments and for the overall goal. Two, it provides me a forum for support, from my social network and beyond via the Web. Three, I hope the documentation of my achievements will serve as a self-motivator to continue on my journey toward healthier living and potentially to inspire others to embark on their own.

This blog will recount my fitness program, diet plans, and track my weight progression.