The doing things...

I'm not sure how much "Seinfeld" you've watched, but he does a bit I always liked about gym class.  I'm paraphrasing, but it goes something like, "Any day you had gym, things were a little bit off.  It starts out normal:  math, history, lunch, but then all of a sudden you're in shorts and a t-shirt, you're climbing ropes, other kids are throwing balls at you.  It's like you're suddenly in 'Lord of the Flies' for 50 minutes."

Ah yes, that childhood icon, the kick ball:

and the mother of all kick ball games of course - dodgeball.

In my school we called it "battleball".  I'm not sure why, maybe because it gave it that "Lord of the Flies" flavor the gym teachers were looking for.  We loved it, we begged to play it.

So fast forward to about 6 or so years ago.  My wife and some of her coworkers wanted to enter a dodgeball tournament (spouses welcome and needed).  I had no idea such things existed, and even though I was nothing close to fit, thought it would be fun.  I wasn't in very good shape, but I wasn't as far gone as I am now.  My goal was to basically not embarrass myself.

When we got to the "arena", we registered and went to check out some of the other teams who were warming up.  The teams were full of mostly 20-something "kids" who were ultra-organized, and could whip that ball.  I had no idea a kick ball could make that noise when it hit a human body.  My goal had changed from making sure I didn't embarrass myself to making sure I didn't lose a testicle.

Well, we got our asses summarily kicked, but boy was it fun.  As the years progressed, and my fitness/weight spiraled out of control, I never really felt like doing things like this anymore.  In fact, I felt more like this:

That is, until recently.  Over the past month and a half, working out has gone from something I would dread, to something I tolerate, to something that I'm finding myself actually kind of looking forward to.  In fact, the workout I had this past Friday was that workout.  The one where you feel like you're running on air right out of the gate, and you feel like you could go for hours.  When I was finished, that feeling lasted for the rest of the evening.

So, I'm kind of looking forward to doing "things" again.  My wife loves to bike, and in the past has had little, if any, success in getting me to accompany her on bike rides.  But now, it seems like that might be a lot of fun and a great way to get a workout in.  Both of us enjoy racquetball, and I find myself pricing summer memberships at local health clubs.  Another dodgeball tournament?  Count me in - it was kind of cool sporting those post-tournament welts.

The plan is moving along fine as ever.  I'm down another 3 lbs this week, and I'm averaging about 1800 cals/day with some hunger, but no real intense "craving".