My name is Mike and I am an ESTJ. Well, that's what my Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment that I took ten years ago told me. What ESTJ indicates is that I tend to lean towards dichotomies of Extroverted not Introverted, Sensing not iNtiuting, Thinking not Feeling, and Judgment not Perception. What all this really means is pretty confusing. I had a multi-page description of myself to tell me what all this has to do with me and my behavior. What I remember the most (and what I have found true of myself) is that my personality type tends to love coming up with ideas and getting them started, but I really lack the follow through to see things to completion. In other words, I need accountability!
So, why am I starting a new blog on Memorial Day 2010? Today I find myself 46 years old and probably 50 lbs. overweight. I hate this. My challenge with my weight has been the single largest struggle of my life for the past twenty years. About ten years ago I found myself in the same place I am now and I did something about it. I lost 35 lbs. in about four or five months, then went on to drop about a total of about 65 lbs. of body fat and gain about ten pounds of muscle. I really felt good about myself.
Unfortunately, when I moved to the state of Washington and was not able to work out every day, or eat in as healthy fashion as I had become accustomed to, I gained 20 lbs. in the first month, and seventeen more over the next two months. I went from a pretty healthy 190 lbs. to a fat 227 lbs. in only three months (I will discuss my insulin resistance sometime soon). Actually, today that 227 doesn't sound that bad. I haven't had the nerve to weigh myself in about a month. Tomorrow I will step on my scale, hoping that it does not read over 245 lbs. - Yes, I will be honest about my actual weight and my measurements, which is a hard thing to do.
As I mentioned earlier I really need help with accountability. That is why I am blogging through this thing. I need to be Kept "honest" not to go off the wagon, or to quit after a couple of days of poor choices. I plan on making daily entries and sharing my successes and failures of the day, what I ate, how I exercised, and my thoughts and feelings about how I did. My wife and I have been running three times a week for about four months now, and we plan on incorporating weight training exercise into our routine. Ultimately I want to get down to about 180 lbs-I looked really good at that weight!
So, here I go. Wish me luck. Say a prayer. Talk to you tomorrow!
