It's time to do something...

[MikeWSQL]

Howdy! A fellow SQL Server blogger turned me on to this site (Thanks Brent!) when he described his life quest. Think I started seriously exploring at the right time. I'm 33, a father of 3, a pretty successful independent database geek, having a fun time speaking, blogging and solving fun problems.... Only problem is - all of this stuff is on my butt type activity and I've been a bit of a slave driving boss (and yet I've ignored the boss and wasted much time on the couch/desk with the macbook only increasing the sedentary time to get actual work and work related community activities done)...

Anyway. You could say I'm in the worst shape of my life and I wouldn't disagree. At 218 and 5'10" I'm the widest I've ever been... I find myself wishing I had a "bro" or "mansierre" when driving down a bump road, or flying over turbulence.. Breathing deep while sitting is a new experience and for the first time in my life I can say "I'm aware and annoyed" at my gut when trying to sit comfortably, bend down, etc. --> I'm fat, I'm tired, I'm winded walking up a few sets of stairs...

I've gone through bouts of "getting in shape" lately... Did the running thing when I was about 205ish and the weight & stress made the knees start creaking and plantar fasciitis kick in... Swimming is actually a really good workout for me (was heading towards the best shape of my life just 3 or 4 years ago through eating right, walking and swimming intervals) but pushed a little hard last time I picked it back up when I was around 210ish and my shoulder is still a bit frustrated with me...

Anyway (again....)I am pretty sure I have two choices at this point in my life - Accept the status quo and see what it looks like to step on a scale and see 230, 250, etc. get lazier, eat like a pig, become useless to the family, see what Type 2 diabetes looks like and have a massive heart attack while looking at horrible database code... Or I can really do something about it. Really make a full on commitment to change, take control of this part of my life, use tools like nerdfitness, get in shape, get energy, reverse - or at least minimize the impact - of 10+ years of bad health choices and make lifetime long changes.

I'm choosing the latter! This site will help. Doing the beginner bodyweight before I go to bed tonight. Looking at my shopping and meal choices (and seeing how I can lessen the interference with the family eating - we don't eat horribly most of the time, so I probably just need to watch my portions more than anything and keep staying away from the Coke like I've been doing for a few weeks now).

Anyway - I plan on being around here a lot more, reading the posts, checking out the forum, etc. Looking through your stories inspires me also. Professionally I'm probably on Level 2 - I've spoken at some big conferences, was recognized as an MVP by Microsoft, help some really cool clients, do fun stuff, love my job (and even my boss) but I'm not going to even hit Level 1 until I get at least halfway to the shape I want to be in - don't want to give it a weight number, but I'll know I'm there when I walk up a bunch of stairs without needing oxygen and don't have to flex all upper body muscles on takeoff to avoid hurting passengers in the next seat over.

[Ryan Sannar]

Welcome! Keep us up to date.

[MikeWSQL]

Day one of the challenge and I just posted my blog entry.. In summary - so far so good. Just went on a "paleo friendly" grocery shopping trip, spent more "real" time with my kids than I sadly do on most weeknights, haven't touched anything with sugar (or grains for that matter) in it all day. Scared my wife into thinking about changing her coca-cola habbit as well. First day of playing the game and I think I'm on my way to a level up sooner than I wanted.. Need to take some before pictures soon while I still have the spare tire and flab.. Won't post likely until I have a better after picture ;-) So far so good :-)

[Ryan Sannar]

Watch out for carb flu. And hop back on here when it gets hard. Your not out of the woods yet.

[MikeWSQL]

Definitely not out of the woods :-) Have a little "Where's my sugar?!?!" rage going on and sure miss my really bad and empty carbs. Just put a post over in the Rebel Army Base camp forum. Doing alright though, just dealing with the right sized portions and lack of carbs filling the hole in the gut and that feeling of "something's missing" up in the satiety center.. Will pick exercise back up in earnest tomorrow. Been walking more and outside more playing with kids - lots more than I have this winter... So that actually -has- been exercise walking in the snow up and down hill multiple times each day and once my energy levels are a bit up I'll be getting into it.

[Ryan Sannar]

Sweet. Another way to absolve that sugar craving is to replace it with low glycemic fruit. Just don't go overboard. If your looking to loose weight I would not include the fruit at all.

At most don't go over a cup and a half a day. That's like for real at most.

[Morrigainz]

Somehow I missed your intro post. So here's a belated welcome!

[joeyb]

have a massive heart attack while looking at horrible database code

Here's something to strengthen your heart before it comes to that.

DECLARE @Temp TABLE

(

Value VARCHAR(8000)

)

DECLARE @Num INT = 1

WHILE @Num < (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM dbo.Customer)

BEGIN

SELECT

INTO @Temp

Name

FROM dbo.Customer

WHERE Key = @Num

AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM @Temp WHERE Value = Name)

END

SELECT * FROM @Temp

[MikeWSQL]

Thanks for the welcomes. Still doing well.. Down about 7LBs on the week.. A bit high but I was eating really bad before :-) Still having some Carb Flu sympoms.. I've been including an apple or banana - sometimes both a day.. Plus some blueberries with coconut milk frozen together here or there to shut up that sweet tooth. Still seem to be going down. Good resources here and I'm enjoying making some Paleo-ish meals & snacks. Just made some roasted sweet potatoes and fried pears.. Some coconut oil, little butter, cinnamon and a dash of vanilla.. Tasted great...

[MikeWSQL]

Yeah - Joey - that code is great heart strengthening material. The consultant in me wishes all the bad client code was that easy though ;-) Please tell me that isn't really in prod someplace.

[joeyb]

No, it's not in Prod, but I do see things like this from new developers looking for code approval from time to time. Mostly on insert or update scripts, but it's still enough to make you take a deep breath and count to 10.