My Waist Land

The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot starts out

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

I thought of this poem while thinking about writing this blog. I think a teacher made me memorize this poem and I still remember the beginning. But to the point. I weigh 360 pounds. That is my waist land. And it leads to waisted time out of my life. My weight began to take away from the pleasure of disc golf around the time that I reached 280 pounds but I didn't recognize it right away...I made certain attempts to compensate instead.

There are mitigating factors that lead me to this "gravity challenged" condition, as I like to call it, including an injury to a couple of discs in my back about a year and a half ago. But I don't want to play the role of a victim. I got here by myself and only I can take me somewhere where the gravity isn't so heavy.

So, I started out by going back to the gym. I've got myself on a 3 times a week workout that takes about an hour to do. It is a mix of treadmill, stationary bike, stretching and weight lifting. I've found that if I start with the treadmill and bike then I can keep my heart rate up in the fat burning area for the entire workout.

I've only done this for a week now...not really long enough to gage any results. But the three days a week seems to be right for starting out. My doctor didn't want me to do any more than that to start for fear that I would have problems with my muscle disease (another mitigating factor that I don't want to be a victim of).

For now at least I'm not doing anything major with my diet. I think I'll wait a couple of weeks on that until I get used to the gym routine. I hope to be able to update this blog with encouraging news of "breeding lilacs out of the dead land" and what ever else comes of my waist land.

[Bruce Brakel]

Two years ago I gave up sugar pop. This year I gave up after dinner snacks. Small changes like these add up over time. I'm not gaining weight this winter, which is like losing weight in the summer.

I'm not asking anyone to be my friend and not denying any friend requests by the way. I think it is funny that there are absolute strangers on my friends list, but not you!

I'm blogging about dying discs over on my page. Tonight's post has pictures. Every post has pictures. Let's see if i can toss a picture in here...



Caption: No, I am NOT pissing in the rinse tub.

[Jon Brakel]

Thanks for the tips Terry! We should start a weight loss club here.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Thanks, Jon. I, too, am past where I am comfortable with and making something of an effort to reduce my waistline.

Two very easy things to do that I have noticed in the past, during successful weight loss periods, actually work are:

(a) Eat whatever you eat with about half the speed that you normally would; and

(b) Eat something for breakfast as soon as you can each morning, even if it is just two slices of toast.

Good luck!

P.S. Maybe we should start a weight loss club in here?