It’s 2010 and I’m Fatter Than I’ve Ever Been!

With the flip of the calendar, it’s suddenly 2010 and like many people out there, I recently took stock of the state of things in my life. I pondered on things like my general happiness, my place in the world, my family life, my career, my dreams and goals, and on my physical health. All in all, I like where things are at, and where they’re headed – I’m looking forward to 2010 for a lot of reasons. That said, when it came to my health, my body is changing, and not for the better. I’m about to turn 35, and I’m well into ‘the slow fade’ so to speak, which comes with a slower metabolism, which in turn brings, you guessed it, more body fat. I can say with certainty that today I am fatter than I have ever been in my entire life (excluding when I was a wee baby of course). So now what?

Even just 5 years ago, with the activity level I have these days, I’d have been a lean, mean machine, eating everything in sight just to keep my weight up. For most of my life it’s been a struggle to keep weight on. I suppose that’s lucky, so I won’t complain but always being the ‘skinny guy’ has its downsides too. I remember all through high school, wishing I was bigger, more muscular. I’d hit the gym with my buddies, and we’d spend whatever little money we had on protein powders, amino acids, and creatine, products that I can’t say if they ever really did anything. We’d spend months straight in the gym, and sure I’d put on some muscle, but never anything major, maybe 5-6 lbs bumping me from 140 lbs to a whopping 146 lbs! At 5’10”, I was a monster haha…

I’ve always been able to pretty much eat whatever I wanted, within some reason, and still stay slim and trim, but those days have been fading further and further away – this year, over the holidays I saw clear evidence of that. I weighed myself about two weeks ago, and I was 158 lbs, and as of today I am a thundering 167 lbs – a 9 lbs swing in about 14 days. And even more to the point, I was a spry 148 lbs walking into the Transrockies this summer in August – so that’s almost a 20 lbs swing since then (mostly around the midriff too). That’s a bit startling to me. It’s not like I stopped training. I’ve kept up with things pretty well, even over the holidays where it’s clear the butter tarts, the shortbread, the pecan pie, the eggnog, and the chocolates did their handiwork very well this year…

I guess what worries me most, is that although I’ve had it fairly easy this far, my body is changing, and it’s clearly going to get harder and harder to keep the weight off as I get older – and I wonder just how far will it go? Will I be able to hold back the inevitable? Based on my family genetics, I know I’d be walking around much heavier if I didn’t train as much as I do now. What will happen when I’m not able to train this much? Will I be reduced to eating spinach salads with light dressing on the side? My current schedule allows me to do spin class twice a week, go to the dojo twice and even hit the gym and do a lift once a week – that’s not a schedule I expect I’ll always be able to keep, with career goals, and especially as family responsibilities come more into play.

Aging is a funny thing… When you’re 6, you can’t wait to be 10. And when you’re 12 you can’t wait to be 16, but at some point, you stop wishing to be older. Now, about to turn 35, I wonder where the time went, and I want things to slow right down, even reverse. Somebody hurry up and invent something to reverse aging, haha… I’ve heard that beyond about 30, getting older is like watching your body slowing betray you. Hrmm… Yeah, I can see that. Good times, good times…

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