Fit-to-Fat-to-Fit Blog: 5/11/12

Goal Weight: 195 lbs

I’ve been stuck at five to ten pounds above my goal weight for about a month. I’m running regularly, eating reasonably and doing my pushup and sit-ups daily.  Anyone who sees me knows that I’m thinner looking than I have looked in years (although I have been lighter).  I have to assume I have packed on more muscle.  Or something. Whatever the case  I will continue to work toward 195 lbs.  In a perfect world, I’d like to slim down to 185.  Why you ask?  I don’t need to carry the weight anymore. I’m not tackling running backs.  I quit doing that 27 years ago.  I’ve realized that I’m now going into the stage of my life where my health would be much better if I were lighter.  Right now is the time to make that happen.  When I still have a little bit of a metabolism left.

My schedule and fatigue have taught me the most important asset we have is energy.  I have a lot of it and could use more.  Everything you read about on this blog is my attempt to have the energy to get more out of my day.

I hope you got to see the sunrise this morning. It was glorious.  I like sunrises. Why? They are a reminder that I’ve lived to see another blessed day.  And when you’ve survived cancer, you know how special that really is.  Now that the sun is coming up earlier, I get to see the first whispers of dawn as I run.  This morning was probably the perfect morning to run.  It was cool.  There was a slight breeze.  My legs felt good after a three-day rest.  I wish I had had more time. But I managed to squeeze a 4.25-mile run in.

I got back to the house, bent over to catch my breath, looked off at the orange glow to the east and said a quick prayer as a thank you for another day.  And then went in to officially start it.

My friend Kevin Stenstrom is one of my cancer heroes. He, like me, is a melanoma survivor. He’s had a tougher battle, though: His came back — and he beat it down again.  He’s a hero because he believes in taking the fight back to the beast (as we like to call melanoma).  His love of running has provided a framework for runners (TEAM M4M) to run marathons (he’s why I ran mine back in 2010) to raise money for research.  Right now, TEAM M4M runners have raised over a half-a-million dollars so far.  Now he’s running one to raise cash.  Read his story here. You’ll be inspired. I know I am.