A couple of years ago, I decided that I was going to get in shape. I wasn't in what I'd call terrible shape, but I wasn't 25 years old anymore either. People in my family tend to be long-lived, regardless of how we live it seems, but only if we manage to avoid heart attacks. Heart attacks are bad. And so, the thought that I might be getting a little to heavy and spending too much time just sitting clicked one day. My life tends to be a little stressful (maybe a lot) and I was now over 50 with two young boys, so the incentive to do something was mounting.

I did some research, read a couple of books, and I made several little changes. I love eating too much to torture myself so I my changes were moderate meaning I cut out sweet snacks during the day, started eating so-called 'slow carbs' at lunch and doing some simple exercises. Those exercises and the whole slow carb thing came from from Tim Ferris' book, "The 4-Hour Body". I didn't follow the book religiously; I took the ideas I liked and thought I could live with and went with that.

With those small changes, I went from 218 pounds to 195 over the course of a few months. And that's where I stayed for another year or so. My weight was stable with only slight variations and I felt quite a bit better. But I wanted to go down another 10 pounds and that wasn't really happening.

Then, at the beginning of December 2013, I bought a Fitbit One, one of those little trackers you carry with you that record your steps, the number of staircases you climb, your level of activity, calories burned, and even how well you sleep. I got totally hooked on the idea of tracking my personal stats and set myself a goal of 10,000 steps a day. I almost always go at least 2000 steps over that goal and if the day is getting late and I'm short on steps, I start walking around the house and going up and down stairs in order to get over the top to that magic 10,000 number.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a formal event and went looking for a suit. I don't wear suits anymore since I mostly work from home and I haven't worn a suit in at least two years. Suffice it to say that my current suits did not even remotely fit. So I went looking for my old suits, from 20 years ago, all of which are sealed in plastic. Back then I weighed just over 180 pounds. Now I weigh just over 180 pounds. I put the suit on and damn, I looked good!

To keep you motivated, Fitbit sends out these little messages which sometimes includes badges to mark certain fitness achievements. Today, I earned my 1000 mile badge, meaning that since the beginning of December 2013, I've walked 1000 miles. 

Cue the music!