Delarding.

Well, the ol' Cossack has gotten a good bit bigger in the gut than he likes. (Is it too pompous to do the "ol' Cossack" thing?) I've gotten bigger in the gut than I like. There's not much new about that, I've never been one of your svelter creatures.

The good news, however, is that I've decided to do something about it.

I freely admit that sloth and indolence have played a great role in my weight. Come on, now. At least for someone who is reasonably healthy, losing weight is a matter of increasing exercise and reducing calories. Those two things are pretty much the "locate, close with and destroy the enemy" parts of dieting, the sine qua non, the very essence of the thing. Most of the rest of it is just frippery.

I live a few miles away from a vast park, in the middle of Houston, one of the largest cities in America. My main route to fitness is pretty simple. I head to that park, put on a large ALICE pack with a fifty pound bag of sand (well duct taped into submission, gotta love that stuff) in it, and I walk three miles in a bit under an hour. The weight in the pack both strengthens my back muscles and provides a good bit of extra work for the legs.

Perhaps the neatest thing about it is that it doesn't really feel like exercise. It's being outside in a vast swath of pine trees and grass, going around a golf course, on a thoroughly decent running path. It is a wonderful way to immerse yourself into the ecosphere, the majesty of God's creation without all the nasty bits, like wolves or floods or hostile natives. Houston is very much a car city, and it's nice to interact with people face to face, and to start to recognize regulars.

A friend further offered the following thoughts:

1) eating breakfast every morning
2) starting to eat dinner by 7pm every evening, shoot for 6pm
3) only drink on the weekends as much as possible, just pop open the wine and beer Friday-Sunday evenings
4) be in bed by 10pm, even if it's only to start reading, the key is just be in bed by that time

I have followed these 4 rules for the last 3 months and have lost 15 pounds without trying that hard. It's my contention that if you don't follow at least 3 of these 4 rule (with turning in early probably being the mandatory one that is the key for the other 3) then it's impossible to manage weight, goals, scheduling, and really just one's overall mood. Now that my exercise regime is kicking in (which wouldn't have happened had I not built a foundation with the 4 above rules) my goal is to lose another 15 pounds by Dec 31.

So let it be written, so let it be done.