detours

n. a deviation from a direct course or the usual procedure; especially : a roundabout way temporarily replacing part of a route (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

in life, we run into circumstances that force us to take detours. usually they are road/traffic related, which just cause mild annoyances as 3 lanes converge into 1, having to make 4 left turns to get on the freeway etc. or it could be more substantial and have a profound influence in shaping your life - like you may have to take a job out in st. louis for a few years to put in your due for that promotion in your company. detours pop up suddenly and without a warning. and what it does is to prove that in our life's journey, it's not always a straight and smooth path to where you want to get to. but ultimately you find yourself back on the path you want to be on. or sometimes you may continue down that path of detour completely.

anyways, i don't know why i wrote all that up there. it provides no coherency to what i'm about write for this post...errrrrrr

so, yesterday (wed) i continued my trend of packing lunch (this time, another ny steak with freshly home made salsa and a cup of brown rice). but my boss comes to my office and asks "did you bring lunch today?" i answered "yes" to which he goes "eat it tomorrow, let's go have lunch"

ok, so what do i do? i leave it in the fridge for tomorrow (which is today) and we go have lunch at curry house right across the street.

the Culprit: bossman and the hayashi omurice from curry house

so my plan for packed lunch went kaputz.

next, my plan for hitting the gym. i came to work at 7:30am so i can leave by 5:30 to hit the gym, run a couple of miles and sleep early. wellllllllll, on my way home, i call my bestfriend from college, tommy who lives in arcadia, to confirm our dinner this sat and he tells me he's having a dinner in walnut with his wife! and i'm going yur in my town and you don't even call me?!?! so i immediately make a detour and go meet him at this sulungtang place on colima and fairway (who knew this place existed?).

my original plan was to just catch up real quick with him and his wife and go on my merry way to the gym. next thing i know, i see this in front of me:

the Culprit: college bestie and a bowl of sulungtang

by the time we get all caught up with our tales of post-30 life, it was almost 10pm! no gym for me...so i went home and to drown out my disappointment at not going to the gym as planned, i devoured 3 packs of Suhleim (this korean milk shake thingy).

major failure.

so today, i determined that i'll never deviate from my course - i shall eat my healthy snacks and eat my lunch that i brought yesterday and hit up the 10k at the rosebowl with brian!

well, guess what. my managing director from matzalan was up today and he goes, "hey, let's grab lunch". we go get chinese, and it's like an msg-bomb. and for the first time, i experience the msg effect - where you get super headachey, mouth feeling dry and extremely drowsy.

the cure? 10k at the rosebowl!

success? YES!!!! A MAJOR ONE!!! brian and i finished it in 1:07. that's about 10mins/mile for the whole route.

doh! moment: once again, to celebrate our awesome run, we decided to go to the slaw dog on lake. we are firm believers in rewarding ourselves. and oh man oh man. look at what we had:

truffle oiled parmesan cheese drenched fries

the Thai Dog - BOMB!!! and

the entire feast, including the reuben dog. BOMB!

anyways, i've got much work cut out for me. i realized that you can plan and plan, and even if you want to stay on course, sometimes detours are necessary (perhaps not like the ones i took). eitherway, i hope that these detours, or more like deviation from my plan, will make less of an appearance as i continue down the road of recovery!!!!

1st post

hi, i'm daniel. male. 30yo. and i'm in a fight to save myself.

i decided to start this blog because...well, i decided i needed more distraction in my life than i already have. no. that was my utterly feeble attempt at a joke. actually, the idea came to me as i was ravenously surfing all these incredible food blogs like kevineats and danieleats etc (i LOVE food btw). in the midst of gorging my eyes with the feasts of superfancy photos showcasing indescribably delectable meals, a realization dawned on me - that as the past 3 years saw an explosion of my degustation, so began the implosion of my fitness and health.

this was driven more viscerally and visually to me when my friend sent me this link

http://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/6-fat-man.jpg (WARNING! you may go "UGH!") telling me he found a pic of me. now i know he was only kidding (right, paul?), but it really got me all depressed. because that was me. actually it isn't. but i really felt like i was that guy with all my flabulous belly overflowing over my beltline, my pants popping at its seams, and this really heaviness in my lungs making even breathing a laborious undertaking.

i mean i've been joking lately that my belly now has a gravitational orbit of its own...but i wasn't always like this. i used to run. i used to go to the gym on a consistent basis. i used to eat healthy. i used to really live! what's happened to me?

well, what's happened is i hit 30, really started working, ate like whatevers, stopped exercising and got fat. everyone's typical story. and the scary thing? i found myself complacently resigned to my current state of expanding atrophy. but receiving that pic and hearing it from paul of all people that is who i am was like a swift kick in the you-know-what.

so comes about this blog. i will be documenting what i ate that day (including pics if i can help it) and what type of exercise (or activity) i did to offset it. cuz as everyone knows, it's a battle of caloric in/egress. this will in no way be scientific at all. instead i'll just describe what i had, perhaps not every meal either, just some mentionables, and will attach what i would need to do (purely on a guess) to offset that.

i.e. on tuesday, i had this for lunch:

CULPRIT: a huge bowl of pork chops (6 of them) smothered in thick cheese and tomato meat sauce over spaghetti from boston cafe.

DAMAGE: roughly 3000 calories, give or take 1000.

PRESCRIPTION: run 5 miles.

SUCCESS? utter failure - went home and drowned my sorrows with a tub of ice cream.

as i said, this is NOT a scientific documentation in any way.

now, what do i want to accomplish with this? more than anything it's to keep me accountable. and i'm opening it up to the world (all 2 of youS), so you too can keep me accountable! so i invite you guys as i go, or run, on this journey back to reclaiming myself back!

wish me luck!