A while back I posted some stuff about how I was eating healthy and my life was going to change for the better. Well, my life did change. I went UP a waist size in my jeans.

I could get all downtrodden and ask for a bunch of pity over my plight, but here in the Adams household we beleive in personal responsibility. Most of the problems in a persons life is due to the way they reacted to some external force. I don’t want to react to this external force with a “woe is me” attitude so we’re just going to move past that and take the bull by the horns.

Stephanie and I have spent the last couple weeks doing pretty great at eating some decent food. She’s been doing far better than me, but she’s also a far better human than me so that’s to be expected. One of the tricks we’ve learned is making food ahead of time. For instance, I’m eating food today at work that I made either last night or on Sunday night. A healthy breakfast sandwich along with a banana to start my day, and a delicious wrap that I’ll detail in a later post for lunch.

On top of the eating right thing, I have offically put some skin in the game by paying for a gym membership. “But Stephen! You have a free gym at work!” You’re not wrong, inner-voice. I have a free gym at work but that doesn’t come with a brotato like Jacob to help me get my feet under me and do the right workouts. Jacob and I went to the gym for the first time Monday morning and everything worked out well. I have plenty to learn about how to get around a gym, but we’ll get there.

Not only is going to the gym a good exercise for my body, it’s also good for my mind. I suffer from a lot of gym anxiety as I detailed in the previous post. One of the best ways to get over that is what they call “exposure therapy.” Basically, do the thing that you’re afraid to do. It’s the only way to truly override your brains fight or flight system and get you comfortable with what is uncomfortable. The good news is that my brain is totally on board with this plan because logically I know it’s stupid. Hopefully all this becomes natural in the long term and I just become another dude that goes to the gym every other day.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress. Unfortunately, one gym visit did not transform me into Captain America, but we’ll get there.