One Year Blogoversary: A 365 Day Habit

The time is now 12:14 am EST, June 21, 2006 and it is my blog's birthday! To see how I compare to a year ago, I dug up the original post:

The stats: I am five feet tall. Even. No bigger. No smaller. That's the height recorded on my driver's license, and, no, no one can re-measure me. Yes, I am a hobbit. I weigh 123 pounds as my scale reported this morning at 10:25 am. I don't think it lies. Although, that's a possibility -- I would lie if I were a scale and lying is what kept my innerds intact. According to an online BMI (body mass index) calculator, my BMI is 25. They tell me that a number anywhere between 20 and 25 is normal, but hanging out on the outside rim of that "normality" makes me feel like a fat kid with a mouthful of cupcake.

I am moderately active; meaning: I try to run when I have time, when the weather isn't too hot, too cold, or too rainy, when I haven't had a long, tiring day, or when I have just purchased new running apparel. Sometimes I do other forms of activity: I've been known to watch a lot of TV and that requires lifting the remote and pressing down upon the buttons; TV watching can also make one incredibly thirsty, so I try to punctuate my bouts on the couch with trips to the kitchen for bottled water and that requires not only walking but a little pulling and lifting as well. Lastly, what catapults me from being semi-active into the moderately active category is the fact that I bowl once a week in a league. Bowling burns calories and is considered to be a sport. Usually I eat a piece of pizza when I bowl and generally I consume three to five beers (light beers!), but I didn't mention the beer or the pizza on the site where I listed myself as moderately active; therefore, they don't count.

My goal for the next 21 days is to take this moderately active lifestyle to a whole new level where perhaps I will dare to call myself "active." I will strive to run on a regular basis (six days a week) and I will attempt to partake of a healthier menu. Will the experiment be socially changing like "Super Size Me"? I doubt it. Will I form a new habit? One that might make me healthier, stronger, more energetic? Will I finally work to achieve the longheld goal of running a marathon? I don't have the slightest idea. I count on myself to fail, or at least to fall short of my expectations, but I do guarantee that I will document my failure with the best prose I can compose -- and sometimes I will rhyme for you as well.

So, what's changed or not changed in the course of a year? I weighed 115 pounds today on the same scale I had a year ago (I believe it to be accurate, and have no reason to believe that it tells falsehoods). That means my BMI is 22.5, and most of my pants are a size smaller.

I'm still 5 feet tall; running has not made me any taller.

Running six days a week was a bit of a ridiculous goal, but I've settled into a routine that is more realistic and it works: I run 4 days a week and do other forms of exercise on the other three days, like spinning and yoga. And I am now registered for a marathon; we'll see how running it goes. I still bowl as well, and I drink plenty of beer so that calories burned during bowling do not outweigh calories consumed.

So far, I count it (the running and the blog) as a successful experiment in my life; but in truth, I rarely rhyme, and if I do, it's by accident.