Running without a Basketball? Blasphemy!!!

Life got pretty busy in early March when Cameron came to live with us. An unintended yet pleasant consequence of that was I forgot to eat. I mean, I still eat meals, but I forgot to have that second helping or the late night snack. I've had a couple of medical issues that involved me going to the doctor five or six times since March, and I realized after the first visit (where I weighed in at a hefty... you'd like to know, wouldn't you? Tough...) that I needed to get serious about losing weight, but I didn't put much thought into it, as usual. Anyway, I discovered at the second visit that I'd lost like five pounds and hadn't really done anything. So I began to be more aware of it. Each subsequent visit to the doctor showed more weight loss, such that I was 25 pounds less of a man at my last visit about a week and a half ago than I was at my first in March. And you know what? It really wasn't hard. I decided a couple of things. First, if I wanted a double cheeseburger or any other decadent food, I'd eat it. I wasn't going to go on some weird freaky menu diet. I'm just going to do portion control and cut out most of my snacking. I had a nutritionist who once told me losing weight is about attitude change more than anything. I also know that cutting back food intake can only take you so far. Now, I need to interject that I'm trying to lose weight for a few reasons: 1. Haley is a typical five-year-old in the sense that her energy far exceeds mine. I need to be able to keep up. 2. Big guy clothes are more expensive then little guy clothes. 3. Airplane seats are really small, and the seatbelts are really short. 4. Genetically, I'm probably going to have major problems with my knees. They don't need any more help getting trashed. 5. Other health reasons, which I'm sure nobody really cares about, so I'll leave them alone. 6. I want my wife to think I'm kinda cute, but I'm not sure losing weight can help all that much in the ugly department. Anyway, I decided about two weeks ago to add to my exercise regimin, which right then consisted of one night of basketball a week and lots of walking from my desk to the bathroom to unload my Mountain Dew. I have started jog-walking. I call it jog-walking because part of the time I'm walking, and the rest of the time I'm "jogging", which actually resembles my walking except I move my arms faster and bounce higher with each step. I definitely don't go any faster. I've learned a few things about jogging... 1. People who do it for fun are gluttons for punishment. When I'm done, my knees hurt, my ankles hurt, I can't catch my breath and I stink. I don't mind any of these things if I'm dribbling a basketball, but just for the sake of running? 2. Running in the late evenings really interrupts the evening, and takes away from my couple time with my better half. So I decided two days ago to begin running in the morning. However, running in the morning hurts worse than running in the evening. 3. Running in Kentucky in August sucks for two main reasons: humidity and hills. Yuck. 4. Running is an individual thing. Cameron tried running with me last Friday night. I told him to run at his own pace, to push himself a little, but not to wait for me to catch up or try to keep up with me. He seemed perplexed, but I soon left him behind and finished probably five minutes ahead of him. 5. Thank goodness for MP3 players and metal music. Makes this running thing tolerable. 6. Completing my circuit each day comes with some feeling that is surprisingly and disturbingly satifying. I'm not saying I like it, but I guess I can see how someone might become addicted to it, in a completely morbid way.