Hello!

Hi! I've been fat since before it was cool. Back when I was a little kid in the 70s, I was husky -- that's 70s lingo for fat-ass. Early in my adult life, I worked on such things as "personality" and "doing interesting things" to overcome the problem that being lardy brings --  a lack of attention from the opposite sex (or for some of you, the same sex, I ain't hatin'.) But I'm 41 now, married, have a bouncy 3 year old and a chillaxing 7 month old, and trying to ease into my midlife crisis gracefully. I'm not so worried about attracting any ladies other than my wifey, but I would like to set up some healthy environmental vibes for the kids and roll into old age without diabetes, rusty joints and no hope of ever being trim again.

I've collected the tools over the last 5 years to lose the chunk, but haven't really used them. I've been keeping a blog for FIVE YEARS, of which this is the last post -- and starting a new blog, of which this is the first post. I have a basic understanding of what is good and what is bad to eat -- I've read all about nutrition, my book shelf is full of titles like Nestle's Food Politics and Pollan's In Defense of Food. I can now cook well for myself and for my family -- I've gone to culinary school, completing certificates in culinary arts and management. I now understand why restaurant food is so stealthily unhealthy -- I spent a few years after c-school working in restaurants, from line cook to manager. 

Self-reflection, check. Basics of nutrition, check. Cooking for myself and my family, check. Connecting with the bigger food environment I'm in, check. And yet I'm still Fatty McFatfat.

My current BMI is 34.4, making me officially obese. According to some data-crunchers, I'm fatter than 88% of the USA and 99% of the world. I need to get from +/- 230 to 196lbs  for my height and age to be simply overweight, 15% of my body mass. I have to lose almost 30% to be 160 lbs, which is "normal weight".

Despite all that, it was a TV show that has inspired me to reset the blog and take a new tact that starts using the tools in my tool box. Weight of a Nation is an HBO documentary that bluntly lays out the obesity problem in the USA -- why it's here, what it's doing to us, and most importantly, what can be done about it. It's even handed and places blame in various places, not JUST the individual. Unfortunately, with the state of politics, economy and our food supply, it falls to the individual on the front line to take the first steps to solve the problem. From the 2nd episode, here are their 5 things to lose weight.

1. Start with small steps: I first tracked calories without restriction for a couple of weeks to see wasssup.
2. Make realistic goals: get to a "over weight" BMI of 196 lbs in 3 years.
3. Seek support: Friends, Romans, countrymen.... Hello, readers! 
4. Keep portions under control: a work in progress, guided by freakishly small recommended portion sizes on labels.
5. Track your caloric intake: I've been doing this for about a month now, and it's a lot of work, a lot of mental noise, a lot of little bits of research, a lot of developing a new sense of what calories feel like when there is no numbers present...

.....and ALWAYS make physical activity a part of your life: I lift weights twice a week, and get a 50-100 mile bike ride in every week, currently. It's a challenge finding the time, but one makes time for what's important, and what keeps them sane.

Weight of the Nation recommends the #1 thing to cut weight: cut out soft drinks, the only foodstuff directly related to obesity. Even a twinkie or potato  chip have SOMETHING nutritional in them. And don't fool yourself like the NYC public school system does: juice is equal to soft drinks -- fruit minus the fiber is just a soft drink.

So welcome to FatBeforeItWasCool.blogspot.com! Thanks for memories, LearningToFeed.com! This blog is, on it's face, a food diary and weight-watching journal. Wary of the slog of calorie-counting, I'm going the Tom Cruise method. According to legend, Tom Cruise has cooks and nutritionists who control every bite that enters his maw.... five days a week. On weekends he's free to feed himself barley water and Scientol-ios and ding dongs. Unlike the previous blog, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are a time chill out.

Three main ways this blog will be different/improved from the last...

Tags: Every post will be tagged to be searchable. Important for me to have easy access to calorie count research and monitoring my progress, as well as being aware of how often I eat what. Important for you, for it'll provide quick answers to whatever shorthand I develop. Because I know you want a bowl of kolon-bloe! 

Graphics: Imma let you finish, but first check this out:

All my favorite blogs have pictures to help tell the story. This nifty chart here tracks my weight over the past 2 years or so, since I started weighing myself. I'll ponder the story being told on here on the 1st of every month, when I weigh in. First of the month: that's the biggie entry where things are thought over, summarized and chewed on.

Humor: Previously, my blogging was a bit belly-button consuming and really not considering others were reading this. Well, I enjoy being funny (y'know, funny ha ha, not funny what's that smell?) and keeping things light will, umm, help keep things light.

If your a regular reader of LearningToFeed.com for some reason, please change your bookmarks to 

fatbeforeitwascool.blogspot.com

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