Becaus I'm bored. Positive life changes

Even though I've become more of a lurker over the past few years and rarely post anything, I feel this is a thread I can relate to. My life style change at the end of 2013 when I realized I had high blood pressure had runs is inherit in the men in my family. At the beginning of 2014 I began to cook at home and closely watched the amounts of sodium (one of the major contributors to high blood pressure), sugars and fats in my food both at home and when eating away from home. By early March I had dropped 15ish pounds or more (the point initially wasn't to loose weight but to not die suddenly by eating a Chicken Korma with a side of ice cream pie cause that would look shitty in an obituary).

By mid March I decided to add in some exercise as I figured the change in diet was only half the battle to keep the blood pressure in check. I started out basically power walking three miles about three to four times a week. After that I gradually tried to build up endurance to keep a steady run. That in itself took what felt like months but persistence is key. I believe another benefit was having dropped a bit of weight so I wasn't hindered too much by having an overabundance of fat to work against. Fast forward to about mid to late summer and I'm down to 197 and can easily knock out a five mile run in about 45 minutes or less (depending on my playlist and if I have my breathing in check).

Now I'm at an average of about 183 to 185 at a height of 6'2. When I first started out with the lifestyle change I weighed at 265ish or more. This is I'm more or less just trying to tone up and stay active. The biggest eye opener was realizing how much food I used to just graze on out of boredom or how much I would just eat in general. Once you can find foods that are filling and you alter your taste to where not everything has to be an explosion of salt and sugar you see truth in the phrase, “Overfed and Undernourished”. Looking back at old pictures of myself even in late 2013 I can see how the food just made me bloated and expanded :lol:

Also, running/working out for me is prime thinking and planning time. I come up with great projects or things to work on while at the gym. An addendum to my diet and exercise was cutting out social media and time on the internet in general by 90% and mainly using my days to go to work, workout or write. Whenever I have friends who ask me if I've watched this show or that I can't say I have because watching any of that is off my radar. Leaves me more time to play piano, read, write, riff out, etc.