the new workout plan

(Kanye West reference intentional)

Sometimes when I stand in front of the mirror, I spend a little time thinking about what I could look like. This doesn't mean I don't like what I see, I'm actually pretty comfortable with my body. But do I think it could be better? Sure.

The thing is, I've never really been into exercise purely for the idea of exercising. I have a pretty incredible metabolism still at this point in my life. I can essentially eat what I want and my weight won't change, maybe a few pounds up or down. And while I don't hit the gym or whatever, I don't necessarily sit around all day, either.

There was one moment years ago where I went to the pool with some of my brother's friends. They'd probably never seen me with my shirt off before, and at least a few of them said something like "you could look pretty hot...if you tried", though I think it was mostly a joke which was somehow a compliment at the same time.

The closest I ever really came to being on a workout regimen was way back inbetween 7th and 8th grade. A few of my friends convinced me to go with them up to the high school (that I'd eventually go to) every other day or something to lift weights. Seemed like a good idea, and I didn't have much else to do, so I went for a while. At first, it was fine, just doing some lifting. Then we started running pass drills, and I realized I had stumbled into summer football camp. Oops! I didn't want to make the commitment to be on the football team, so I stopped going.

Throughout high school, I didn't do much except play my favorite sport casually and go to PE classes every third day. I didn't gain weight, and I was in okay shape in terms of endurance. I actually was able to beat one of my teachers in a mile race after I challenged him, which was nice. The summer after I graduated, I had a job that was somewhat physically demanding and played a lot of ultimate frisbee, so I was in (to that point) the best shape of my life.

Freshman year in college I became really lazy and out of shape, which is probably normal for a lot of incoming freshmen. I sort of got back into okay shape over the summer, and I tried to carry over that momentum into the fall of my sophomore year. I had a good pair of running shoes, so I took up some light running. Just a mile and a half (in no slower than 10 minutes) every other day for about a month. Eventually it started to get kind of cold outside, and I lost the motivation to keep it up. So, I went back to little physical activity, and got out of shape, etc. You can probably start to see a pattern here...

It was this past summer where I actually felt I was in pretty awesome shape. I mean, not in terms of being ripped or something (far from it), but I was able to run hard and keep it up for a really long time. It felt good to know that I could keep up with other people around me if I had to.

Since then, I've gotten lazy again and most of my exercise comes in the form of walking to class. Since I live off campus, it's either 2 or 4 miles walking each day, depending on if I go home during the middle of the day. This is where I stand:


Yes, I realize that I'm really white. I just kind of am naturally, and I don't take my shirt off in public really ever. Ideally, I'd like to get more muscle definition and just generally stay in the level of being in shape that I was this summer.

So, how to achieve this...hm. Keep in mind that I'm really pretty lazy and need some kind of motivation to do exercise. Also, I'm probably way too timid to go to the gym here at school, at least certainly not by myself. I could maybe convince one of my roommates to go, but that might be a longshot. I'll probably just start out by doing situps and pushups for now, and my roommates have some free weights that I might take advantage of. How much will this actually do for me? I don't expect personal trainers to be reading this, but any helpful tips you can give me would be great.

Wow, this was an incredibly vain post...