What great day!

I was riding home yesterday from doing some errands and Nickleback's song "If Today Were Your Last Day" came on. Of course with it being New Year's Eve it fit perfectly with my thinking about the impending year. What is it about our mortality and the "new year" that causes us to care?  Shouldn't it be on our birthday that we reflect and recommit ourselves to what ever it is we resolve to quit on in the upcoming months. I don't see very many people returning to the gym in February as I do the middle three week in January.

What if today were my last day? Narrowed down and twisted a little to create a focus, what if the last day were caused by a lack of physical fitness?

"Gee Peter these gates are more pearly than I could have ever imagined?"

"Thank you Arthur we work hard on keeping the image here clean and tidy, OK then let me look this up, you are by way of a heart attack brought on by a cholesterol block caused by a diet rich in deep fried food, with no exercise to speak of in ... Oh my, quite a long time!"

"Yeah that sounds right, but here I am none the less. do I qualify for entry or am I off to the sweat lodge down stairs?"

He looks carefully at my file and reads my record. A few grunts, some chuckles"Oh no you didn't!" turns the last page of my heavenly file and gives me the final verdict, "You got  it, but there is a little glitch you will need to rectify first. You see there is a clause in our agreement that you will take care of you body. Since you haven't completed that part you will need to meet these requirements before passing through the gates and into eternal bliss."

I am a little concerned as he hands over a sheet of paper with :
12% or less
2-4 pound a week maximum
handwritten on it.

"Mr. Peter sir what does this mean?" I am a little confused. He informed my that I would need to lose some the fat I decided to store on my body and I would have to do it losing no more than 2-4 pounds a week until i reached 12% body fat or less before I could enter. "So I just sit here outside the gates watching everyone come through until I make that goal?" At this point I am pretty anxious about getting started on heavenly pleasures.

"No that would be cruel, you will be placed in an environment that you are more accustomed to, a setting just like you left, until you meet your goal, you have an eternity to get it done, just like you believed on Earth. Only now you really do have eternity to get it done. You can put it off until tomorrow forever."

"Purgatory?" I question.

January 1, 2011  I am 5'10" tall and currently weigh 223 pounds. My cholesterol generally matches my weight. No really it does freak me out a bit. I have enjoyed beer and fried foods, very much this past couple of years probably to excess.

I have an account on MapMyRun.com and will be using a log to document eating habits and exercise patterns.

My lovely wife has signed us up for our first 5K on March 13.

Today I got out the door and ran 2.8 miles.