I’ve been back from Vancouver and Whistler for about 10 days now. I got to go skiing three of the days I was there, and I made the incorrect assumption that I was skiing so hard and burning so many calories that the food intake didn’t matter. And that the beer intake didn’t matter. It does.

The good news is that soccer has started up. I’m with a new team for the indoor season (maybe more on that later), but it’s still an hour of hard exercise. I read somewhere that you get better results from team sports than from the gym, due to a number of factors; enjoyment of the sport, not wanting to let down your teammates, etc. So I’m glad I playing again. But I do have to start at a gym, and that’s my to-do item for tomorrow — go to Riverdale fitness.

Weight was 176 lbs. Good direction, and I’m doing well with not drinking cola. I had one last week and it didn’t taste very good. Still having a few beers, though.

Next is to get the exercise ramped up. Soccer seems to be on hold indefinitely, so I have to work on an alternative.

Bad news: no additional exercise and indoor soccer got postponed for a week.

The good news is that I’m way down on drinking Coca-Cola. Haven’t had any for a week, and I’m not really missing it.

The bad news is that I’m way up on alcohol — we had the annual-ish boys steak night on the weekend and restraint went out the window. Coupled with the lack of exercise, I’m not surprised where I am.

However, the weather here is ridiculously warm for January, so I should be able to get out and run this week. And soccer starts up again on Thursday.

For the fitness aspect, I realise that I have to get into better shape. I’m not in a bad way — I’m 5’10″ and 180 pounds. That puts my body mass index at 25.8, which is listed as “overweight.” However, I’m in the 49th percentile, so there are heavier dudes out there.

I figure about 165 lbs is the right weight. I’m looking to improve my speed and strength for outdoor soccer next season, when my team moves up a division.

For the first time, I’m thinking that I have to attack this from both the food and exercise angle. I used to just eat (and drink) whatever I wanted. That’s got to stop. I need to deal with the following:

• Snacking on chocolate,
• Drinking cola,
• Drinking alcohol. I do love the beer and the scotch.

For the fitness, I think I have to do the following:

• One long run — I once managed to run a marathon, so I should be able to get back into this. The Wife gave me a heart monitor, so this should be more efficient.
• My indoor soccer game — this is great for anaerobic and core strength.
• One workout. Not sure if this should be in a gym or if I can do some outdoor circuit training.

The final thing is to get a way to track what I’m doing. I’m a big fan of Get Rich Slowly, which is a “get financially fit” website. They’ve launched Get Fit Slowly, so that the writers can track their fitness. They recommend www.fitday.com to track their progress, but I may go with The Daily Plate.

I need to keep posting to keep on track.