X-12: It's Not So Annoying Anymore

Our exciting story began in the tail end of July 2009 when I stood on the scale (digital) and it assulted me with the number 299. That's a pretty intense number, not because it is 3 more than 296 but because it is the most I've ever weighed in my life and probably worse, because it is scary close (we're talking drink a quart of water and step on the scale again close) to 300.


When I graduated high school I weighed 158 (but I was only about 5'10 inches tall). I graduated college weighing about 190 (but much closer to my current height which really sucked because I didn't have money for new cloths in college and growing nearly 6 inches pretty much demands a purchase). I started working for EDS at 210. A couple of years later in Denver I was running 5 miles a day (every day - I was using exercise to get rid of my job stress).



This is 22 years ago. I weighed 220, ran file miles a day and averaged just under 7 minute miles when I ran the Bolder Boulder (10k in nasty hills). The year was 1987, the year I met Chris Ifland.


Chris lived in Seattle and had a clarity in his vision of the future that few could comprehend, much less share. At this point in time he was into Novell networks and Chris felt this whole making PCs talk to each other was going to be important. Most of the EDS computer experts that surrounded me thought his vision was foolishness, the micro computer was really little more than a toy with minimal business value, but worth keeping around because you could do word processing and Lotus 123.

Over the next year or two I learned that along with being an incretable visionary, Chris was also soft spoken and not into himself enough to fight for his ideas. I, on the other hand, was thrilled to go into battle over a good idea and I became the Steve Jobs to his Steve Wozniak. Chris would have a company changeing thought, I would go break heads to sell it, and EDS would benefit. I expect a whole new blog entry exists in this story but that wouldn't work with the X-12 title...

The discussion about Chris really does fit here, though, because his ideas seemed to launch the travel part of my career. He would think grand thoughts, I would sell them to Mike Sweeney (who "owned" both the Denver and Seattle office) and Mike would send me on the road to tell the world. By the end of of 1988 I was a road warrior about as much as I was home. After 20 years I still carry a Platinum card for both American Airlines and Marriott hotels.

There are a nuber of down sides to travel and meals is definately one of them. When one get so eat in any restaurant they chose, three meals a day for 20 years, one is destined to gain weight. This is especially true when traveling in groups because you always do meals together so you're going out to eat even if you are not hungry.


So 20 years of Platinum cards, big steaks, succulent lobsters (in drawn butter of course) and hearty breakfasts at the hotel buffet later I'm tipping the scale at 299 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Rather than gain that extra pound I took some action. I downloaded, tested, and the paid for the Calorie King software. Answering the questions I learned my "ideal weight" is 167 (ya, right, that's going to happen) and to start losing weight I must eat 2,000 calories a day (or less). The software boasts the best food database in the world and I must say it seems to be quite complete. I've learned that I can still eat as much as I used to but I make different choices (and it's not annoying anymore).

For breakfast I used to cook 3 eggs, break the yokes, then put them between two slices of American Cheese (the real cheese, not that funky cheese spread crap) and two pieces of bread. I would butter the outside of the bread and fry it until the cheese melted. While the toasted egg and cheese sandwich was cooking I would scrounge around and eat a slice of last night's cold pizza. Today I typically cut up some cantelope and watermellon to eat. Probably the same volume but it's likely upwards of 500 calories less.

The other thing is exercise. The sofware gives me calories back and I knew it was important so I'm out doing that 4 or 5 times a day. You just have to make it a priority.

My progress has been surprisingly exact. I'm dropping three pounds a week. Three the first week, three the second, three the third, and I'm down three more as of today (Saturday - the weekly weigh in is Monday). I eat a bit more on the weekend so I porbably won't lose much more this week. That's it. X-12 and it's not so annoying anymore.