By Marvin Casiano
Part II
(For Part I, click here)
If life is a card game, you have to play the cards dealt you and learn from the cards you gave away. This is just to say that you cannot blame the current circumstances or past decisions on why things are the way they are right now.
In the past, I chose the comfort of fast and sugary food. It was comfortable to accept being overweight and the risks that came along with being so. It was oddly comforting knowing what the future was despite how bleak it was.
I was afraid of what would happen if I changed because it was unknown. After making bad food decisions for so long, it would be too monumental an undertaking to try to reverse those decisions.
Why start now since I thought at the time it was OK – not awesome but OK. But deep down I knew I could not accept being OK on this path.
I noticed a coworker who lost a lot a weight. It wasn’t weight loss due to stress either. His demeanor changed from being a naysayer. He seemed to be more positive and upbeat about work and life in general.
Despite all the adversity he had gone through in his personal life with a divorce and custody battle, he still maintained a positive attitude and his career prospects started to grow after focusing on health.
I didn’t even have the troubles he was having, and he turned himself around starting with excellent health first and foremost. How did he do this? I had no idea, but I wanted to do what he did. If he could do that, I thought I could. He started with health. I found myself truly inspired.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” is a quote Confucius is credited with. Keeping it simple is another relatable cliché.
What these have in common is that given what I knew at the time about losing weight, it didn’t really matter how much. I just knew I had too much on. So going in the general direction of losing weight and not the exact goal of getting down to 165 pounds from 240 had to be the guiding principle for every decision I made.
I decided to quit pop, choose salads instead of fries, and stairs instead of elevators. I had to implement a daily caloric deficit and basically burn more calories than consume. Those simple choices added up.
I also had to get on a weekly routine of working out but dreaded watching a countdown timer that seemed to slow down as I gasped for oxygen. There happened to be an idle elliptical at my in laws house and an awesome friend of mine who let me borrow her Battlestar Galactica Collection to watch.
I put both of those together to watch TV while working out. This took care of dreading the workout as I was so engrossed in the TV show I forgot I was actually working out.
Patrick Marvin Casiano
I am an Electrical Engineering Graduate of the University of Calgary who dedicates his livelihood to applying technology for solving problems. I am fortunate to have landed a career doing what I do as a hobby with the motivation to take care of and support from my loving wife Ronalyn and three boys, Isaiah, Lucas and Arthur. I have recently embraced a healthy lifestyle
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