Inspired

Inspiration can come from some pretty strange places. In this case it came from a Microsoft Developer Evangelist. The strange part of course was that it had nothing to do with software development.

Last Christmas Santa brought our family a Wii balance board. If you haven’t seen one, it is a pretty cool new input device. It is a flat board that sits on the floor, you stand on it and distribute your weight across four pads. Along with being able to weigh things, it allows you to use the balance of your body to play video games. The Balance board comes with a game called "Wii Fit" that is supposed to help you exercise.

I took it all casually at first, knowing that I needed more exercise, and willing to play games. The galvanizing moment came after an initial "weigh-in" when a sweet feminine computerized voice said to me…. "Ooooh that’s obese".

The next day I took the balance board back out of the trashcan and started in earnest to mend my ways. I didn’t really change my diet, beyond eating reasonably, and cutting out sweets and sodas. However over the next 6 weeks the moderate 30-40 min of workout was enabling consistent weight loss. More importantly I was feeling more fit and gaining noticeably more endurance and strength each day.

Then it happened:
A couple bad days at work…. My wife got sick….I cut the exercise out for lack of time.
The cycle was broken and all my old habits started creeping right back in. I was starting to put back on all the weight I had lost.

So how does the Microsoft Developer Evangelist fit in? A week ago today I was at a user group developer meeting. The topic was ASP.NET technologies. It was interesting, although I think it was the same slide deck that I saw the same guy present last fall at a roadshow.

What really caught my attention, was the side story that came up in the casual conversation. Here was someone that was that was going through the same issues that I was, and using the same methods to achieve his goals. It was actually a little spooky, right down to the core reason for taking care of myself. I don’t want to be dead before my kids grow up.

While I’m pretty sure that it is explicitly written somewhere in the Bible that it’s bad form to brag about what you are giving up for Lent, I will say this much, in the hope that it inspires someone else. Typically during lent, I have been cutting out caffeinated sodas. It can be a pretty painful withdraw if you are addicted. However, they aren’t really that good for you and you feel a lot better once the drug is out of your system. Unfortunately, I had already pretty much given soda up at the beginning of the year, and started drinking more plain water, and that habit stuck. Therefore, for lent I am going to pick back up my exercise routine among other things, and borrowing an idea from my new "evangelist" friend, starting tomorrow, and continuing at least until Easter, the alarm is going off at 5am. a.k.a …. 0 dark 30

Jim – was never scared of the dark