Having successfully completed the first two weeks of my diet I am now ready to begin week three. I am really looking forward to this week because I will now be able to incorporate exercise into the program.

It’s funny, when I was younger I fashioned myself an athlete. From a very early age I was involved in one sport or another. I was always active whether it be running, throwing, hitting, kicking, or swimming. As I got older and heavier I found my level of activity diminish.

Some of that had to do with becoming a father and settling down to provide for my family. Other parts of my life took precedent and I was less active. Add to this the fact that my job became more sedentary requiring me to sit in front of a computer screen for long periods of time and it was no wonder why I was gaining weight.

Every year I would promise myself that I would become more active but the thoughts of going to the gym made me cringe. I didn’t have a good positive image of myself and thought I was too old to make any difference.

As a companion to changing my eating habits, my health coach has given me homework to read about how I can make changes to live a healthier lifestyle. I initially expected this to be how to start exercise but I was surprised to learn that the program instead was teaching simple motion versus devoted exercise routines.

The reading text sounded like something I had first-hand experience with. Sixty percent of people get no regular physical activity. Twenty-five percent get no activity at all. Fifty percent of those who begin an exercise program quit within six months. Within a year of purchase 90 percent of all exercise equipment goes unused.

With those kinds of statistics its no wonder I have failed in maintaining the proper approach to exercise. I have a million and one excuses for not exercising but somehow cannot find a single reason important enough for me to stay focused.

This program attempts to change my way of thinking about physical activity. It doesn’t have to involve going to the gym, using specialized equipment, or even tracking the amount of weight or minutes I exercise each day. Instead they focus on adding regular movement to my daily life.

Every movement we make burns calories. Some movements burn more than other but the important piece is to begin slowly increasing the amount of calories we expend and not increasing the amount we consume.

They talk about simple things such as the number of calories you burn standing versus sitting or how you can add to your movement program by getting up out of your chair even if you don’t do anything other than sitting back down. Walk to the television or to the sink rather than asking someone to bring something because they are already there.

I’ve begun looking at every motion I make on a daily basis and contemplating how I can use this to my advantage buy increasing either the duration or intensity to burn a few more calories. Rather than looking for a parking place close to the entrance I am not looking at each step from the parking lot as another opportunity to burn excess calories.

It’s an interesting way of looking at the world and one I had taken for granted. From this point forward I need to consider what I can do to maximize movement in my life. Every step I take, every move I make needs to work to help me become healthier. It’s a small thing that who knows may make a difference in me living longer.

I have mixed emotions about the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012. On the one hand I am going to miss several of the wonderful experiences that I had this past year. Looking back our family has definitely been blessed with more than we ever deserved.

Several of the highlights of the past 12 months have something to do with baseball and in particular the Arizona Diamondbacks, which is to be expected if you know me at all. Rather than recount everything that happened last year I have written it in our Family Newsletter that normally goes out with our Christmas cards which were somehow lost (I’m still claiming they are either in the pantry that needs to be cleaned or aliens abducted them and are now probing the cards for some scientific experiment).

Despite trying to say positive and optimistic about the past year there were some things I would just as soon try to forget some of the events we endured. As I stop to ponder the problems I’m left with an overwhelming sense of gratitude not because of the pain or suffering but for the humility these trials have taught me. In nearly every instance the problem or trial I’ve endured has resulted in more blessings.

While it was difficult to see Ashley and Eli’s marriage end and there were countless phone calls and trips to Utah to deal with the aftermath there was a hidden silver lining. Ashley and Lily have now moved back to Arizona and are currently living with us. When our kids were little I was so involved in my career that I was not around nearly as much as I should have been. Now I have been given a Mulligan to learn from that. Now I have the opportunity to be around every day and engage with Lily and watch everything she learns.

When 2011 started it did so under very uncertain terms. Starting in December 2010 I went through a series of surgeries. First my gallbladder was removed that was to help with a lot of the problems I was having with my health. During tests leading up to that though the doctors uncovered several other “areas of concern”.

During a chest X-ray doctors found an irregular mass in my chest that they cannot account for. I’ve seen several specialists and the mass to date continues to baffle the medical community. It is in such a place that it is impossible to remove or do a biopsy without potentially impacting my heart. It’s always fun when you’re told you have a mystery mass in your chest that may or may not be a problem and that the only treatment process seems to be to regularly do chest X-rays to monitor if it is moving or growing.

If that was not troublesome enough, tests also suggested that I might have prostate cancer. This of course led to additional tests and was finally given a clean bill of health at least in that area. These tests though led to other tests and a year ago I went in for exploratory surgery for possible pancreatic cancer.

It’s funny how different your outlook on life is when they start using the “C” word. More tests and more surgical procedures and the doctor came back with the diagnosis that what they found was “pre-cancerous”. I’m not exactly sure what “pre-cancerous” means. I thought the answer was a simple yes or no but that doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case.

I had always been under the impression that Medicine was kind of an exact science but the more deeply I get involved I realize that it’s a lot like playing the lottery but doctors get paid more and my odds of winning are greater for the lottery.

Despite all the uncertainty and being poked and prodded more than one of the Kardashian sisters I’m trying to relax and find the humor in all of this. That’s easier said than done at times. You try to come up with an appropriate comeback while wearing a hospital gown bent over a table with banjo music playing on the doctor’s office speakers.

Trina has begun going to the doctors with me. At first I thought it was because she wanted to see the hospital gown but she quickly denied that. No, she wanted to hear first hand what the doctor was saying. It’s not that she didn’t trust me. Ok, it’s exactly that she didn’t trust me to tell her what the doctor said.

During one visit as we were either going over the fielding statistics for the Arizona Diamondbacks infield or my blood work from the latest tests the doctor explained that I was overweight. It’s funny how they phrase it. It’s not, “Oh man you are seriously fat!” It’s a little more subtle than that. They use phrases like, “According to the levels you have a fatty liver.”

It’s kind of sneaky really. My response was, “ok doc so how much exercise do you think we should make my liver do so it gets back in shape and loses a few pounds?” This is met with some kind of blank stare followed by an explanation that its me who has to lose the pounds and that the liver just sits there.

So as a result Trina came away with the solution that I need to change my eating habits and lose some weight. And since it is New Years this is perfect since I will have plenty of company with other beached whales who’s liver is requiring them to drop a few pounds and a few hamburgers.

Just so we are all clear, this sucks. I like sitting on the couch and watching the MLB Network while eating Lucky Charms. My wife, my doctor, and that traitor my liver seems to think it’s time to change. So I have been given one New Years resolution, reduce my weight.

I figured that since this is my first attempt at dieting it might be fun to document the process. After all, if my liver and me end up getting into an argument I at least want everyone to know my side of the story.

I’ll admit it, I am a complete geek when it comes to gadgets. I am constantly looking for new devices to automate every aspect of my life. I have no idea why I find this so fascinating but I do. So when my wife suggested that perhaps we should start walking to get a little exercise; the first thing I did was to begin looking at pedometers.

In its simplest form a pedometer is attached to your waistband and will measure the number of steps that you take in the course of a day. Obviously though I was not interested in the simplest form of a device. No, I had to find the most tricked out pedometer on the planet.

I wanted something that would not only document the number of steps I took but would also provide other data that could be used to determine how efficient I was walking. I began my search for the ultimate pedometer and after exhaustive research I found the Omron HJ-720IT pedometer.

The HJ-720IT will calculate the number of steps you take but also offers several other features. For example, you can calibrate the pedometer by entering your weight and length of stride and the device will calculate how many steps you have taken, the number of calories you have burned, and the distance you have travelled. It will also measure the pace of the walking you have done as well as the time you have taken. With these measurements it can determine if you have entered aerobic exercise range and will calculate the number of steps and the time you spent working out aerobically.

All of these data points are supposed to help you understand what type of exercise you are getting and how long the exercise is lasting. Of course having all of this information on your pedometer is great but who wants to have to go home each night and write down the data for tracking your progress?

The people at Omron understand what a pain that is so they designed the HJ-720IT with a mini-USB port that can be connected to a personal computer running Windows. The pedometer comes with health management software that will download the information from the device and enter the data in a proprietary Microsoft Access database.

The data is then presented to the user in graph format. Within the software you can set daily goals for each of the measurements. When the data is downloaded from the pedometer it is compared against the goals and will display which days you reached your goal and which days you were unsuccessful.

The software is fairly straight forward to use. You can create separate user accounts for each person having a pedometer. The software will recognize when the pedometer is attached to the computer and if you try to download the data in the wrong user account you are given a warning.

Initially the software would only support Windows XP but a recent release has also made the software available for Windows Vista as well. I’ve attempted to find out whether a new version will be made available for Windows 7 but no work yet from the manufacturer.

The display on the pedometer itself will display data for the last seven days but the pedometer itself will store data for up to 45 days after which you will get a few days of warning to down the data on the pedometer. If you ignore the warnings the pedometer will cease collecting data until it is downloaded.

Once data has been downloaded to the computer it is erased from the pedometer so I would definitely recommend backing up the database on the computer regularly to avoid losing anything.

The HJ-720IT pedometer runs on a single 2032 wafer battery. The battery life is roughly 6 months regardless of whether the pedometer is used or not. The device does give you some warning when the battery is low but not very much so when the display begins flashing, make sure you replace the battery soon.

Overall the device has worked flawlessly. It has given me an indication of exactly how sedentary I have actually become which is kind of depressing to think about. Having the data in graph form has been interesting and I can see what times of day I am most idle.

I do wish there was a Macintosh version of the software but that does not seem to be a high priority to Omron making it fairly useless for Mac users. The software will also interface with Omron’s blood pressure devices to allow you to track your blood pressure as well as your walking activities.

While I probably didn’t need a pedometer with a computer interface it has been fun to watch and see how my walking activities have changed since I’ve started using it. I would recommend the HJ-720IT but with the caveat that you need a Windows PC to make it useful. For now, I have to go, I’m still 7,231 steps away from my daily goal and the day is half over.