Aquaman

So I think I mentioned a little while back that I intended to start swimming laps in the mornings. And believe it or not, I've actually been doing that almost every day for the past two and a half weeks. It's meant to combat my impeding slide towards the big THREE-O, as I figure I'd better get in some kind of shape now if I don't want to look like crap in a few years.

I love swimming so getting myself to the pool every morning hasn't been too hard. And of course there are the little things, both positive and negative, that I've had to deal with. For example, my allergies seem to have stopped bothering me so much now that I'm getting fit. On the other hand, I carry a faint smell of chlorine around with me for at least a few hours every morning. (And before even one more person asks me this stupid question again, YES, I shower after swimming each morning. With soap. Chlorine is strong stuff, okay??)

But lately I've noticed a couple of much bigger things that I think can only be related to the fact that I've started doing proper exercise for the first time in my entire life.

1) I am always starving. Now those who know me are probably thinking, "But Zander, you're always hungry." Okay true, but now things are on another level. For example, I had about SIX full meals on Sunday and still went to bed hungry. I can walk out of a restaurant after having eaten a three course meal, and think about stopping off at a fast food place on the way home. And I've had McDonald's (chicken nuggets and a hamburger) as a mid-afternoon snack almost every day for the past week, to the utter disgust of my coworkers. I always clearly had a ridiculous metabolism if I was able to do nothing other than eat, sleep, and drink and still stay slim, but apparently I've kickstarted it even further, and let me tell you, six meals a day ain't cheap.

2) Also, and probably more relevant to this blog...I can no longer handle my liquor. Example - last Thursday, I met up with people for a few drinks, had 4 beers and a glass of wine, and literally stumbled home because I was so drunk. Friday was even sadder. I used to be the person who could drink silly amounts of alcohol and still seem pretty okay, and now I've turned into what the Aussies would call "a two pot screamer". The answer is clearly that I have to start eating directly before or even during drinking sessions, which goes against what I generally believe in, but I don't really have a choice.


We'll see how I hold out. I wouldn't say this is the beginning of some weird and uber-healthy lifestyle where I don't drink anything than blended wheatgrass and only eat vegetables that happen to have been accidentally dropped by birds (or whatever retarded things people are doing these days, you know what I'm getting at), but clearly I will have to change a few habits if I'm going to try and be even a little more athletic.

Or I could just get fat, which is starting to look a lot more fun all of a sudden.