Since I have been back in Tampa, I have been gaining plenty of unnecessary added pounds. The only watching of my weight is looking at a scale and seeing it go up. I remember after track season of my junior year in high school, I lost 10 lbs and weighed 135 lbs. Entering college, I probably weighed around 145 lbs nearing 150. I quickly put on the freshmen 15 and fluctuated around 165-170 lbs pretty much the rest of my college days.

When I meet old high school friends who haven’t seen me in years, they would say that it looked like I worked out a lot. As far as me hitting the gym, that would be a rare occasion. I think just my previous unhealthy, skinny-looking adolescent days made the newer, more meat-on-your-body self look better. I did stay in shape throughout college by playing 10 seasons of intramural football, 4 seasons of basketball, soccer, and softball. But didn’t hit the weights very often at all. Didn’t have enough time. Now that I’m graduated and can’t play competitively, I am out of shape and quickly building what I call a “man gut”…

You know what I’m talking about, the gut every older man has. No more one pack (a four pack was my closest I got). No more abs. No more beach body. I’m not even talking about a beer belly, I’m talking about a man gut. Not quite bad enough where you can’t see your toes. Not quite good enough where you don’t have to suck it up when you’re trying to impress the ladies. I have insisted to myself that I start being active. I think working in front of a computer most of the days with little movement other than occasional bathroom breaks and meetings has turned the once very active Peter into ‘fatty Peter’ (what my friends like to refer to me as now).

I weighed myself just yesterday on my brother’s exact-o scale and it went to an all-time high. Couldn’t believe it, but I was 196.8 lbs! Less than 8 months ago, my brother weighed 185 lbs and I weighed 170 lbs. After shedding lots of weight, he now weighs 155 lbs. Don’t know how he magically transfered his weight onto me, but guess who just started a weekly Monday evening Tennis night with a few of the boys? I’ve accepted the fact that this man gut is not going anywhere and something I’m just going to have to live with. But hopefully my new diet and active plan will be the start of a healthier, leaner Peter with a man-gut lifestyle…

So how many of you out there are fighting your man gut?