Seven pounds lighter, Oklahoman writer presses ahead

The first week of the Ken 2.0: From Fat to Fit project is over, and what have I learned?

I learned that my body is in worse shape than I thought. Richard Sallee, vice president of the Stowe Foundation, visited with me at The Oklahoman on Thursday. He brought with him an Inbody 230 machine, a portable body composition analyzer. I stepped barefoot onto the metal footpads and 30 seconds later, a printer spit out the bitter truth: 42 percent of my body weight comes from fat. That’s pretty gross.

I learned a little good news at my first weigh-in on Thursday: I’d lost about 7 pounds due to diet and exercise. I don’t expect weight to keep falling off; the first couple weeks are the easiest. Still, I’m happy to be 7 pounds lighter.

What else did I learn?

Well, I took my first few steps toward eating the right foods. Wednesday, I met for the first time with Karen Funderburg, a registered dietitian in Yukon. She talked to me about carbohydrates, protein, fiber and fat. We looked at the labels on common foods and went over a nutrition plan she’d put together just for me.

I’ve found I’m becoming one of those guys who eats five or six small meals a day; the goal is to get my metabolism to purr along like a high-performance engine instead of stuttering like an old lawnmower, as it does now.

I learned that exercising isn’t as bad as I feared it’d be — but most days, it’s anything but easy.

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