NL-2 Two days before a new life

This blog is about my new life, one that starts in two days.
New life, you say? How so?
Let's go back a bit. I never expected to have a new life. I've lived an outwardly uneventful life so far - wonderful childhood, the best family anyone could ever have (no one would believe me if I put it in a book), a career in a field that suits me. Any bumps in the road have shaken me up a bit just enough to make those years memorable. Nothing exciting - I've had no traumatic illnesses (TG!), nor any Olympic medals, nor any earthshattering romances. Didn't even win the lottery, unless you count my family - I've won the lottery quite a bit through them. Slow and steady.
On the slow and steady path things creep up on you. In my case, weight. As a child I was skinny as all five-year-olds are. Then I discovered books. But with books came bicycles, as you needed a bike to get to the various libraries within biking distance of home, so things balanced out. However, in those pre-Title 9 days, there were no sports programs for girls, even if I were genetically predisposed that way. So I slipped into a sedentary lifestyle - piano lessons (sitting), buses, trains and subways instead of bikes for libraries, cars and buses instead of walking to school (high school). Skipping forward to the college years, my new interest in folk dancing didn't compensate for the sedentary bookish life. Diets started coming into my life in high school and were part of my college life, more as something to worry about than to follow.
I was fortunate to enter into the computer field in its infancy. It was and still is fascinating - there was the challenge in using pure logic to make things happen. You go to work and people people gave you puzzles to play with all day, every day. Not literal puzzles but figurative ones. They'd ask me to help them to accomplish something. I'd see it as a challenge - what is the most efficient way, using computers, to get this done? Efficiency was everywhere. What is the most efficient use of my time? Do things just-in-time. Arrive at events without wasting any time (i.e. never arrive early, arrive when things start to happen). Work to the deadline. Don't waste any effort.
Yet, this was balanced by the interest to be 'in the moment' - reading a book, riding a bike to explore something, figuring out a new interest. I guess I thought I had enough exercise to balance my sedentary work life, but, unnoticed, my life was tipping toward the sedentary side. I gave up dance classes for singing in a symphony chorus (what do you have when you combine 150 people and a lot of heavy breathing - a chorus!). I gave up exercise to get a graduate degree at night. I traded ice-skating lessons and weight-training for a mortgage. Then the biggie - I bought into a 45-mile commute (one way) for a paycheck. The transformation was now complete - sitting in a car for two hours a day, sitting at a desk for another eight. The only saving graces were my hobbies - photography (trading my computer-geek credentials for photo-geek ones), travel (when I could afford it) and golf (yes, I kept banging my head against that particular wall) more as a family activity than an actual sport.

Which brings me back to today. This life. Me as morbidly obese.
I know how I got here and I know where it is taking me. A place I don't want to go - I've seen someone die a slow death from the complications of obesity. I have to change and it has to happen now.
A new life. It starts in two days. Come along with me on this journey.