In mid-February, when I began my fitness project with a personal trainer, I wrote that I was sick of being out of shape and tired of lugging around a gut at age 42.

By the end of the six-month project, I did not expect to look like Lance Armstrong in the FRS Healthy Energy ads or my sports department colleague

Siebert is expensive, and my wallet will feel the sting for a while, but I can’t imagine too many exceptional personal trainers who aren’t. Even though our contract has ended, I will remain in contact and continue to try to execute her workouts on my own.

Siebert is not the only one I’ learned from during this project. I picked the brains of numerous trainers at LifeTime Fitness. Among my favorites: Ashley Graves and Kyle Jenks. For those of you muscle-beachers who think you’re tough, good luck training with Graves. I watched from a safe distance as she humbled the biggest and baddest.

I enjoyed visiting LifeTime Fitness, a first-class facility. The best part was witnessing a legitimate king of his craft, WJW Channel 8 personality Wayne Dawson, pump iron. Dawson is the nicest guy on the planet, but he’s also hard-core when it comes to fitness.

Most of all, I appreciated the feedback from readers. Much of it was via e-mail, but a fair share came from encounters at various stores in my neighborhood. One woman in a grocery-store parking lot recognized me and said I had motivated her to get busy improving her fitness. As I extended my well wishes, I felt guilty, knowing I was minutes away from purchasing a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos.

Yes, I ate junk food. I drank pop. Some of my dinner choices made Siebert cringe or, worse, wag a finger in my face.

The key is, I drastically reduced the amount of junk I eat. Example: I used to drink 40 ounces of pop a day, typically caffeinated. Now I’m down to one or two 20-ouncers per week.

My inability to strictly adhere to Siebert’s health-food plan cost me further progress in weight and body-fat loss. So did not finishing every workout. It showed I don’t have iron-clad discipline. It also showed I’m human. Additionally, humans suffer injuries, as I did to the back and quad, costing me two months.

I have the utmost admiration for those who work out and eat right as part of their nature, all the while managing to remain injury-free. Maybe one day I’ll get there. Check that — get back there. I ran cross-country in high school, and it was all good.

Before I take my fitness pursuit behind the scenes, I want to reassure readers that this quest was as much a challenge for me as getting in shape is for anyone: My employer did not pay for my trainer and did not rearrange my work schedule to accommodate my workouts. Lifetime Fitness did not compensate me. Other than doing curls with my computer bag en route to the press box, all my fitness work was done on my own time.

Now I’ll see if all this effort enhances my abilities at my speed-bowling exhibition Saturday at Buckeye Lanes in North Olmsted. But no matter how many, or few, pins I knock down in 60 or 90 minutes, at least I’ll know I’m continuing to chip away at my body-fat percentage.

Dennis Manoloff’s mid life shape-up quest

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