Body High(lights): The road to fat me
Was it once or twice last year that I got super lean? Which ever, that part's done
If one were to read through the following succession of wellness journalism entries, they would take away that physical fitness and spiritual wellness are only tangentially the stories’ concern. The Body High feature deeply wants to be a travelogue.
It also allows necessity to dictate too much fitness… the “Body High” may be me. From the Sunset Boulevard gym to the Echo Park low-resistance machines and from Rock-N-Roll Ralph’s to Portland’s winter rain… I been everywhere, man. In my body and on these West Coast streets.
Clearly not everywhere, of course. But I have an excellent sense of what’s going on. Inside and out.
Somewhere there’s a list of kisses, scribbled off of Venice Boulevard.
In a stunning reveal, video from Monday’s MLK Day/Inauguration live chatter gave away my newly-rounded belly. The development is what happens when you drink and smoke cigarettes and eat road food for a solid month. There’s a load of work ahead, if this very real story is to be turned around by spring, when I intend to re-emerge from the figurative lab.
In the 15 months since signing back up at that 24-Hour Fitness in Tacoma, my body has been profoundly lean and at times I have hauled a gut. My thighs got weirdly skinny at one point. The skin on them began to sag. The story of an aging body’s condition is bound to surprise, right up until the ultimate stunner: The part where we are no more.
Below is where I’ve been since June:
Body High 1: Intro to Muscle Memory
Body High is a new West Coast Sojourn feature that reports on our physical journey. The column mostly happens in gyms, but sometimes jumps off at the park or in nature.
Body High 2: Beyond Nutrition Betrayal
On the way to the Hollywood 24-Hour Fitness, I encountered some Vine Street hobos. Or street people. Or bums. Whatever you want to call them, they were unhoused in these minutes before dawn.
That periodic reminder that few months ago, author, editor, and educator Jervey Tervalon invited me to do something with my screenwriting project at Pasadena’s May Litfest, and that little bit of encouragement helped move my tiny, aspirational project into a number of promising places. I am super grateful for that.
If you can assist Jervey’s household in getting back on track it would be appreciated.
BH 3: My ideal self’s outline
My eyes were like magnetized by the crease where my belly meets my loin. If that’s not visible to me in the mirror with no clothes on, everything else with my body will be cool. No back pain, not on this day, two after I last went to the gym. And definitely none of that intolerable hip pain.
BH 4: Cum for your own good
At a Northeast Portland art and protest panel earlier this year, an audience member asked my friend and and sometimes-collaborator Rian Dundon a question like, How do I get my revolutionary politics into my art? And he responded with the most useful sentiment that anyone in attendance would hear that day:
BH 5: The point of it all
As last week we furtively skulked off into a, um, non-traditional corner of the fitness realm, let’s begin this fifth installment of Body High by resetting the narrative, establishing the story’s immediate stakes one more time.
BH 6: Taking the true measure of 'less is more'
She and I were about to arrive at the space at once, right between the paper towel dispenser and the resistance-training machine for one’s lower back. I gestured toward the metal.
BH 7: The refugees of Rock & Roll Ralph's
January, 2010. Less than a week until the Sundance Film Festival. This body builder at the Venice Gold’s Gym is yelling that I ain’t never going to get big lifting weight this light, an idea that has echoed through my psyche ever since, influencing my fitness approach in ways I
BH 8: Your body screamed at you to listen
I had been unable to replace my ear bud. That’s right, bud singular. My other one disappeared a month prior, and the ensuing run of single-eared monitoring—dual channels playing at once—was a funny transition to deeply listening to LA.
BH 9: Stoned, but only very faintly
My latest morning habit has been to lean my torso over my bed’s side, drinking coffee as I consume some narrative storytelling from my laptop, on the floor. The world’s oldest teenager.
Like what I’m doing? Feel free to contribute to my travel budget.
BH 10: Actually stoned, for the first time
I’m confessing that these days it’s rare for me to smoke a joint, then go to the keyboard and try to put down a thousand or so sustained words. Sometimes I’ll fire off a Tweet, as they used to say, back in the day, or make a long-ish Facebook post, but you’ll hardly ever catch me trying to pull off something as long as
BH 11: Outrunning other oldsters
Let’s get to the core of this desire to compete in The California Senior Games, in 2026.
BH 12: A sobriety tributary
My new job as activities coordinator at a Northeast Los Angeles elementary after-school program is my exercise now. Pick-up football season has arrived and I’ve been playing lots of quarterback. Possibly too much quarterback.
BH 13: Out of the frying pan and into The Valley-adjacent
A month away from my last 24-Hour Fitness workout. Almost two weeks since I exchanged a new and successful low-impact fitness routine for the unpredictable workout that is elementary school activities leader. Some new sensations awakened. Southern California’s severe heat wave had not come.
BH 14: The first heat day indoors
A severe-weather emergency was in effect. There would be no outdoor activities for the kids staying on campus after class. Temperatures were up to 108 on the playground, next to the shielded tables where we gathered the elementary school students.
BH 16: The learning annexes
This weekend in a suburban LA pool, my friend Joya disabused me of a long-held notion.
Body High 17: Working straight, for the children
I used to be a one-for-the-road guy. Like, back at my 2021 crib, the 100-year-old factory in LA’s Arts District.
Body High 18: The day’s first inversion
Hey Sojourners. In case you missed it, author RK Byers is the Sojourn podcast’s newest. Last week the Atlanta-based Threadren member put out a funny, wittily-edited Ghetto Celebrity TikTok review.
Body High 19: The Venice kiss list
The Lovers List comes from an episode of In Search of…, a late-20th-century docuseries narrated by Leonard Nimoy. In a segment on Spanish libertine Don Juan, Nimoy told of a game between the devil and the stickman. Don Juan’s deal with Satan hinged on whether he could recall the name of one person he’s seduced.
BH 20: The space where you brace for impending injury
“Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.”
I’m Like what I’m doing? Feel free to contribute to my travel budget.
Body High 21: Bangin' 3s
Those after-school elementary kids are taking up less of my bandwidth. I’m down to a dozen times a day of remembering some fantastically pure thing that any number of them did.
Body High 22: The PNW
A few days before beginning my trek from suburban Los Angeles to the Pacific Northwest my glasses broke. No backup pair was on hand. Here is one of those times where I am happy not to be car reliant.
BH 23: Must be the shoes
Umbrella under-appreciation is the lowest key of Southern California pastimes. Only the occasional cloud outburst is bound to make you regret carrying one. This spare nature is slightly sad, because umbrellas are extraordinary and simple machines, time honored even as they are forgotten.
This is me at my most lean, last summer and just before the pandemic. My belief is that I can make it back. A little winter belly will not dissuade me.