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I get the point!
May. 6th, 2005 01:57 pmJesus, how many "it is time to grow up now" revelations can a guy be expected to endure in a single week?
So, uh, I've put on weight lately. How's that for a gentle segue? I have spent a good portion of my life being purposefully not self-conscious about my body. Because my family, we are a family of mental illness and eating disorders. And I just don't need that crap, my self image is bad enough as it is. But there have been some things lately, over the past few days, that have brought my weight to my attention. And today I actually weighed myself, which is a rare event for me, and was startled. Not only was I above the already high benchmark I had guessed I was at, I was pretty significantly above it.
I know exactly how this happened. I would even if my mother hadn't been nagging me about it for months. Since about this time last year I have been inexorably growing heavier. My eating habits have not changed overmuch while my lifestyle has grown increasingly sedentary. Well, OK, not increasingly sedentary, because there comes a point where it either plateaus or I become bedridden. And obviously its plateau'd, although at a pathetic level. Walking to and from the car while doing errands and walking the dog once or twice have officially become the high points of my daily activity. I'm probably at the point now where the number of times I go up and down the stairs in my house accounts for a significant fraction of the abysmally small number of calories I burn in a given 24 hour period.
OK, so what should I do about it? Changes in my diet are a proven non-starter with me. I'm a compulsive eater, I've got a wicked sweet tooth, etc. What little progress I have made is actually quite good in my opinion. I've significantly cut down on the number of times a month where the primary component of any given meal is cheese fries. I am begrudgingly expanding my palette to include more vegetables and bit by bit I eat more like an adult and less like a college student. The thing that is going to make a difference for me is exercise. Yeah, getting any of that at all would probably be a good step. Walking is probably the place to start for me; do a half an hour or an hour of that a day until I'm not like a goddamn recovering hospital patient, and then consider how to start getting real person exercise. If the PS2 in the basement belonged to me I'd seriously consider purchasing some DDR pads, but of course it doesn't and I'm moving next week.
I know, I know. Walking to and from class was all the exercise that kept me in the admittedly crappy shape I was in when I was in college. Which means that, by definition since I'm 23 instead of 19 and have the accompanying changes in metabolism, I'll have to do more than walking to even get back to that level of fitness. Which, all in all, means this little personal revelation might not last longer than the rest of the day. I'm lazy to a fault. But I'm putting it out here where all of you can see it. And that's probably a good sign.
So, uh, I've put on weight lately. How's that for a gentle segue? I have spent a good portion of my life being purposefully not self-conscious about my body. Because my family, we are a family of mental illness and eating disorders. And I just don't need that crap, my self image is bad enough as it is. But there have been some things lately, over the past few days, that have brought my weight to my attention. And today I actually weighed myself, which is a rare event for me, and was startled. Not only was I above the already high benchmark I had guessed I was at, I was pretty significantly above it.
I know exactly how this happened. I would even if my mother hadn't been nagging me about it for months. Since about this time last year I have been inexorably growing heavier. My eating habits have not changed overmuch while my lifestyle has grown increasingly sedentary. Well, OK, not increasingly sedentary, because there comes a point where it either plateaus or I become bedridden. And obviously its plateau'd, although at a pathetic level. Walking to and from the car while doing errands and walking the dog once or twice have officially become the high points of my daily activity. I'm probably at the point now where the number of times I go up and down the stairs in my house accounts for a significant fraction of the abysmally small number of calories I burn in a given 24 hour period.
OK, so what should I do about it? Changes in my diet are a proven non-starter with me. I'm a compulsive eater, I've got a wicked sweet tooth, etc. What little progress I have made is actually quite good in my opinion. I've significantly cut down on the number of times a month where the primary component of any given meal is cheese fries. I am begrudgingly expanding my palette to include more vegetables and bit by bit I eat more like an adult and less like a college student. The thing that is going to make a difference for me is exercise. Yeah, getting any of that at all would probably be a good step. Walking is probably the place to start for me; do a half an hour or an hour of that a day until I'm not like a goddamn recovering hospital patient, and then consider how to start getting real person exercise. If the PS2 in the basement belonged to me I'd seriously consider purchasing some DDR pads, but of course it doesn't and I'm moving next week.
I know, I know. Walking to and from class was all the exercise that kept me in the admittedly crappy shape I was in when I was in college. Which means that, by definition since I'm 23 instead of 19 and have the accompanying changes in metabolism, I'll have to do more than walking to even get back to that level of fitness. Which, all in all, means this little personal revelation might not last longer than the rest of the day. I'm lazy to a fault. But I'm putting it out here where all of you can see it. And that's probably a good sign.
