I am on a diet and I resent the hell out of it. I resent it because:
1) I find being overly concerned with your weight or appearance is evidence either of excessive vanity or an inability to accept mortality.
2) It think it’s fundamentally unfair that our biology is premised on some ancient struggle for survival in such a way that all the things that taste good or are pleasurable to ingest are bad for you. In a decently arranged universe, smoking would cure cancer, drinking would fix cirrhosis, and Ding-Dongs would make your BMI plummet like a rock.
3) There is a class element to fatness. I swear that people that are taller and skinnier in this world make more money. Skinny is the new happy. Our culture equates thinness with all kinds of virtues and capacities that the thin have in no way earned. Where have you gone Peter Paul Rubens?
And yet I am on a diet and pledge to be on one for the next six months, or maybe the term of my life, depending. Why would I do such a thing, given my feelings about dieting? In short, I’m worried about how I look and want to live really, really long and I want people to like me and give me money and ask me to be in their country club. So there’s that.
And I should probably set a good example for the kids.
So on with the diet! Experts and web sites keeps asking for my weight and fitness goals, so here they are: To attain my ideal body weight of 157 lbs. Ha! Just kidding. Who comes up with those numbers? That would require eating like Gwenneth Paltrow for a decade. No way. I’ll shoot to get to 185, about where I was in high school, which would still have me in the “overweight” category, I guess. About a 20lb. loss. Exercise goal is to run a marathon. When I’m 65. Training has begun.
To accomplish my goals I am going to geek my fat right off.
I’m giving my diet and nutrition over the The Daily Plate, a branch of the mighty Live Oak that is the Livestrong Foundation. Not the biggest Lance fan, but the site functions well enough as a food log and calorie tracker. I entered in my goals and it gives me a daily calorie budget. I can then track my progress by entering everything that I eat during the day. The database of packaged and restaurant food is amazing, making entry of that stuff easy, though creating “meals” from all the constituent parts of my home cooked dinner is a little cumbersome. I’m hoping that after having entered
I remember an Econ course where the professor talked about the ideal look being related to money. Back when the ideal was corpulent and pale, the only folks that could afford to sit around inside and eat were the rich. The poor worked outside getting cut and a killer tan.
Now we work inside, and have cheap high calorie food, so you have to be rich to afford spending time outside getting a tan and paying for the gym.
So let’s tax high calorie foods and put the cubicles outside.
Here is my new motivation. They are finding links between Alzheimer’s and Diabetes, and since obesity increases Diabetes, that is a far more compelling worry for me. Also, being a Dad does make you want to hang around more… mostly.
Did the Wii Fit tell you the 157 lbs ideal weight? That’s what it says for me. I think I was 157 in grade 9. I finished high school at 175 and would just be happy to be 200 or less now.
Does the Wii Fit change its calc on male/female. Because it said my weight was healthy… which is crazy unless you think of manatees as being thin…
In my mid-twenties I hit upwards of 270. Holy crap that was a lot of weight. You’re doing all the right things, Clay. Keep it up. I’m envious that you have the Wii fit. Someday…
NosePrint
Hi Clay, pay no attention to the stats from the Wii Fit. It uses the BMI which is already being spoken in professional health circles as being inacurate. Because of my polynesian heritage, I have been 125kg since I was 16. I have a body fat average of 13%. So on BMI I’m grossly obese, but to my Dr I’m in perfect health. Just keep doing what you’re doing by increasing your calorie burn. Play with the kids more, & go for walks with the family holding hands. A 1 hour brisk walk with the family is equal to 20 minutes jogging, but one of the two is healthier for the soul! Look forward to seeing your mid term goals become a reality & by default achieving your long term goals! In time you’ll be a happy great grand dad! (Will you make a new site for Grand dadlabs?!
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This is simple. If the good Lord didn’t want you to eat, he wouldn’t have put food here. If he didn’t want us to drink, no beer would’ve been provided. Eat, drink and be merry for life is too short for tofu my man. Way too short indeed. Goals? For overachievers in my book. How do I know? Beer now comes in 30 packs, how much better can life really get??
Bri-