I just re-read this post for additional motivation.....just curious, what isI started to answer in the comments and then realised that my reply might in fact make a better post for this blog, as the answer is not as straightforward as it should be. Strange though it may seem, I've not actually had a goal weight as such.
your goal weight?
My main aim when I embarked on this new way of living and eating was to become healthier. Losing weight was always a side effect of that rather than the main goal.
At 5 feet and 7 inches tall, my ideal weight for my height is supposed to be about 10 ½ stone (147lbs). The upper limit, allowing for a broader bone structure is about 11 st 5lbs (159lbs). Even at my leanest, as a fit teenager working as a landscape gardener, I was about 11st 4lbs (158lbs), so 10 ½ stone has never come into the equation.
Therefore, to get to about 11 ½ stone should really be my goal. From the viewpoint of over 19 ½ stone, however, this just looked laughable. I could not for the life of me imagine losing over 8 stone in weight. 8 stone is also 112 pounds, which is the amount in a British “Hundredweight” – hence the title of this blog. I discovered shortly afterwards that the US Hundredweight is a more obvious 100lbs exactly, although even that seemed like an impossible dream.
So when I set out, my feeling was that if I could get down to about 15 stone (210lbs) then I would be more than happy. At the point that I actually reached that weight back last October, I was approached by Sir (now Lord) Chubalot to join the Knights of the Round Bottoms. Up until then, this semi-ironically title blog was just being used to collect and store specifically weight-related blog entries. Now however, I started to keep a weekly log of my progress online as well.
As the weight has come off, so my idea of what weight I might be able to reach has shifted. Having passed the 15 stone mark, I then started to think about 13 ½ stone (189lbs). When I was I was in my early to mid twenties I was about this weight and I thought I looked fine. In addition, I’d worked out that at this size, I would no longer be categorised as “obese”. However, I have now passed that marker too.
12 ½ stone (175lbs) now looks like it might just be possible – and of course that is 100lbs. If I achieve that then I might even get a mention in Twice the Man’s hall of fame, although my efforts pale into insignificance next to his
Might I actually reach 11st 5lbs – 4lbs beyond even the British hundredweight?
Well, to be honest, I’m not going to lose sleep over it. If I’m eating healthily and I get my activity up to a healthy level, then my body will settle at whatever weight it should naturally be, whatever the charts say.
Naked in the mirror, I still have man-boobs and a belly, but I can now fit in clothes without an ‘X’ in the size. I look around at other middle-aged men and most seem to have at least the size of belly that I do, so I no longer look like a Fat Man. I look average. Some time in the next week or two, my wife and I are planning on visiting a gym for the first time, just to see what it involves and to get an idea of how much benefit we might gain from going there.
Even if I didn’t lose another pound, the fact that I have lost 88 is enough to feel I can’t complain.
The fact is, there is no end to this, and that makes a goal weight more or less redundant. Even if I reached 11st 5lbs, I wouldn’t stop eating healthily. As I have remarked before, this is NOT A DIET, it is a way of life.
Mind you, I don't know at what point I'll be able to move from Sir to Lord Man Boobs - when I've lost 100, 112, or 116 (meaning I'm no longer "overweight")?
2 comments:
I just read your 2 most recent posts. I am impressed Kim. What you've expressed in this post is the attitude that I intentionally cultivated when I lost the 65+ pounds the first time around. Unfortunately, once I reached any of my weight goals, I kept setting up new ones. Ultimately, even after I got 1 1/2 pounds lower than the most appropriate of these goals, I started playing how-low-can-you-go. At 125.5, I wondered if I could reach 120. How about 118 and so on?
Anyway, you've managed to express and really have the healthiest attitude I've seen re. this whole weight challenge thing.
Re. the post before this: How great that you could "limit the damage." That's a major accomplishment.
I'm going to print out these last 2 posts as inspiration. Hopefully, when I'm full on board to sabatage my efforts, I'll remember to read them. Having said that, they're going on the refrigerator.
Thanks Arlene.
I think damage limitation is a serious tool we have. My wife has expressed this many times over the past year or so. She says that in the old days, if she ended up having a bar of chocolate, she would feel like the whole thing was over, so she'd go on a real blow-out just to prove the point. These days if she finds it easier to realise that if she's had the chocolate, then she can carry on eating healthily tomorrow - the world has not come to an end.
Post a Comment