Baby Steps

I ordered some yoga pants from the Land's End outlet for about ten bucks. I also got a locker at the gym to eliminate some of my perpetual excuses. Shampoo, a spare towel, and some basic gym clothes mean that I can drop by whenever without having to go home and collect what I need.

I also went to the gym and spent an hour with the manager. We interviewed each other so that she could recommend a personal trainer for me. She's going to get back to me. I'll get a free hour orientation with whoever she finds that seems to fit my needs and schedule.

This was really hard. Among other things I had to be assertive about what I need. And to figure out what I want.

What is my goal? To do one pull up (or chin up). That's all.

Sounds really simple, doesn't it? It'll either have to get strong as hell or lose some serious weight or both. I guess I'll figure that part out as I go along. But somewhere along the way having a simple single-minded goal seemed like a good idea. Not get in shape or lose weight or look better or feel better. Just something simple and measurable.

Next goal: Feel valuable enough to get my butt there and act like I am entitled to take up space.

Chinese Food

does such a dance on the scale numbers. I know, I know. The scale shouldn't matter but it does. It is the simplest way to measure day by day. And dammit, I need feedback.

New Year's Eve, Goal-setting, and Change

Everybody's doing it. But I've never done this before, this goal-setting and measure-noting. In fact I usually don't even note the passing of the year with much interest. Even at work I resist the formal goal-setting process. I've never needed it before.
But I acknowledge that what I have been doing isn't working for me and this is as good a time as any to start something new. So I'm going to set goals.

This morning (I'm off of work this week and I haven't just been a vegetable as usual.) I decide to check out the BMI charts. I am encouraged by Late Bloomer who is doing a year in review and has wonderfully gone from "severely obese" to "obese". I know there is a lot of controversy over BMI but honestly, a BMI of 47.6, mine as of this morning, can't be good whether BMI is an ideal measure or not.

Here's a chart tailored for me:

Weight 260 BMI 47.6 Morbidly obese
Weight 245 BMI 44.8 Semi-morbidly obese (I made this up)
Weight 218 BMI 39.9 Severely obese
Weight 191 BMI 34.9 Obese
Weight 163 BMI 29.9 Overweight

(I made up the semi-morbidly obese because from a BMI of 40 up, it shifts from every 5 points to every 10. And this dismissal of nuance for the heavier folks is just unacceptable. They tell us that even 5 or 10 pounds matter. They should act like it.)

So my numeric goal will be to become semi-morbidly obese (245 pounds) by July 1 and to go from morbidly obese to severely obese by this time next year (218 pounds). This is 42 pounds in a year, about 3.5 pounds a month. And that seems quite doable.

More tomorrow. I'm going to the gym. Goal: Something for three minutes. Yes, just three minutes. Why do you ask?