In the last fortnight, I have lost five pounds (0.4 stone). This despite engaging in only minimal exercise & snacking way, way too much. I say this not to boast of my ability to lose weight without really trying (far from it, because I have so much weight to lose that it will require trying very, very hard), but to emphasize the importance of quantification. Heretofore, I've often said that I need to lose weight & even identified a target weight—two hundred eleven pounds, or fifteen stone—but I've weighed myself so periodically as to make any measurement of weight loss or gain all but meaningless. As with my annual Mass attendance goal, the numbers are not themselves the objective. Attending Mass fifty-two time per annum would itself be meaningless, but as I've discovered I cannot attend Mass that often without it affecting my life in other ways, without becoming more conscious of the Christian duties of charity & generosity to my fellow man. In the same way, tracking my weight is a means to an end, not an end in itself. What matters are the dietary & exercise reforms I undertake to achieve the target weight, not the weight itself. I intend to weigh myself at least fortnightly, if not weekly, going forward, because I shall need that pool of data to know what it & what is not working.
Thanksgiving & the Christmastide are going to be severe trials, but I know that if I simply wait 'til after the new year to start regularly weighing myself, then I might as well wait 'til kingdom come. He who hesitates, as I have so very, very often, is lost. Five pounds down, a great many more to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment