Chronicles of a Late Bloomer

As I’ve bumped health issues back to the forefront of my mind, I have also been trolling around through some of the old websites that I used to haunt. Some of our fellow bloggers have predictably fallen away, leaving only dead links and deleted sites. Others are still going strong, blogging day after day about what kind of sandwich they had for lunch. (I salute you!) Then there are those (obnoxious third-person voice alert) who have yo-yo’ed back and forth, made grand goals and statements at irregular intervals, and yet keep coming back to fight the good the fight.

If I can’t be a part of the second group, at least I’m not a part of the first!

I know it’s hypocritical, but as I troll through health-blogs old and new, the first thing I look for are progress pictures. Maybe it’s the artist in me, but I respond better to the visual than the mathematical or the verbal. I need to see how it looks, since I’ve never felt how it feels.

Perception. One woman proudly, smilingly, exuberantly posts her 250-pound progress photo. After 6 months of hard work, she is radiant with accomplishment. Another woman posts her 250-pound “before” photo, looking dour and depressed. Some, who are documenting a lifelong journey with shifting shape, may post both types of photos at the same weight.

Our perception defines reality.

Yesterday, as I browsed blogs during my sensible lunch, I clicked over to an infrequent poster whose blog I used to follow. She began her journey weighing about 100 pounds more than I and I was shocked to find a progress photo posted after she had lost over 200 pounds. The change is indeed dramatic. She still has pounds to go before her so-called goal weight, but I felt a twinge of envy. I admired her persistence and her lifestyle overhaul. Although her current weight is in “nightmare” territory for many of the women in America, and her BMI is still 5 points over “normal,” she truly looks great.

Scroll down a few entries, though, and the worry sets in.

She alludes to health problems, and cryptically attributes them to “this diet that I’m on.” I search back in my memory banks and remember that she was restricting her diet to approximately 1,000 calories a day. I’m no expert, but this is certainly lower than I can ever see myself going. Also, I remember that she was not incorporating any exercise into her regime. In fact, she stated that she felt weak and sluggish all the time.

I guess I just sort of riffed on this idea that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It took her almost a year to get down to my current weight. And, I’m certainly not in despair over my current “numbers” (must be at a good point in my cycle, but I’m fairly content with my life all told) but I do want to get healthier.

The goal for me, though, is to achieve both health and weight loss at the same time: to have one without sacrificing the other.