On July 6th, I published, “A Transparency Moment”. There are a lot of us who would never publish such an article. ‘Your health is private,’ ‘won’t you be embarrassed,’ and ‘what if you fail?’ These are nagging thoughts and they are constant. ‘Should I publish another update?’ ‘What if I don’t make progress?’
Your health is private
While I accept the premise that sharing your ‘weakness’ with family and especially the general public is difficult, I reject the assumption that it is a bad idea. The harsh reality of being fat is that it is a weakness. You are showing weakness in self-control and an inability to manage yourself. That isn’t to say that the weakness isn’t without reason: depression, socioeconomic conditions, genetics and any number of other challenges can affect your success in losing weight.
It is to say, being public with your troubles, your weaknesses, and successes is an opportunity to show strength, inspire others, receive accountability and maybe even pay it forward.
What if you fail?
The only result of the pursuit of perfection is failure. You are going to fail every day at something. Why not document and publish your trials, your failures, and your successes? Why not provide an opportunity for someone to say to themselves, “I identify with this person's struggle, I am going to try too.” One should never fear failure; we should fear not trying.
August 6th
My weight on August 6th was 225 lbs. That is not quite as low as I was hoping (220) but the whole of July was up and down with the ability to exercise between weather, physical limitations (ankle), and just in general life getting in the way. That said, it is yet another 5lbs down from the weigh in on July 6th, and 15lbs down from June 6th. That’s progress. I will assess my current progress and call it a win. Maybe it is a silver medal and not a gold but damn, I am in the competition.
What’s the data?
I continue to eat less meat, more vegetables, and less carbs. I eat out a lot less, drink less alcohol and exercise more. Since June 6th I have averaged 6950 steps a day. I am still working on getting that above 10,000. My less than stellar ankle makes that difficult. That being said, averages don’t tell the whole story. I have averaged 3.5 miles per day (since June 6th). The goal is more toward 5 miles per day. I would challenge every reader of this post to consider setting a goal of 5 miles per day.
What’s next?
Winter is coming.
That means rain, sleet, snow, cold weather, angry arthritis, seasonal affectiveness disorder and a lack of vitamin D. It also means I am going to move back into our school bus and snow bird. Utah, the South, and the Southwest. The hope is to take advantage of the great weather to be able to hike year around, at least twice a week and of course, walk every single day. Success requires discipline. I am working on it.
Tl;dr;