On Being Normal

I've lost about forty-five pounds since May. People who haven't seen me in a few months immediately notice and ask me about it. I'm proud of that but it's embarrassing, mainly because I don't typically brag about myself without some self-deprecation hiding out somewhere. But nope, there is no cloud to this silver lining. It's a 100% positive change due to my own hard work and resolve. How embarrasing.

The question people ask is "What have you been doing?" Usually I give a reductive answer like "eating right and exercising". This is true, and it's basically the point of any serious weight loss program, but there's obviously more to it than that. I owe my thinner physique in part to Dr. Oz, Michael Pollen, and Nintendo, among other things. I decided to throw everything to do with health and weight loss at my mind and body at once, so I read diet books like You: On a Diet (very helpful, more like a science book than a series of unattainable prescriptions) and French Women Don't Get Fat (less helpful, as the author has no real expertice in nutrition or medicine, but fun in its own way). I saw Food Inc., a documentary that encourages a complete reexamination of the food you and your family consumes, not just for your own health, but for the environment as well. Along the same line I read Michael Pollen's In Defense Of Food and Marion Nestle's What To Eat. I bought a WiiFit and started weighing and doing the exercises. Then I started running.

I plan to go into the changes I've made to my diet and activity, as well as my values and worldview, in later posts. Today I just wanted to report that for the first time, the scale on the WiiFit told me something no one has ever told me, "You're normal." Normal being a BMI below 25. It was 24.99, so I'm like, teetering on the line between normal and overweight. I feel certain I'll backslide a little tomorrow, as these things ebb and flow a little. But still. Normal. That's pretty awesome.

Oddly enough, normal is in fact abnormal for Americans. Two thirds of us are either overweight or obese. Our diet is mostly crap and our jobs find us sitting inchairs all day and the stress of all of it goes right to the waistline. Much like a delicious cinnamon roll, it's a fatness spiral. I've pulled myself out of it and hopefully I have the good sense to stay out.

Note: I am cheap. Almost all of the above things were free. I spent a hundred bucks on the WiiFit (worth it), but the books were from the library and the movie was a free screening.