curiosity about weight

 

So I've been listening to the Maintenance Phase podcast, about weight, fat-shaming, diet culture, and the like, and during the most recent episode ("Doctors Have a New Plan for Kids"; no convenient way to link to it; go see the website), I was reminded of part of my most recent doctor's appointment.

I had gained seven pounds since the previous year, and the doctor gave me a (no doubt insurance-required) counseling on the dangers of weight gain.

Dude! Have you seen me?

i still think they're wrong, but...

 I got to thinking this morning about the food pyramid, and how we got bamboozled by the sugar-and-grain folks a couple of decades ago, into thinking that dietary fat was the main cause of overweight and obesity. It turns out that sugar and grain are much more at fault than fat.

So if we got lied to about that, I can see why folks might have thought that we were lied to about COVID-19 and the vaccine. The science for the vaccine was better, and more easily available (and more of us know how to read it), but if you're been lied to once, you're more likely to be suspicious of stuff coming from the same source, especially if you've been otherwise fed an information diet heavy in conspiracies and suspicion.

As with so many other things, I need to think about that.

not just 'calories in, calories out'

I know it's not really science, it's science reporting, but this article from Aeon points out that the "thermodynamic" model of calories in vs. calories expended for the obesity epidemic doesn't explain, for example, why other species (the article cites mice and marmosets) are also getting fatter, or why a daily calorie variation of less than 2% does or doesn't cause us to gain weight.

Chemical, cultural, and hereditary causes are considered. As with most things, I doubt there's a single (or even one major) cause; I suspect it's a convergence. We may find that all of the factors noted in the article are in play, or only a few, or that there's other stuff we had not even considered.

Some of whatever leads to our body size is undoubtedly just dumb luck.

some thoughts on weight

I thought of this after I heard myself, and a few others, complaining about being stuck at a certain weight. I'm beginning to think weight is just an indicator. It’s an important one, and it’s the one that usually gets us in the door, but it’s just one indicator.

I think that’s why the WW folks go on so about movement, healthy eating, healthy choices generally, and the like. I think we can be doing ALL THE RIGHT STUFF… and the weight may not go down (or may even go up!). So it’s important not to ONLY look at the weight (although it’s important not to ignore it).

This post has been percolating for a few weeks, and when I first started to think about it, I thought of the following story: Suppose you come upon the magic WW lantern. It’s blue, green, and purple, with the WW logo on the side. You polish it up for a minute to get the dust off, and WHOOOOSH! Out pops the genie, with the easy humor, blonde hair, and fashionable accessories; she looks just like my WW coach.

“Wow!” she says. “Good thing I’ve been in WW for all these years, or that space would have been even MORE cramped than it was! Look at this outfit; I’ll NEVER get these creases out!

“OK, listen. Here’s how it works: I can give you one of two wishes. I can make it all work for you. You’ll feel better, you’ll fit into all your clothes, you’ll be able to keep up with any activity, you’ll even be able to tire out your grandkids! And you’ll look great. You’ll be thin, healthy looking, in shape… wait; healthy LOOKING, did I say? Better than that; you’ll be HEALTHY! You’ll be off your meds, your doctor will be shaking his (or her) head about how great you’re doing. And you’ll have a long life, and when it’s time to die, you’ll have a quick, relatively painless death.

“Only one thing: if you get on the scale, you’re gonna weigh MORE than the weight when you started WW. It will only show on the scale; you’ll have all the energy and other good stuff you want, and you’ll be thin and strong, but your weight won’t line up with how you look and act. The scale will still show that high number.

“You other option is this: you get to be any weight you want. That’s what the scale will show. But you’ll be tired, in pain, out of breath; you’ll have low energy, you’ll look like your “before” pictures and worse. But the scale will show any number you like.

“So? Which is it? Which one are you going to choose?”

Now, given that choice, who would go for the weight? To me, the important stuff is the way I feel, what I can do, what my health is like. So within reason, I need to let go of what the scale says. I can’t ignore it entirely (because it IS an important indicator, like the gas gauge on the car), but I shouldn’t use it as the sole indicator – just like I shouldn’t try to manage the gas level in the car by gluing the gas gauge needle in place.

I work in addiction and mental health, and we have a name for folks who obsess solely on weight and trying to keep it off. They’re called anorectics; they have a condition called Anorexia Nervosa. Despite the fashion magazines, it’s not pretty. It can be fatal.

So I’m letting go of obsessing on the number, and I’m trying to remember all of the other factors that tell me how healthy I am and how I’m doing. Well, I’m trying to let go, anyway.

a fine spring day in january

So do you know what happens when you get a day in January that turns out sunny and almost 60°F?

What happens is, Tom H lists a ride, and eleven people come out to do it.

A group that big is unwieldy, so I took Tom's offer and swept today.

I got to the start at the Reed Recreation Area a bit early, and met Jack H and Chris C, and ducked out to Stonebridge for a quick supplementary bagel (and to see if the clothing I had was going to be too much. It was; I ditched a layer before we started).

We headed out towards the Assunpink, and went down the dreaded Rochdale Avenue. On the way down, I got a case of the shimmy that was so destructive to Jack H on Federal Twist two or three years ago... luckily, the road leveled out and I slowed down out of it before I had any dire consequences. I'm sure I was just panicked, and couldn't think what to do when it was happening!

After that, the ride went without incident for me. Ron A, of the beautiful bikes...

... and I got to talking about weight management and a number of other topics. I was able not to drool on that lovely Hanford. (He's got a carbon bike... but why would you ride that when you have such other hardware as he does?)

The day was windy, and Tom tried to keep us into the wind on the first part of the ride, on the theory that we'd have a tailwind on the way back. Several of us were tired, and welcomed the break when we got to Charleston Coffee.

The double-chocolate crumb cake is not the only reason I like Charleston Coffee...

...but it doesn't hurt.

I had to get this picture of The Other Dave's excellent shoes:

If his phone ever loses charge, he can use that high-voltage footwear to charge it right up again.


Bike pics:

Unfortunately, in a best-laid schemes o' mice and men ganging aft agley situation, the wind WASN'T at our backs all the way home when we left, and some of us aren't in the shape we're in by, say, July. 'Nuff said.

On the way back, Ricky found a pothole...

...and changed his tire before an audience that was appreciative, if bovine:

I'm not sure they appreciated his finesse, virtuosity, or speed in the endeavor.

I had a great day. I hope you did, too.

Ride page.

work healthy-habits support group

I'm posting this here just as a reminder: a few of my work companions have started a healthy-habits group. We're offering each other support (and maybe challenge), and we're NOT doing the contest we did last year (which, I think, supported some unhealthy behaviors suspected in one of the participants).

On the hypothesis that we pick up the habits of the people with whom we associate (for which there is some evidence... the linked articles aren't proof, but they're thought-provoking), I think it's a good idea. It's why I continue to go to my WW meetings, even though I don't want to lose any more weight. In fact, check out the graph below:

Back beginning in 2009, I lost a bunch of weight... and then over the course of the following decade, I put most of it back. Over the past year, on the WW program as I've adapted it, I've lost weight again, but now I want to do what it takes to keep it off. Continuing with WW is part of that...

...and I hope support from my work companions will be another part, at least until I retire (in two years, four months, and sixteen days, as I write this).

The work support is already helping. The communal junk-food location has been a bookshelf just outside my cubicle; when I mentioned what a temptation it was, one of the women in the group moved all the stuff to another location. It's a few more steps away, and I can't go indulge as surreptitiously as earlier I could.

I like to "button up" these posts with some kind of end statement, and I can't think of anything. We'll see how it goes.

beautiful day

I thought Laura OLPH was going to be blowing glass on Saturdays, so I was delighted to see her list a ride from Hillsborough up to Oldwick for today. I checked in with her about distance, and was told about 50-55 miles. Right up my alley.

Starting in January, I started at Weight Watchers; I've hit goal and become a lifetime member, and I still go to the meetings (and track my food, weight, and activity, because that's what worked for me). The topic this week (last week?) was about maintaining motivation, and with my group's coach, the estimable Amy H, it led to a discussion of how our motivations (our "why's", in the WW parlance) can change over time.

Well, one of my "why's" is so I  can do rides like this one. I get to hang out with some extremely cool people, and push my bike around with 'em on some demanding roads, on one of the most beautiful ride days ever.

Tom H, Ricky G, Bob N, and Blake joined.

We started at the park in Hillsborough, and headed just about straight north. Laura made clear that there would be stops for pictures, and when she did, I did:

Well, you can't get that close to Solberg Airport without droppin' in, now can you?

We pass this farm on this ride, and I can never remember where it is... but I loved the twisted sycamore framed by the straighter, darker trees. I got a bunch of these; this was the best of the lot:

Where we turn onto Rockaway Road, there's this nifty ruin...

...and a bit further along, this nifty cottage compound. It's usually obscured by foliage; this was a rare sight of the grounds.

Shortly thereafter, there was this WHIPPIN' downhill on Fox Hill Road... but with a vista like this about halfway down, wouldn't you stop, too? The pictures don't do it justice.

And then to the Oldwick General Store, where I ate about my whole quota of calories and food points for the whole day. But I know I'll burn it off on a day like this.

Bob had some tire trouble on the way back.

My club is the Princeton Freewheelers, and my joke is, Q.: "How many Freewheelers does it take to change a tire?" A.: "How many do you have?"

I have no idea where this was:

By the time we got back, we had a smidge over 51 miles, 2200' of climb. I might have kept up on this ride a year ago, but I would have been miserable. This year, I'm glad I was in shape to do it. And it was a beautiful day.

lifetime member

In January, I wrote about joining Weight Watchers after that hanging-gut picture that Marty G got of me; in February I wrote about hitting goal.

Well, it turns out that if, six weeks after hitting goal, your weight on their scale is within 2lbs up or down of your goal, you can be a member for life, and continue to use their tools and meetings without continuing to pay, as long as you weigh in once a month and you're no more than 2lbs above your goal.

Which is fine, except I kept losing more weight after I hit goal at 178; at one point, I was 6½lbs below goal, far more than the 2lbs allowed. I thought of trying to eat junk until I was closer to goal, but that seemed too risky; what if I just didn't stop? (It didn't help that their scale had me 3-3½lbs lighter than our scale at home did.)

Well, I got around it, and last Thursday I tipped their scale at 177.2. The charms on the ring above my congratulations card are, from right, the blue 5lb, the purple 10lb, the gold-with-stone for hitting goal, and the rose-gold-with-stone for lifetime. (I qualify for 15lb and 20lb charms, but the last thing I need...)

So it's worked for me.