Category: exercise

Insanity

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

–Albert Einstein

I woke up this morning to see similar headlines blasted all over the web. I would love to quote it for you, but I just can’t decide which particular headline to use.

The upshot of all the headlines is that the FDA has finally approved a new obesity drug, Belviq, for sale in the USA. And there are so many things to mock here that my head is swimming. It’s like that time I got dragged to go “fishing” at a fish farm. The pond was about 3 feet deep, 20 feet widem and 10 feet long and contained approximately 1,546,453 fish.

You could just put on your apron, grab one with your bbq tongs, and stick it right on the grill.

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That Is The Question

A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.

–A.A. Milne

Another big question I get in eating this way is, “what about exercise?” This is a good question. If you read at all, or are able to hear, you’d think that exercise was the magic elixir that solves all of life’s problems. You can’t open a web page anywhere without seeing it lauded in glowing terms as the key to weight loss, heart health, and even longevity.

Of course you can’t find many centenarians who exercise, but we’ll just call that a paradox and pretend it doesn’t happen. The key for you to live a long life is obviously to exercise.

Only maybe it isn’t.

Because there are enough paradoxes lying around here to build our own gym with.

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It Ain’t

‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’ 

–Lewis Carroll

When I first read Why We Get Fat, by Gary Taubes, and even more so when I delved into his longer book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, I felt a kind of mental relief, as if someone had removed a splinter from my brain.

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The First Step

He was born on the finish line, so he thinks he won the race.

–unknown

So now you know what’s happened, but how did it happen? That’s the real question. So I’ll tell you the answer.

It was a normal morning. I’d eaten my 1 measured cup of Cheerios and skim milk. I’d drunk my banana/kiwi/blueberry/plain yogurt smoothie. I’d had some black coffee, no sugar. Now it was time to exercise.

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The Beginning

“Begin at the beginning,” said the King gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” –Lewis Carroll

Who am I?

No one in particular. I’m American, but I live in Asia. I’m a woman, but I really like football, cars and barbecue. I have blue eyes, but sometimes I wish they were brown because they’re sensitive to sunshine and bright lights. I love to talk to people older than I, but I also love playing soccer with kids nearly a fifth my age. Oh, and I used to be fat.

Really fat.

But that’s been changing. In the course of (at the date of this writing) seven months, I’ve lost 115 pounds, packed on muscle and dramatically improved my triglycerides, my HDL count, my blood pressure and my resting heartbeat. I’ve also gotten more alert, ended spring allergies and have energy and to spare.

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