As I said in my last post, good Health isn't merely one aspect of our lives, but all of them. Today I would like to focus a little bit on the Physical Health portion.
In my past efforts, the goal was nearly always to lose a set amount of weight. Typically, as I was exhausting the 'low hanging fruits', I would reach a plateau and start to lose steam in my effort, ultimately resulting in failure.
This journey, however, was different from the very start. No longer was I going to focus on the weight. I will talk more about this real soon when I outline the Eat to Live principles. It was quite a pleasant feeling when I started to see real results without going on the scale. Being ever the Engineer, I did start to wonder how I would be able to quantify my progress. After all, if I wasn't going to look at pounds alone, what could I look at? What could I use as a benchmark?
The answer is this: Weight over height squared. Sounds familiar? Yes I am talking about the BMI.
Before typing these words, I have extensively researched the topic, read a great many pieces both for and against it.
I want to assure you at this point that by no means do I consider the BMI to be more than what it is: an index. But much like the very succinct definition of Health from the WHO, I feel it is a very loaded number, one that reflects a lot of information.
I think it is fair to say that if you calculate your BMI or look at published charts like this one, it seems unreasonable. How can you possibly lose that much weight and be considered healthy? You probably think you'll have to do something like starve yourself just to reach it. Conversely, you can look at your current numbers and say that you are in great shape with a good weight yet the charts say you are at Death's doorsteps.
Here's my take on it:
You can lose quite a bit of weight using a specific diet plan. There are plenty out there. But if your only goal is to lose weight, your focus is too sharp, there is no margin for error. As you get closer to the "number", you work harder and harder. This creates a huge stress on the body, and then, because you have such a small margin of error, something happens and you start to slide, eventually regaining most or all of it, and feeling like crap too. However, if you instead don't put a time limit on the effort and start taking small steps but making sure the changes are fully in place, you start to feel good, it is no longer a challenge or deadline but rather just what you do. Now this does not mean that it is easy. Believe me, at some point you run out of little things to change and have to start taking a good hard look at yourself. But at least by that time you have worked up some real confidence, the framework is in place. How does that relate to the BMI you say? By the time you start making some of the bigger changes, you know the ones that involve being honest with yourself, you realize that you are already almost there. It's crazy but I am proof of it. By the time I started to plan to begin exercising and quitting smoking, I had already lost more than half of the weight. That's right. And that put me ever so close to the 'normal' range I couldn't believe it. Now the rest wasn't any easier to lose, but I was in such a good place I had no problem keeping going. Like I said the framework was in place. That almost 'healthy' BMI meant that not only had I lost the pounds, I had taken the steps necessary to keep them gone for good. As I added a healthy dose of exercise (sorry pun intended!), the rest of it just kept coming off. I never really thought that I could be under 170 lbs and not be a walking skeleton. On the contrary, I am in the best shape of my life, and getting stronger.
So take the BMI as a guide. Get blood drawn, see where you are. Change everything, but change it slowly. Who cares about the pounds, they WILL come off. By the time you are anywhere near that dreaded 'healthy' range, you will be amazed. When you're right smack dab in the middle of it, you just plain won't believe it.
Until next time,
Oliver P.
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