On The Health Front

In the "probably no one outside of me" care department (but hell, this is my blog so I suppose I can write whatever I want), I can officially claim some minor victory in the living healthy/weight management department. You see, I managed to get through the holiday season without gaining any weight. In fact, between December 14th and today I lost a total of three pounds.

I know, big freak'n deal.

For me though, it is a big deal. In fact, I've been working fairly hard at being more disciplined about what I eat, how much I eat and about exercising. Saying that it's easy is a lie: it's hard and it requires work. Normally I'm down with the "it takes work thing", as I'm accustomed to having to work for the truly valuable things in life. That's not a complaint at all, as I'd have it no other wa, since the most important things in life always require some work.

I'm convinced that the work when it comes to losing/maintaining weight is about 90% mental, 10% physical. Want proof? There have been many times when I've found myself eating not because I am hungry but because of some other (mental) reason. It just shows how strong the connection there is between mental and physical health. I've found that if you want to get your body better, you have to work on your mind at the same time.

I'm pretty realistic about this stuff: there will never be a time when, for example, I'm ever going to weight what I did when I graduated from high school. For the record, that was about 174lbs, which at 6'3.5", is actually under-weight. What I'm striving for here is much more realistic:

1. I simply want to feel better.
2. I want my clothes to fit comfortably.
3. I don't want to worry about my blood pressure.

What does all this translate to in a number? I don't really know. At my highest over the past few years, I've been up at about 262lbs. At my lowest I've been 211lbs. Realistically I think I can maintain something in the neighborhood of 220-ish while living a lifestyle that's sustainable (at least for me). I never want to be in a position where my eating is out of control, but I also don't want to eat any kind of special diet simply to lose weight. For me (and for most people) diets don't work; instead I'm just shooting for sustainable, realistic eating and exercise habits.

Here's to hoping that my head stays in the right place.