Notes from my Knapsack 2-9-23

Notes from my Knapsack 2-9-23
Jeff Gill

Engaged in a losing proposition
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When it comes to weight loss, the best advice always is to take it slowly, not to go after crash diets and drastic measures.

Which makes sense.

So I have some good news and bad news on that front. I've lost 72 pounds, which is a large amount, but over three years. Taking that long is supposed to a good way to lose weight, and perhaps to keep it off.

Losing the 72 pounds over three years should be the good news, but the bad news is I've lost twelve pounds twice a year, six times over.

Right: if you're good at math, which is a great skill to have, you've figured out I weigh about what I did as 2020 dawned.

Given the time period, we can talk about COVID and restrictions and changes in social patterns and doom scrolling and stress eating, but I'll just sum up by saying I'm much better at gaining weight than losing it. Not that I can't lose it: 72 pounds! But it comes back.

I have plenty of excuses and personal justifications for my lack of exercise (at least consistent exercise) and poor nutritional choices (those darn ads for pizza!), but I also know there's lots of company out there. My suspicion is a number of you are already doing the math to figure out, if you use my admittedly odd metric, how much weight you've lost in the last few years. Many of you might well be ahead of me.

Meanwhile, I am working with an elderly relative who keeps losing weight who really shouldn't be. This gets complex and challenging to explain, and I won't (yes, I know about those cans of calorie rich shake-like stuff, and no, they won't drink it), but the irony here is that of the great many friends and fellow travelers through this bourn who are also or have previously cared for very elderly family members all say "let them eat whatever they want!" Oh, and I am. But the nutritional value of "whatever they want" can make the average picky toddler's diet sound healthy.

So I oscillate between a senior who eats truly unhealthy stuff and is losing weight, and trying to be more judicious and healthful in my own pantry, but end up putting weight back on (yes, and eating in my car is not a ticket to good health, but as my doctor says with a grin "you can carry apples in your car as easily as you buy a bag of chips, can't you?").

If I actually stayed 72 pounds less than I am right now, I'd likely have medical worries right there. That's not my actual goal. My real goal is not to sit in a car for ten to twelve hours a week, and that's where lifestyle choices get much more dramatic than choosing between fresh fruit and real imitation processed cheese food.


Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's fit as a fiddle if by that you mean shaped like one. Tell him how you stay healthy in the wintertime at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.