Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

I used to be skinny. Scrawny little wimp was something I heard from a loved one, partly in jest. When I was getting to the end of high school, an Air Force recruiter told me not to lose weight. Most people when they sit, their stomach/belly sort of pushes out, it’s just a natural thing. However, if you’re skinny enough, it sort of folds in instead of pushing out. Mine used to fold in. When I graduated high school, I was 6’2, 160 lbs. That has changed. I blame it on two specific events, or time periods. Remind me later.

Jump forward about twelve years. I’m not any taller, but I’ve topped out at just under 250 lbs. For about the last year or so, I’ve managed to get a little more than halfway back to 160. Yay me! The first 40 were easy. Getting from 210 to 200 seemed to take forever. My scale is digital. The lowest I got to was 199.4 lbs. That happened once. Since then, I’ve been to a couple of graduation events for Code Name Eagle, plus a Father’s Day celebration. Lots of food at all of these. In fact, the Father’s Day thing was where I went for the second half of Friday night two weeks ago. I promise I’ll get to it. Ask me later. Anyway, now I’m back drifting between 202 and 204. I haven’t been over 205 for weeks. My progress has greatly diminished. I like surprises sometimes, so maybe I’ll try to make a concentrated effort while I’m on this self-directed period at work, and surprise them when we’re all together again. I should probably work out too, maybe actually get in shape.

Sometimes people ask me how I do it. Usually I tell them I always make sure I go to bed hungry. Maybe that’s just another way to say I’m eating a lot less. I’ve never really been a breakfast eater. At work I only get lunch about half the time. Aside from that, I usually only eat one meal a day, sometime in the late afternoon or evening. I have a terrible diet. Sometimes I may get a bit hyperbolic, but I don’t think I would be exaggerating to say that at least 90% of my meals since D-Day have been frozen foods heated in the microwave or fast food. Pretty much the only thing I’ve cooked has been big batches of chili or nachos that last me for four or five days. I just hate the time and effort and cleanup of making meals. As it is, I use paper plates and run the dishwasher about once a month, usually when I’ve run out of silverware. Not very healthy, but I do take vitamins every day and drink lots of juice. Hopefully that will balance things out. Lucky for me, at this point it’s been long enough that I don’t get people asking me if I’m getting skinny because of D-Day. Now they think I’m just being virtuous and health-conscious. Both of which are quite a stretch when it comes to me.

Ahhhh! The whole point of this thing is that BMI Height Weight chart. Did I really have to write all that to get to this? A BMI of 18-24.9 is considered normal. According to them, I have to get down to 186 to crack the upper end of the ideal “normal” weight for someone of my height. At the rate I’ve been going lately, that might take another year. And can someone out there tell me the range implied in yo-yo dieting? Even I can see that a cycle of losing 100 pounds, regaining it, losing it, etc. can be bad for you. What I’m asking about is the low number. Where does normal weight fluctuation meet yo-yo? If you go up and down in a ten pound range, that doesn’t seem bad. What if you go up and down within a twenty pound range? Anyone? Anyone? Something -doo economics. Anyone? I’m sure you’ll forgive the gratuitous cultural reference.