Since I learned I had high blood pressure back in mid-November, I’ve been making a concerted effort to get my health house in order. A couple decades of little to no exercise and not paying a whole lot of attention to what I eat (although I was probably the most conscientious denizen of FAR Manor even then, which isn’t saying much) finally caught up to me. Fortunately, I didn’t find it difficult to do the things I have to, perhaps because I intended to (eventually) do them anyway.
Just as the years up to that point took their toll, the weeks since then are now starting to show results. I’ve lost 14 pounds (233 to 219 so far) — although I’m still trying to figure out where they came from in the first place. But weight isn’t the important thing. It’s too easy to focus on weight, especially since exercise often replaces fat weight with muscle weight; it’s just that it’s a convenient metric as easy to see as stepping on the scales. IMHO, obsessing about weight probably kills more diets than anything else… with the possible exception of assuming the whole thing is going to be an exercise in misery from the get-go. Continue reading