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I just signed up for traineo.com which is a web 2.0-ish social weight loss and fitness site. After an intial compare with fitday.com it seemed worth the first try. Every little bit helps, and while I don't think this site will be the cornerstone of any progress I end up making, it may be something that helps.
One of the most powerful things about traineo is the motivators idea. Motivators are people who help you along and who know you. At least that is how they are described. I have been too shy to invite someone to be my motivator yet. With a quick search of the available traineo folks in Seattle it seems there is only a small set of folks signed up for traineo at the moment. They seem to be in the tech industry, lots of men, disproportionately high than usual weight loss scenarios. Many names ringed a bell for me and I had to struggle where I had heard of them before. That was all very distracting. Took some time. Your experience may vary.
For now, simply entering my current weight and my target weight, and the latest date I would stand arriving at that weight, I realized this was close to a pound a day. So, the goal is completely unrealistic, unsustainable, and impractical. I would like to get a motivator to help me get to a realistic goal instead of this nutty one. The thing that continues to sap my happiness is that I have yet to meet a realistic goal that seemed worth pursuing. Sigh.
One of the things that happens with my body is I tend to lose pounds when I stop exercising. Then there's a crossover point with no exercise where I have lost muscle and I stop burning idle calories as fast, which is the point when the pounds come back and then I am in a real mess. The reverse is also a problem, I can eat right and exercise and gain weight even when getting compliments. No wonder I don't own a scale - but the traineo site is tracking this number, thus wrapping me into the evil web the scale weaves. Come to think of it, it will be hard to use traineo without a bathroom scale.
Another tough thing that haunts my relationship with the "number" is the recent discovery that I am 5 foot 8 after all, not 5 foot 11 as I have always thought throughout my adult life. This means there are people at my goal weight who think they are fat. Oh, the insult, the indignity. Three more inches and 175 is skinny no matter which way you're looking. Three more inches and my BMI is lots more tolerable. Three more inches and I am out of the government issued red zone. However, those three inches were a fantasy and always were. I'm not shrinking - my bones are fine - I checked.
And a nod to Jason, who gets credit for the title of this post, despite the aforementioned evil web of the numbers game. (Perhaps at a spunky 175, I will think the numbers have tons of credibility).