Yes, I want to be overweight. How can that make sense? Well, in a strange, perhaps slightly perverse way, it does.
How Can Being Overweight Be Good?
When I began my fitness journey I weighed 255 pounds. This morning I weighed 224.8 pounds. During these initial months there has only been one word to accurately describe my condition: obese. An ugly sounding word isn’t it!
Now I am zeroing in on a different word, overweight. Naturally I do not like the idea of being overweight either, but it is oh so much better than obese.
With my height, I need to get down to 220 pounds to reach the top of the overweight category. That means I need to lose another five pounds to make it. At that point I will still be a long way from even the top of the normal weight range, but it will be a step in the right direction.
It is All a Matter of Perspective
We have a habit of looking at ourselves in ways that are not always productive. We generally focus on what we are today. Sometimes we see ourselves as what we were in the past.
It is good to be aware of these perspectives. They are informative. But we should not live with them constantly in mind. Moreover, and this might surprise some, neither should we primarily think in terms of what we want to be in the future.
Instead, our focus should be on what we are becoming! Knowing what we were yesterday and envisioning what we will be tomorrow by taking the steps we are taking today, we can experience the joy of success no matter where we are in the process.
How to Look at Life Each Day
One of the greatest baseball players of all time used to point out how becoming an exceptional athlete did not come from focusing on playing your best during games but from having the mental capacity to make your best effort during practice.
To be successful tomorrow it is essential to feel good about what we are doing today so we will be able to make the effort to keep moving ahead. This has a really important impact on our effort to get fit.
If we focus on where we are today, even if it is better than where we were yesterday, it can still be depressing. After all, in my case I am still obese!
But by focusing on what I am doing today to guarantee my goals are certain to be reached tomorrow I can really feel great. I finished my day yesterday having eaten only 1200 calories and having completed my 20 minutes of aerobic exercise. I am successfully becoming fit and it feels great!
One Day at a Time, I Am Becoming Fit
Yes, I want to be overweight, but only because I would rather be overweight than obese. It is a matter of perspective. Every day has its own perspective, however. So soon I will be looking at reaching the top of my normal weight range, and then the middle of it.
At the same time I will pay more attention to how I am living each day, particularly by achieving my eating and exercise goals for the day. It is exciting to be getting fit at last.