Numbers Game

As you've no doubt heard, those pesky doctors and health experts on TV and in magazines are always saying that losing even 5% of your body weight can have positive effects. And to that I said, "Riiiight. Five percent? I wouldn't even notice that!"

But then a funny thing happened: I noticed my pants were loose. Like, furreal loose. Highly skeptical and thinking that maybe I'd just been setting the dryer on a lower setting and/or some Lycra somewhere wasn't keeping its shape any longer, I paid no mind for a few days. But then another pair of pants were really loose, like, slip-them-off-without-un-bottoning loose. So I took a brutally painful, but ultimately necessary step...right on to the scale.

Yes, I have a scale. You know, because, in theory, I weight myself every week to track my "progress" on my "weight loss plan" without the use of any irony or "finger quotes." But in reality the thing had been amassing cat-hair dust bunnies and - some days - real cats, for lack of any real utility in my bathroom. A little dust-off and calibration of the settings (no since getting all excited if the thing was off by 5 pounds)...and...gingerly step on.

Half open one eye, lest I get to excited...and...whoa! That can't be right.

Adjust glasses...and...it is right! I did it! I lost 5% of my body weight. And I had noticed as much in the looseness of my pants. Hmm...perhaps these docs are right after all. It only takes a little to start seeing big difference. And it just gets you motivated to keep moving forward. Ten percent of body weight gone...here I come!