A year ago I committed myself to losing weight. I weighed 265 pounds, the most I had weighed in several years (for the record, my official high was 280 ten years ago.)
After several months, I was down to 240 lbs and felt better than I had in YEARS.
Fast forward to yesterday.
Yesterday I had my annual med check with my allergist. The nurse asked me to step on the scale.
257.5 lbs.
Not quite 265...but close enough to give me a moments pause. I immediately began to think of all the reasons I had put the weight back on. Then it became clear to me that my list was not a list of reasons but a list of excuses. There was only one reason.
Laziness.
A few days ago a coworker asked if I could ever see myself voting for Donald Trump. While I consider myself to be politically active and informed I realized that I could not answer my coworker's question because I had no idea where the Donald stood on several key issues. I knew all the soundbites from recent weeks and all of the commentators and reporters that Trump was feuding with but I had no idea where he stood on issues other than immigration and other hot button topics. In the information age there was only one explanation for my lack of knowledge.
Laziness.
Almost a year ago I completed the first draft of the sequel to my detective novel The Worst of Times. That first draft remains unedited. I have written and self published three other books since. None of which, in all honesty, sold a tenth as many downloads as The Worst of Times. It seems clear that the adventures of Patches O'Brien and friends has a much wider audience than anything else that I have written. Yet the sequel, Stranger Times, remains unedited.
Laziness.
I wish I knew the solution to my problem. I wish I had all the answers. I could easily blame my day job. That is if my day job began before 3 pm and I didn't have the majority of my mornings entirely to myself. When I look back over the past week I realize that I have spent hours upon hours watching preseason football and random baseball games on cable. While I have always enjoyed sports, there is more than a bit of irony in the fact that I sat on a couch and ate pretzels while watching athletes in top physical condition perform.
Laziness.
This morning I forced myself to walk around my neighborhood, not just once but twice. Now I stand in front of the kitchen table typing this post. I have two and a half hours before I have to clock in. I wish I could tell you that I was planning on doing something earth shattering that would change the course of human history. The truth is I'm planning to boil some chicken for a chicken salad. Not the worst thing a person has ever put into their body, but nothing to be proud of either.
I write this today for myself as much as for anyone who might be reading these words.
Something has to give...something has to change.
I'm not happy with what I see when I look in the mirror. And being overweight is just the tip of the iceberg.
I hope this post will serve as a wake up call both to myself and to others.
It's time to stop being so damn lazy.
It's time to do something better.
