Deflabbify

Categories
Health Blogs

One ounce at a time

Written by admin on July 13, 2008 – 2:26 am -

Someone passed on a copy of Fred Brooks’ software classic The Mythical Man-Month to me. The introductory page to the chapter on progress tracking has this question and answer:

Question: How does a large software project get to be one year late?
Answer: One day at a time.

Small slippages here and there add up, and if left unchecked, they add up a lot.

But this is a weight loss blog, not a programming blog, so:

Question: How does a large guy get to be one hundred pounds overweight?
Answer: One ounce at a time.

I weighed 140 pounds at one point of my adult life, in my first year of graduate school. Through the next few years I put on some weight, had an operation to fix the effects of Crohn’s disease, and subsequently went up to about 180 pounds. I worked off 30 pounds of that over the next year or so just doing a lot of cardiovascular workouts. Then I started writing my thesis and that took precedence. Then I moved to my current location. Then I got married. A year after I was married I was 210. Five years after that I’d crept up to 240. That’s up 100 pounds.

One pound is 3,500 Calories. One pound is sixteen ounces, so one ounce is 219 Calories.

Each day that I consumed a can of soda, a beer, or a candy bar more than I burned off, I put on an ounce. One day doing this, and one day exercising a little harder or one day pushing that soda away, evens out. But when those offsetting days aren’t there, that’s when the weight creep shows up, one ounce at a time, and it adds up.

I gained this weight one ounce at a time. I have to take it off one ounce at a time, too.

Related Posts

Welcome to Deflabbify I'm a 36-year-old guy, and I'm fat. I'm 5'7" and weigh 241 pounds. My BMI is over 35. I've never been heavier and my weight worries me. A cubicle job, poor eating habits, poor sleep habits, and general laziness have taken their toll. The full range of my ideal body......
Cracked out Wii Fit for the first time in a while And it didn't even make a snide comment at me! Probably was speechless because it thought I was dead. Thirty-one minutes of Wiixercise: 11 minutes of Hula-Hoop® (no, there's no video), 13 minutes of rhythmic boxing, a couple games of soccer ball heading, one round of table tilting the balls......
Signed up for Man vs. Debt's weight loss challenge I'm on Team Delta for the Man Vs. Debt weight loss challenge. I'm joining 29 other personal finance bloggers in a competition to reach weight goals. The challenge will run from June 1st through July 31st. I've set as a goal to lose 10 pounds during that time. So it's......
What is the body mass index? Each time I do a Body Test on Wii Fit my body mass index (BMI) is computed and displayed for by viewing (dis)pleasure. Mine hovers in the 36-37 range, which is off-the-scale obese. My ideal BMI according to Wii Fit is 22, which would put me at a sleek 140......

Related Websites

Fibonacci Retracement Levels Learn Fibonacci Retracement! As a trader, you need to learn many things. The most important thing that you must master as a trader is making the correct entry and exit decision in a trade. Have you ever heard of Fibonacci Retracement or Fibonacci Corrections? Many traders use Fibonacci retracement levels......
Am I A Grown Up Now? A couple of years ago I was shocked when the first person the street said "Excuse me Mam" vs. "Excuse me Miss". I was like OMG am I getting old? I guess since I am rounding 30 the answer is YES! By the time my parents were my age they......
Dear Pooh Bear: Week 16 Dear Pooh Bear, Happy 16 weeks! Can you believe we've come so far?? I feel so blessed every day when I think about it, and I think about you alot. Sometimes I wonder what you are doing inside of my belly since I can't feel you. I saw you......
Why the Type of Life Insurance you Buy Doesn't Matter This is a guest post by Aaron, the president of Clarifinancial â the only way to get custom life insurance quotes from multiple agents anonymously. Because they let real life insurance agents compete for you without any unwanted phone calls or emails from agents, choosing from the competition is a......