Day 13 on which I encourage you not to read

Did you read the cover story in this week’s Time Magazine?

Don’t.

It’s called “The Weight Loss Trap”, and it’s all about how diets—from Paleo to low carb to, get this, eating fewer calories—don’t work. Or at least that no single one of them works for everyone. That, basically, losing weight is really hard, and that most people will fail to do it and that most people who do succeed put it back on because their metabolism slows significantly and and and…

 

It’s really, really discouraging. Or, maybe if you’re in the mood to argue for your limitations, a great thing to pull out and say, “See, there’s no reason to try!”

But after half a day of being glum over the (apparent probability) that I’ll more or less be at this weight, or higher, for the rest of my life, I realized something: I’ve been getting hung up on the wrong things lately.

#100DaysofHealth isn’t actually about my weight. Nor is it about who reads my blogs, or how many, or whether I can get any of my friends to listen to my now-sage (because I have a BLOG, for God’s sake!) advice about health.

It’s about HEALTH. When the dude at the gym who runs the bootcamp I now attend asked my what my goals were, I said “To be able to survive the zombie invasion.” He disbelievingly replied, “So, not to lose weight?” and I repeated: “Zombie invasion.”

Plus, it’s not even JUST about physical health. It’s about mental health, too. Weight is just a marker, the way money is a marker of success. The truth is, if I don’t lose one more pound during the next 88 days, but I do everything else I plan to, I’ll STILL be a lot healthier and better off. And, I hope, stronger, clearer-headed, more peaceful, better able to cope with the world, and able to contribute to it.

It’s not that I choose to believe that this article, or any of the dozens of others I could turn up that make it sound impossible to permanently turn the tide of rising weight, is wrong—although based on the track record that scientists have explaining why Americans are overweight and how to fix it, it’s entirely possible that they have their collective heads up their beakers yet again. It’s that I choose my health ANYWAY.  I’m not going to use this as an excuse to quit or as an explanation for why I’m not where I want to be with my overall wellness.

I still choose healthy.