How To Save A Life

How To Save A Life

My apologies to The Fray for stealing their song title, but it seemed an appropriate title for this kind of post.

Those of you who have seen me in person in the last few years know that I'm carrying way too much weight. I had it dramatically pointed out to me by a very good friend that whenever I walk around, climb a flight of stairs, get into or out of my car, I am effectively doing it with three 5 gallon water bottles strapped to my back. Hence the new profile picture.

Let me do the math for you: 8 lbs per gallon x 5 gallons x 3 bottles......... Yep 120 lbs more than I should be carting around. It is actually pretty surreal to see those numbers on the screen. With those numbers have come all the side effects, low energy, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes, never being able to buy clothes at CostCo, frightening children and small animals.

I wasn't always like this. I weighed 185 when I got married, I spent most of my early 20's in the 170-180 range thanks to an addiction to running on the mission beach boardwalk, an actively utilized membership to what was then called Family Fitness (now 24Hour Fitness,) and the typical young dude on the prowl lifestyle.

May 4th 1988 changed that. I was riding my motorcycle back home filled with the euphoria of Kathie saying yes to my proposal of marriage. My mind was a million miles away when the hit-and-run driver rear ended me on the I-5. But for a few strokes of good luck, you wouldn't be subjected to this story today.

I recovered, but my knees were never the same, and the running that I so enjoyed doing was now out of the picture. I'm not naive enough to try and pin the entire blame for my current state on my inability to run, but humor me and let me at least see it as a catalyst or turning point for the second stage of my life.

Twenties turn into Thirties, and Thirties turn into Forties.......... In the two decades-plus since that accident my weight has crept up. Much like the frog that slowly boils to death in the pot.... Less active lifestyle, affinity for culinary delights of all types, and years of being a road warrior and the drive-through junk food that came with it all playing their part. ...... And guess what those Forties are going to turn into in a little more than a year.

If you have read this far dear friend, thank you for hanging in there, and let me get to the bottom line. Everyone fears failure, or at least if you don't fear it you have a healthy aversion to it; yet often we're able to hide from our failures because (as in the case of weight loss) the battle is often one fought solo, with our day to day failures hidden from those around us. Yes, I know the fact that one is still as big as a blimp is a subtle clue, but for the most part only your very closest friends and family are aware of your efforts and if you fail, they're often too polite to point and laugh. So that, my friends, is why I'm taking my effort public and you can all help. (More details on that later)

Let me say at this point that I have done it all: Jenny Craig, Nutri-System, the Zone, South Beach, Atkins, carbs are bad, carbs are good, fat is to be avoided, fat is to be cherished and molded into little sculptures of penguins........ hmmm went a little too far with that one.

One thing is certain, and that is the immutable law of thermodynamics related to one simple bio-mechanical calculation: 3,500 calories equals 1 lb of lipid tissue (FAT.) Put simply, the best weight loss book in the world can be printed on a 3x5 card: "Eat Less, Exercise More." That's it, end of story. To lose 2lbs a week you have to make sure that your body burns 1000 calories per day more than it takes in.

The BodyBugg

This is where you come in. I have this nifty device called a BodyBugg, and while that actually sounds like something you would want to see the doctor about, it really is a cool little gadget that straps to your arm and takes measurements of 14 different biometric inputs and uses some of that computer magic to (with about 95% accuracy) measure how many calories you burned that day. Combined with a web interface that allows you to journal every calorie that goes down your gullet it provides daily feedback regarding your calorie burned to calorie consumed ratio. Throw in a weight tracking component and it's everything that a geeky weight loss candidate would want. And here's the best part (you just knew there would be a best part - right?) the BodyBugg software now has a direct reporting feature which pumps your updates right out to Facebook for you, automatically allowing your friends the opportunity to cheer or laugh, or shake their heads in disappointment as appropriate.

So, I'm going to ask those of you who are interested to help keep me honest. What's in it for you? The excitement of taking part in a social experiment called "Weight Loss by Public Humiliation," and the warm and comfy feeling that comes with knowing that you helped me break free of the shackles of three water bottles. (BTW those water bottles will be my avatar for this project and will slowly be PhotoShopped away as I work towards my goal, and Photoshopped back in as I slip up.) On the other side, you're agreeing that you don't mind the daily updates, and you commit to giving me some good natured grief if I forget to post the daily updates.

Now here's the most important part..... I need to make sure that this little experiment is really only amongst the willing, and I need to know that everyone involved has read this post and knows what's going on, so I need you to do the following: Go back to the Facebook post that had the link to this Blog and in the comment section type the following comment "ok i'm in" (all lower case helps me weed out the copy cats who didn't really read the post) LOL

Friday evening I will remove everyone from my friends list who has not posted that comment. I'm taking this extra, perhaps melodramatic, step to protect myself if only a little bit, by making sure that I'm baring my situation only to those who truly are interested in helping out.

(*** Quick Note: Since this post I have decided not to dump the non-participating Facebook friends, but rather to setup a Facebook Group for those who wish to participate.***)

For those of you who don’t want to be part of this, for whatever reason, I completely understand, no worries. For those of you who sign up for this social experiment, welcome aboard and thanks for the help.

See you on FB!

Frank