Weighty Matters

I collect old family pictures.  The striking thing about these photos is you rarely see anyone who would be considered as fat. They look like the people of Bergen look today; thin, healthy, vigorous.  

Fast forward to the present. More than 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese. 10% have diabetes. (That's 30 million for the math challenged.) Folks .. we are not a healthy bunch.  I've been looking for someone(s) to blame for my paunch but it always comes back to me. You would think by now I'd have developed some degree of will-power but I've found when it comes to sweets, I can resist anything, except temptation. (credit: Oscar Wilde).  I work hard all spring/summer/fall on 100 or more bike rides to drop one stone (look it up).  And then from Thanksgiving to Valentines, I regain that stone plus a few pebbles.  Over the years the pebbles have left me with excess poundage.  

The solution of course is regular exercise and diet.  You want the expenditure of calories to be greater than the intake. So.. how does one acquire a discipline for both exercise and food intake?  

Here goes.  At this point I am talking theory as these steps are not yet proven doable in my own case.

1. You need commitment. Studies show you must repeat a behavior for 21 days for it to become a habit. Some say 66, but you get the idea. You must be persistent. The same studies say if you slack for 3 days in a row, you're back to ground zero.

2. Tracking your A1C over the years is an effective motivator. You will likely see a gradually larger number with each passing year and the "my A1C is under 7" commercials might catch your attention. While you're at it, look at WebMD's list of  the effects of diabetes on most every bodily function, you know, little things like blindness, amputations, neuropathy, kidney damage. This tracking is especially important if you have a family history of diabetes. Another wake up call. Check your BMI. 

3. The next step is easy, but may involve grieving.  Remove the sugar/salt temptations.  Trash the Cheetos, cookies, candy, pie & ice cream and hardest of all, baked goods.  My wife is a baking magician, so this is especially painful.  She has a tradition of holding baking marathons from pre-Thanksgiving to Christmas, all the traditional Scandinavian Delicacies (see post) and she has not slimmed (pardon the pun) down the amounts. It is as if we are expecting 20 people for Thanksgiving & Christmas during a plague and still have teenagers in the house.  She of course has excellent discipline, which leaves the responsibility to me.  

4. Eat right - 3 regular low fat meals a day with plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat. Mayo Clinic has diet recommendations. But, in the most simple terms .. if it tastes good, spit it out. 

5. Fast. You should consider fasting from 6 PM to 6 AM, mainly to make you resist the watching the ballgame or movie and mindlessly reaching for the popcorn, candy bar, brownie ... I know you've been there. Why do you think it's called "Break Fast"? No cheating.

6. Keep moving. Or as an 85 year old lady I met on one of my bike rides .. "keep it wiggling". Walk every day. Walking is certainly the best exercise, especially for we elderly and those who have long avoided the charm of a vigorous walk.  However, in Minnesota winters, find a safe place to walk.  Fear of falling is healthy.  You don't need a concussion or a separated shoulder at any age, but when you get to retirement age, it can be devastating.  Remember. If you've read this far, you are (probably) not 19 any longer and you don't bounce nearly as well as you did 40 years ago. Investing in a treadmill or heading for the Y might be a good option in winter.  Summer walks (or bike rides) can be joyous.

7. Do some resistance exercise.  You don't have to go for the full-throated bench press weight-training and a steroid body, simply devote 20 minutes on a rowing machine or other equipment. (I have an old-man's rower, with a seat like a bicycle and the leg extension vertical. I don't use a standard rower because it's embarrassing to have to roll out of it to get up.)  Yes, it's boring but put on Elton John Duets, or James Taylor Greatest Hits or the St. Olaf Choir and it helps the time pass.  

8.  Write a blog post telling people what to do. It would be really embarrassing to have to admit you failed at your own plan.

So I'll report back in six months hopefully without the stone around my waist.  Keep my honest, Stay well.

Dave

p.s. Share your own fail-proof weight loss tip as a comment. We're all about education at this point.

Six week update:  March 19, 2021  I have shed 1 stone by faithfully following 1-6 above.

Sixteen week update:  May 21, 2021  This regimen is working for me, although admittedly I have not been as rigorous in the past 10 weeks as in the first 6. Intake discipline and exercise are key.  Down 2 stone.

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin

Indelible

Everyone has moments in their lives that leave an indelible imprint on the memory, moments that bring back a vivid image and the flood of emotions that accompanied them.  Moments of joy, of grief, of pride, of fear, of horror, of awe.

I have a chronology of these kinds of events stashed in my hippocampus recallable, at times by conscious thought, but often triggered by some happening seemingly unrelated to the memory. 

I share here but a sample of my inner self.

1. My earliest flashback memory is one of fear, having gotten myself lost in Powers Department Store in Minneapolis at some tender young age. I went up an escalator and could not figure out how to get back down. That fear is palpable.
2. I misspelled 'cheif' in the county spelling bee. Shame.
3. The Cuban Missile Crisis.  This is not a sharp image but rather the fuzzy memory of days of angst that nuclear devastation was looming. 
4. The Kennedy assassination November 22, 1963.  I was in high school and I relive those moments in a study hall when Walter Cronkite removed his glasses and announced to the world that Kennedy was dead. Then following in succession Martin Luther King & Bobby Kennedy
5. Tagging out Kerkhoven's Wayne Carlson at 2nd base, he 4 feet off the bag and the umpire Phil MacIver calling him safe. The anger is still real.  Go figure.
6. A standing-room-only train trip to Seattle with a young child (not mine) on my knee.
7. The joy of my wedding day
8. Augsburg College graduation with Hubert Humphrey as commencement speaker.  But I remember not a word of his oration. More vivid is the cigar I smoked afterward - so dizzy & nauseous I had to lay down.
9. The moon landing accompanied by a burst of wonder and pride of country.
10. Rescuing a drunken prof in Conrad, Montana while a student at Montana State University.
11. The Watergate hearings and the sonorous voices of Barbara Jordan and Sam Ervin.
12. The awe and wonder of the birth of my children
13. My first day in a classroom at Charlotte-Paulson Gymnasium in Hamburg, Germany, trying to communicate auf Deutsch.
14. The reception we received at the home of my wife’s great aunt in Leksvig, Norway.  They raised the Norwegian flag above their home.
15. The death of my mother at age 58.  The unfairness and awful depths of grief.
16. The Challenger explosion.  I was at work at Control Data and the shock of the images scarred me.
17. The elation of Twins World Series wins in 1987 & 1991.  It was as if my love of baseball had been rewarded - finally. 
18. The icy Wacouta bridge in St. Paul ending with my truck perched atop a trailer.
19. The pride at our childrens’ graduation from college. 
20. 9/11. Transfixed by the horror
21. Birth of my grandchildren and the endless joy they bring to us
22. Sandy Hook.  Tears and anger beyond anger.
23. When the family was visiting my father in his final days, as we were leaving, my ten year old grandson asked us if this was the last time we would see him.  We had to say yes. He turned around and ran back to the room to give a last hug.  The tears still come.
24. The death of my father. The hardest hit of all. We talk daily.
25. A retirement day.  Sadness and joy mixed.
26. This old man flying over the handlebars of his bicycle. I can clearly recall the landing but the flight is a mirage.

And now January 6, 2021, a confederate flag in the US Capitol. 

Copyright ©  2021  Dave Hoplin