In startup land, we smile when we see graphs go up and to the right. New users. Revenue. Engagement.
There is a personal graph where up and to the right isn’t good for me — and that’s my weight.
Earlier this year I realized I was the heaviest I had been in 7 years.
I’m just 5’7” and I had reached 167lbs. And I felt bad about it. I was tired and the weight was impacting my wellness. Or lack thereof.
I figured I needed to lose at least 15lbs. Maybe more.
My friend @biz (who lost a lot of weight recently) talks about “paying attention” as the most important way he’s been able to do it.
So in mid April I decided to start paying attention. I weighed myself everyday. And I logged it. That was step 1 in paying attention.
I tracked every single run and bike ride in RunKeeper. That was step 2 in paying attention.
Getting active wasn’t hard. I like exercising.
My real problem was not paying attention to my calorie intake. I was simply eating poorly and not noticing. Or caring I guess. I was also sleeping poorly.
So I started using Lift (lift.do) each day to track habits that would help me get healthier in addition to other things I care about (which I’ll save for a future post). I checked into habits like low carb lunch. And I made sure to simply eat less (mostly eating simply).
Today is another day and like every morning I weighed myself.
I’m now 153lbs and feel better.
I want to lose another 5lbs. I have a feeling the next 5 will be hard and keeping the weight off will be harder.
But I’m more mindful than I’ve ever been. And I’m hoping that will be positive difference.
(please excuse lack of links and typos. wrote this on my phone)