Practical Reasons Why I'm Glad I've Lost Weight

There's the obvious - I look better, I feel better, I have more energy, I can shop for better clothes, life is more pleasant and fun overall.

Here's a few practical reasons to consider -

I fit into spaces more easily now. This includes the middle seat between two people on the subway - but it also includes medical equipment. I needed to have some (non-urgent, don't worry) imaging done recently, which meant going for an MRI.  Not sure how well I would have fit into the equipment 80 pounds ago - it was just barely a comfortable fit at my current size.

I can take my wedding band off if I need to. This came in very handy when I was having that MRI done. Little known fact: I was able to take my wedding band off until shortly after our first anniversary, and then couldn't get it off again until about 18 months ago - which was 14 years later. 

Being sick/injured is easier. After each of my children were born, I really struggled with moving my poor, sore body around. It took an unbelievable amount of effort to get in and out of bed those first few days. The worst was the day that it took me an hour to get out of a chair, because I was so out of shape that I didn't have any other muscles that could take over when part of me was out of commission. And I was so heavy that it was hard for the nurse to help me up. Ack.

I was very mindful of this about a year ago when I had what seemed like an appendicitis attack. Was absolutely horribly painful, and I couldn't use my abs at all to get in and out of the car, in and out of chairs in the waiting room, in and out of gurneys and machines for exams. As unpleasant as all of it was, I was grateful that I had strong arms and legs to help with all of this when my abs were down for the count. I was also unbeliveably grateful that I had given myelf a lighter body to drag around.

For me, this is absolutely the most compelling reason to keep the weight off and stay strong - because you never know what life may throw at you. And wouldn't it be great later on to go into old age as strong and light as possible?

I'm more likely to survive the collapse of society. Ha ha - sort of. You never know when the Machines Will Take Over. Or when the Zombie Apocalypse will rise. Or if something equally unthinkable may happen.

Have you seen the price of gas lately? The internet tells me that for every extra 100 lbs of weight in your car, you lose about 2% of your fuel efficiency. If I've done the math correctly, that means that for every 40L fill-up, about 600mL of gas was getting burned up just hauling my extra fat around. No thanks.

What about you - what are your practical reasons for losing weight?

Gray Saturday morning - but the sky brightened up shortly after.
Farmer's Market is still indoors - April 2011

Here's this week's recap -

Saturday - Played hookey from the gym, but rode my bike to the Farmer's Market and back (6K). Got my favourites - sweet & sour tofu from Ying Ying Soy Foods and pickles (beets this time) from Toorshi Foods. Yum!

Sunday - Easter! Ate a ton of jelly beans (they're fat free, right?), then took the kids to the park for a couple of hours. Rode our bikes around the track, played wiffle ball, bounced on the teeter-totters for a while. Took the long way home by riding through the cemetary. My daughter rides beautifully at the track, but gets very nervous in narrower spaces like sidewalks. I've also realized that she uses the lane markers at the track to help her steer, so our ride home was excellent practice for her to try riding in a straight line, riding on the sidewalk, and riding in the very, very light traffic in the cemetery. She was nervous, but she tried it. She's amazing :-)

My total: 6.8K on the track + 2.6 travel to the track and the long way home = 9.4K.

Monday to Wednesday - Oh my. Work is mental. No time for stairs or walks and I was too tired for the gym.

Thursday - Zumba after dinner. Felt great!

Friday - Another mental day at work. The bright spot in the day was taking my husband to pick up his race kit after work - he's doing a 10K on Sunday with his sister!

What I'm reading this week - Beijing Confidential by Jan Wong;