Today I was pushing myself physically with an hour and a half weighted workout, and a two and a half hour walk. During the last half hour of my walk, my hips graduated from achy to painful, which isn't surprising since I was carrying in my backpack an extra 16 pounds of weight - I had just purchased two 8-pound dumbbells and was hauling them home on my back.
It's rather ironic - as I began to step gingerly because of the pain, I kept thinking to myself, “damn, these dumbbells are heavy!” As quickly as the thought hit me, I was struck with another interesting thought: how did I carry around an extra 29 pounds and not notice it all this time? How do I continue to carry around an extra 47 pounds and not be bothered?
This train of thoughts had me curious and I started to wonder how come 29 pounds seems like a number, but not realistic in some way. Slowly I began to wrap my mind around what 29 pounds might look like:
- 29 pounds is a computer monitor
- 29 pounds is almost 6 bags of 5-pound sugar sacks
- 29 pounds is three-fourths the weight of a loaded computer tower
- 29 pounds is several bags of groceries
- 29 pounds is nothing compared to the mound of dirty laundry your kids bring home from college when they visit you
- 29 pounds is four full sized Pomeranian dogs - an average litter!
- 29 pounds is equal to a large male Maine Coon cat, although the largest Main Coon cat weighs in at 37 pounds.
- 29 pounds is 2 8-pound dumbbells, 2 5-pound dumbbells, and 2 1.5-pound dumbbells
- 29 pounds is equal to a 14.5 month old baby .
Sometimes you need to put real life examples to what you're doing for it to have an impact. When weight loss becomes a number and not a feat, you might be in danger of slipping back into your old habits. Loose clothes is one comparison, but figuring out you've lost the equivalent of a small toddler is another thing! Start making those comparisons and your accomplishment will take on a whole new meaning. If you've got a lot to lose, then you can set goals by objects instead of numbers.
I'm starting to wonder if the armchair in my living room weighs 75 pounds. Can you imagine yourself at the end of the goal saying to a friend or relative who is blown away by your weight loss, “I won't tell you how much weight I've lost, but I will tell you it's equal to that armchair over there”, and then watching their jaws drop! Any curious relative or friend's going to go and stand in front of the chair in question, try and move it around or even pick it up to get an idea of its weight.
I've lost as much weight as a computer CRT monitor, and maybe when I'm done, I will have lost as much as that armchair, or a 10 year old girl.
There's an old Far Side cartoon I once saw that showed a really fat older woman who was hanging up a lost puppy poster; if you looked down, you realized she sat on the dog and it was it stuck in the crack of her behind. For the first time, I can say I'm a “puppy loser”…a four-time puppy loser at that, and I'm not upset with the comparison! I'm not a dog person but I deal with them - I'm a cat lover at heart. I'm also glad I don't own one right now because I wouldn't want to traumatize the poor animal with its first meal of the day in my present condition.
If you don't like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the appropriate site.
