Thursday, Mar. 10, 2005
Obese, posted at 10:18 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I've been obsessed with the idea of being obese lately. You see, I'm obese. To look at me you may not realize it, but if you plug in my numbers into the Body Mass Calculator, it's clear as day: with a BMI of 31, I'm obese.It's frustrating, and I hate it. Even when I was the lightest I've ever been, my BMI was in the overweight zone, and now twenty pounds heavier, I'm obese. I haven't skipped more than a day a week at the gym in weeks, and am feeling more healthy than I have in a couple of years, but that doesn't change the fact that my weight loss has levelled off at just ten pounds and I'm, well, obese.
Like a woman, I talk about it way too much. I'll bring it up at the lunch table at work. "By the way, did you know I'm obese?" Also like a woman, I like to hear them disagree with me, then I like to tell them about the BMI calculator. I realize it's not a very attractive quality, but I'm an educator, this time educating on the topic of obesity. Obese is usually a word you use to describe someone like DArlene Cates, not me. When CNN reports that 60% of Americans are obese, it becomes a little more believable and a little more scary if I - athletic gym-going guy - am technically obese. Then it becomes a joke. I walk on top of the snow and I sink into the crusty top of it, and Sarah cracks, "Well, you are obese, after all."
I do realize the fact that BMI does not recognize muscle mass, but, not knowing my body fat percentage, that doesn't do me any good. So I'm just left with the knowledge that maybe I'm not obese (even though I technically am and am amongst the 60% of Americans that are obese) maybe I'm just overweight.
In relatd news, I went to Eddie's yesterday for lunch and snacks for the department, and I got pissed off at the amount of junk food there and the total lack of healthy stuff. In pondering something healthy to get for the English Department table (which has been overrun with cakes and cookies lately), I thought about buying ten apples. But that would have set me back $10 or so! There was nothing. I relented and got chocolate chip cookies and yogurt covered pretzels for $4.50. This country is just set up for us to remain fat.
Anyhow, that's the thought that has been running through my mind lately as I lift weights, jump on the eliptical, run miles on the treadmill, or (this is new, and he'll be proud) swimming laps in the pool, an activity that easily consumes two hours from the twenty-four I have every day. I think about obesity, about how just ten more pounds will get me out of the "obese" range and into merely overweight. Sometimes, that's the mantra I tell myself as I strain - "You're obese. You're obese. You're obese." I look around, and see how at least a third of the people at the gym are also obese. Just a bunch of obese people fighting the battle of the bulge in a society and system stacked against us.
I have a horrible self-image. I was listening to Howard Stern this morning tell about his horrible self-image, and talked about how if he wasn't famous and had girls approaching him, he'd be single forever because he could never approach them. I could relate so much. So, yeah, horrible self-image. Because I'm obese.