Goals And Getting There

I ran 4.7 miles today. That's 7.58 kilometers for the scientific crowd. I say "ran" only to signify that I did not walk. Having run crosscountry in high school, I know that what I do today isn't running.

Here's today's route:


For a long time, and especially when I tipped the scales at more than 210 pounds, I told myself I didn't want to look like the old guys I saw running, trying so desperately to hold on to their youth. And I especially didn't want to look like the really old farts I saw shuffling along. Why bother?

But eventually the self-loathing I felt as I walked past my bathroom mirror on the way to the shower overrode my fear of public ridicule. That fear, after all, was the nut of my disdain for older guys exercising in public.

It wasn't an overnight thing. I didn't just wake up and start running 4 miles a day. No. I started walking for exercise a couple of years ago. I made it a daily afternoon ritual, rain or shine.

I remember the first morning jog. It was nine-tenths of a mile. After only a short distance I was dying, gasping for breath. I was sure that anyone who saw me would think I was gravely ill.

Then I ran the next day and it wasn't as bad. And the next day it was a little easier. Then I added another block to the route and I was up over a mile.

As I continued to run, the pounds melted away. It wasn't long before I was under 200. Then under 190. Then under 180.

The arrival of the WolframAlpha Computational Knowledge Engine (it's not a search engine; it doesn't replace Google) has been a boon for my health goals.

Entering "male 6' 57yrs" returns a number of facts, one of which is the ideal body weight. According to CDC and FDA standards, the ideal weight for a 6-foot man who is 57 years old is 168 pounds.

It wasn't long before I reached 168, dropping as low as 164 and averaging 167.

Then in July, I hurt my back. It was a combination of bad posture while sitting long hours at my desk and the pounding from running more than 3 miles a day. My doctor told me I should stop running. Find another form of exercise.

I fixed an old bike The Kid had long ago stopped riding and tried daily bike rides between home and distant Starbucks. But to get the same level of exercise required much more time. My time management skills aren't very good and shifting more time to exercise was not going to have a good effect on my work productivity.

Images of swelling back to 220 pounds eventually pushed me to ignore my doctor's warning and return to running.

When I weighed 220 pounds, I had a body mass index of 29.8, just two tenths of a point away from being obese.

This morning I weighed 166 pounds. That gives me a BMI of 22.5, which is on the heavy side of the normal range.

I used WolframAlpha's suggested ideal body weight as a goal. Now I've decided to use the center of the normal range -- a BMI of 21.75 -- as my new weight goal. That translates into 161 pounds. That'll make those new 32-inch waist pants an even better fit.