I’ve decided to lighten up on The Diet. By this I mean I’ve decided to lighten up on myself. I’m going to let myself eat a little bit more and eat a little bigger variety of foods too. I don’t mean I’m going to quit dieting. I’m going to still be an absolute slave to The Dreaded Diet. I’m just going to be a little less strict. Maybe I’ll eat a few more carbs. Maybe I’ll even make some spaghetti for dinner one night or eat a crouton on a restaurant salad.
I’m thinking this way because Patricia of Next Door recently asked me, “What’s your goal anyway? Is it to lose weight, or is it to get healthier?”
I had to think for a minute, but the answer is absolutely that my goal is to get healthier.
I read an article that said fat people who exercise are less likely to develop some of the diseases commonly associated with obesity than skinny people who don’t exercise. If this were an academic treatise, I would have to point you toward this article with some form of reference. Since this is only a personal conversation, however, I am allowed to say I don’t remember where I saw it, who wrote it, or what the title was. You’ll just have to take my word for the fact that I did read it.
This makes sense to me. This is what the 10,000 steps a day people have been saying. Exercise makes a bigger difference in your overall health than nearly anything else. Ergo, I walk.
I’ve been trying to be a 10,000 stepper. I wanted to be an 18,000 stepper. I just had one problem. It’s very hard to take that many steps in one day. I have a hard time resisting a good personal challenge, though, so I’m resolved to keep increasing the number of steps I take in a day until I finally am able to do 18,000 without killing myself.
Walking that much might mean weight loss. That would be kind of it if it did. It is more certain, though, to mean more important things to me, such as a reduction in symptoms associated with asthma and arthritis. I’m flat out hoping it means I don’t get sick as much, and that means everything. I’ve been sick too much the past few years.
Walking more then is sensible and achievable and an all around absolutely wonderful goal to have. I just have the slight hang up of being too tired to do it when I come home at the end of the day.
I’m hoping to solve that problem by lightening up on myself and allowing myself to eat a little bit more. Maybe I won’t lose weight as fast. Maybe I will. Who knows? I haven’t exactly been losing at super sonic speed as it is. But that’s okay. Either way it’s okay. As long as I feel better, everything else that does or does not happen as a result of The Dreaded Diet is absolutely okay.
That’s my sermon to myself for now anyway.
