Skip to main content

A poem, one year ago

A poem, before my swim and surgical consult. Nov. 21, 2017

This is what physical fitness looks like.
It has saddle-bags and side-boobs.
Its BMI
Is just shy
Of obese.
The gait doesn't glide.
It might rely on crutches.
Velcro-fastened SAS "nun shoes,"
Water socks and flippers
Hide bunions and hammer-toes.
And yes,
Those are dark eye circles.
That is a turkey neck.

But this not-yet-surgically-altered body can
Swim 1,100 yards
Bike 8.75 miles
Conquer Fruitdale in 19 minutes and 25 seconds
Lug a camera inside torn-up courthouses
And shed 83 pounds without ease in standing or walking.

This is what physical fitness looks like.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's way more complicated than that: Why I'm reviving this blog today

Hi again. It's been a while. Those who know me, including the approximately three of you that read "My Body, My Identity," know that I've got different concerns these days -- concerns that are related only tangentially to body weight, body identity, fitness and lifestyle. I have cancer -- diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, diagnosed March 8. My focus now is on killing those malignant cells before they eat me alive, and with a chemotherapy regimen, administered at the UW's Carbone Cancer Center, the chances of that happening are very, very good. With two of my six chemo treatments completed (I get treated every three weeks), I have good days and bad days -- mostly good, but I'm sitting out a bad day today. With cancer and chemo, my weight has become less of a priority. But concern has not entirely abated about maintaining the 135-pound weight loss I worked so hard to attain over the last two years. The diet that my oncologist recommended is pretty close to wh...

Food porn

What you are about to see is pornography -- hard-core food pornography. Images like this one -- and even more obscene images, such as buttercream-y cakes and chocolate-y EVERYTHING -- pop up on my Facebook feed from time to time. Unless you are carbing up for three consecutive triathlons, this is not fuel. This is ballast. Biggie-bottom, fat-rolls-around-the-midsection ballast. I'd say, "Get it out of my sight!", except for one thing: I've been raised to crave food like this, and so has just about everybody I know. We grew up on monstrous-size portions of cheesy, saucy, meaty, greasy, creamy, sugary foods that neither fuel nor strengthen us, just fill us and fatten us. As fond as I am of approaching food the way the Apostle Paul approached ethical behavior for Christians -- "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful" -- I have to be bluntly honest, and say that if you're serious about losing weight and keeping it off, you have to stay a...

On loan

One year ago, I wrote this Facebook post.  Today, a twinge in my "operative" knee reminds me it's still true. How's my knee? It's actually behaving itself. I've had a long string of "good knee days" -- but folks, I don't take them for granted! Everything about our bodies -- our mobility, our senses, our strength, our minds, even our very lives -- are on loan to us. We are called to treat them with the best stewardship possible. But even if we do so, none of these things are ours to keep. Yeah, I get a little PO'd about that, but I work through it. God graciously listens to my rants.