The Long Slide

Man, this is a tough post to write…

I wish I could say that was because someone had reprogrammed my computer keyboard so that all the letters were in different places…

Speaking of which, did you know that there’s an alternative keyboard layout to the traditional “QWERTY” one? It’s called “Dvorak” (named after educational psychologist and professor of education August Dvorak).

Apparently, the QWERTY keyboard was designed in the 1870’s to actually slow down typists due to mechanical limitations of early typewriters. By contrast, the Dvorak  keyboard was designed with emphasis on comfort, high productivity and ease of learning.

As you can see, the Dvorak keyboard has the most-used consonants on the right side of the home row, and the vowels on the left side of the home row. It’s set up to facilitate keying in a back-and-forth motion -- (right hand, then left hand, then right, etc.) which makes typing quicker, easier and safer (you’re less likely to suffer carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive motion injuries).
But I’m getting off track…

And getting off track is exactly what I seem to have been doing the last few months.

It started when my wife Anita informed me that our scale … my precious scale… was 10+ pounds off. Ten pounds off? You mean, it’s saying you’re ten pounds heavier than you really are?

Of course not…

I accepted the new number, but didn’t recognize it on my blog. I’ll knock that ten pounds off before I officially weigh in again, I told myself (which is the kind of thinking that usually gets a person in trouble).

So there I was, oh-so busy and traveling all over creation during October, then busy and… ummmm… slacking off in November. And December started kind of the same as I was blogging about Italy instead of focused on making some headway on my health and weight loss goals.

But here’s the deal: it wasn’t an off-kilter scale’s fault, wasn’t the vacation or the holiday’s fault, wasn’t even those evil Italian gelato vendors’ fault.

It was just a breakdown on the accountability front.

I may not be able to fix all my weight-related issues in the blink of an eye, but I can damn well be more accountable easily enough.

I usually wait until the weekend to weigh in, but somebody told me that there’s no time like the present…

So…



Weekly weigh-in: 256.00
Loss: Are you kidding me?
Total loss: -35.5
Emotion: Ready, Willing and (Hopefully) Able


Here’s to doubling-down on the commitment front, to recognizing problems then taking steps to correct them… and to fresh starts.