With a height that varies between 73 and 74 inches depending on my mood and a weight of 280 pounds, I am more-or-less 100 pounds above the upper limit of my optimal weight (as defined by the not-to-precise method of  height-wieght ratios).

My BMI (body-mass-index) is 36.9, which places me well into the obese category.  (Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 or greater.  A BMI of 25.0 or greater, but less than 30, is classified as overweight and a normal BMI is somewhere between 18.5 and 24.9).  A weight of 225 would place me just inside the limits of the overweight category.  It may not sound like much, but it is a far more desirable place to be from a health standpoint.

I rarely discuss my weight with anyone.  I find it a little disconcerting that I find it much easier to, for example, discuss my sexual orientation with a stranger than I do talking about my weight with my best friends.  I have been overweight for 15 years, ever since I was 13 years old.  In slightly more than two years I will turn 30 and I have come to the point in my where it is time to do something about my weight problem, or it will start to cost me the remainder of my life.

I have never been a religious dieter, and I have never believed in fad diets that aim to help you loose weight over a period of time, but which are discontinued after they have run there course.  I have always preferred incremental change and fundamental lifestyle adjustment.  But these things are harder.

I am a relatively healthy eater–you would probably be pretty impressed with my shopping cart on most days–and I love to cook from scratch.  I don’t much like sugar, and I naturally stay away from candy, cookies, sweets, and ice cream.  My weaknesses are starches (breads most of all) and cheeses, and my biggest problem is portion control.  It doesn’t matter how healthy what you eat it–if you eat too much of it, it will convert to fat.  My other biggest problem in lunch–I eat out almost everyday for lunch.

The Burndown 100/730 is a way for me to track my weight loss project publicly–both to help me enforce it upon myself, and so that (God willing) it might at some point be an inspiration of someone else who is at the same point in their life that I am. I am going to do this by posting a picture of every single thing that I eat, and by tracking my weight on a twice weekly basic (Sunday, and Wednesday).

I am not going to bore anyone with the details–instead if you are interesting in following my progress, please click on the Burndown 100/730 link that I will add to the left side of the page in a little while.

Consequences of Gay Marriage

From GraphJam.

Blogging is a departure from my normal style of writing, which I would characterize as redactionist.  Most of my past writing experience has been short essays or 800 word opinion pieces.  In either case, writing is largely the act of getting something (anything) down and reading and editing it over and over until I am happy with it.  (I have never bothered to compare myself with other writers to see if this is typically or not, but I would be curious to find out.)  For publication, I usually spend between 30 and 60 minutes per 100 words, so I produce a piece in roughly 6 hours.  In order to get this far I have already had to output words at more than 15 times my normal “for publication” rate.

Of course, writing like that is not in the spirit of a blog–which is more playful and more stream of consciousness than not.

I am not sure yet what I will write about.  Generally I find that the best and most “spiritually complete” topics are those that I have been stewing on for many months–this, by the way, is why man invented driving.  I have far too many interests, but really only a few obsessions, and the later are what I think make good blogs.

I also have it in my mind to try and imitate something of the spirit of journaling as it is was practiced in the 19th century.

So here we are now, beloved reader, at this place and this time.  I am going to have a lot of fun with this project.  Nothing else would do.