Week 1

As of right now, photos aren't allowed; measurements aren't, either.  There were no objections to the blog subject at all, and in fact I was told "hold off on deleting that" when I said I'd just delete the whole thing, then. (For one thing, because there MAY be photos, but I'm not counting on it.  At least not for a while.) So... what to do... how to measure progress? 

No one's actually stepping on any scale (I'm along for this as I need to peel off I'd say 5 lbs, which translates to about one fraction of a clothing size, or I should say, clothing fitting better.)  The scale is packed away somewhere and I find it to be a poor tracker of progress when the problem isn't necessarily weight, per se.  Who cares what a scale says or a measuring tape, for that matter, when you know exactly what the problem is and you'll be quite aware when it's gone?

The person in question doesn't read this blog and doesn't care what I write, so I'll go ahead and repeat what's been conveyed by him (isn't this weird - a second-hand fitness and health improvement blog?  Weirder things have happened, I'm sure).  I can attest to some of this myself, also.  (Here comes my testament first.) While I don't have a weight problem according to any standard, I do tend to frequently eat wrong and I feel the effects.  I've found that eating like a monk makes me cranky but I also find that my senses are sharper and my thinking is more pointed and businesslike.  While some might feel I am out on a ridiculous limb here, I believe that people in this day and age of more-than-plenty tend to overeat in a drug-like manner.  I think just about everybody, excepting the health nuts and a few unaffected others, tend to indulge in unhealthful foods or at least unhealthful quantities of marginally-healthful foods as a form of hedonistic indulgence, a balm to the psyche, a blanket to sooth the cares of life.  And while I'm not saying I think that's such a bad thing (there are definitely worse indulgences), and I'm not saying we can't calibrate that so that it's reasonable and essentially harmless, (and besides, what's life about if you can't enjoy it?) I don't think that most people calibrate it that way.  Take a look at our population to see the illness resulting from E-Z everything at the tips of our fingers, affordable and everywhere.  When I grew up, and I'm sure this was true way more so in generations prior, typical household meals were boring but nutritious.  These days, delectable luxuries are standard fare for many, not once a day, but all day.  Look at the illness, both outright and subtle, that has resulted in epidemic numbers amongst our population.  Anyone who's been around longer than 20-30 years can attest to the ballooning size of the average person in our population.  Rich food, and too much of it, is making us sick.

What I wanted to convey is that while living the cranky life of the calories/carbs counted and the growling stomach, the sleep is better, and the sinuses, too.  Inflammation seems to decrease, snoring does, too - and headaches - what are those?  I meant to say that the subject of this blog adventure has conveyed that, too, and conveyed something else I can attest to, but less emphatically:  More energy.  Maybe it's more subtle for me, having different and lesser issues, because I generally have no shortage of energy.  I feel the same as I did at age 20 (and I'm more than twice that now), and only feel the desire for a daytime snooze if I've slept 5 hours or less overnight (by the way, I sleep like a log in the petrified forest and always have.  Contrasted to he who used to get up and walk around the house every hour for no discernable reason.)  But he says he feels multiplied energy while he's eating less and weakening/shrinking the pathological unwanted endocrine organ (as they actually refer to the visceral fat mass - I'm not making that up - fairly recent research says it functions essentially as an organ in its own right, and I think of it as a tumor, considering the mostly-unwanted-effects it kicks out.)  He says he's been sleeping great, too.

Follow along for updates.  I'll see what I can rustle up in the way of documentation, and if it's not visual, it'll have to be through these tedious rambles, instead.

Week 0

Wow!  Someone said he's looking for me to post.  Maybe I'd better actually do it!

While this might seem boring and trite to some, I have a topic about which I can actually post regularly and with which people might like to follow along.  It is not a "weight loss" journey, but rather a health-gaining journey, and it's not for me, it's for a member of my family who was told by his doctor that his health problems will never be treated until he treats the following, himself.  Here is the culprit:

Lest anyone feel like they are in medical school, I'll sum it up as such:  Some fat and some flab are of no concern, or are merely cosmetic concerns to the wearer, but a certain type of fat may be the driver of diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. In the case of Mr. Grapewrites, who seems not to have excessive fat anywhere else, but hoards an inordinate amount of it underneath the abdominal muscles (really, you can pinch MAYBE an inch over the muscle, but under - something is clearly taking up massive acreage), the fat - which was documented years ago with naked eyes in the open air of an operating room by a surgeon who eloquently described its appearance to me - has become an unwelcome houseguest who has been given notice and shown the door.

The endocrinologist says that the loss of this abdominal basketball will result in a clearing up of the borderline-but-persistent health problems it is causing the basketball-holder.  One medication has already been tossed; two more are constantly under question by the doctor as to whether they are needed, so wouldn't it be nice to throw those bottles out, too?  Wouldn't it be nice NOT to be setting oneself up for even worse health problems after not just years, but decades of carrying around the results of a misspent youth?

(That last sentiment didn't come from me, it came from the basketball-wearer.  He is the one who decided to tackle this, and tackle it for real now that he understands the significance.  Before, he may have thought that some extra flab was not his worst worry, but with the prospect of discontinuing the health monitoring and associated prescriptions required for several medical conditions, blasting the entirely and outrageously excess adipose appears to have become his focused mission.)

So, let's see if we get his permission to post progress pics.  He usually grumbles, but is then game for anything that will document the success he intends to achieve.