Rolf Danner

It occurred to me this morning that I sometimes see my body like this big ocean liner that I steer through life. No matter how frantically I turn the till, she just won’t turn on the spot. Though if I use a light touch, keep a good look ahead and just take my time, she takes me to just about anywhere I want to go. This is both a very comforting thought and at times utterly frustrating. No matter how much I stomp my feet on the deck in the heat of the moment, the big hull has her own mind and momentum. At other times, I’m truly glad that minor storms won’t push her off course. Does all that have anything to do with my 20-pounds story? I’m getting to it just about now.

Throughout last week, I stepped on the scale every morning, hoping for a bit of positive feedback. No such luck. The numbers remained stubbornly the same. Which by the way is pretty surprising in itself. Consider for a moment that a half-pound change in my weight is less than one third of a percent of my body weight. Considering the weight of the food and drink I put in my body every day, the water I lose through sweating and breathing and what comes out in the bathroom, it takes a finely tuned machinery to keep the balance this stable. There also seems to be a somewhat mysterious delay built into all this. Let me not go too deep into the details of bodily functions, but consider this observation: An extra slice of carrot cake or glass of wine, extra calories for sure, don’t show up the next morning on the scale, but rather a few days later. Don’t ask me how that works, I guess is just a little more complicated than a simple in and out.

The short lesson from all this seems to be that in losing weight, as in so many other changes we want to establish in our life, we have to set a course and stick with it for a while, even if the ships at times feel more like bulky barges than sleek racing yachts. It also means that we won’t topple over just because we nodded off at the wheel for a moment. We should take comfort in that as well.

Something else though makes this a particularly fine moment. Yesterday I finished a project that had been hanging over my head for a while. Finally I got everyone to agree that it was good to go and I was able to hand it off. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t boomerang back to me, though that seems unlikely right now. With that project accomplished I’m looking forward to a long holiday weekend and to more time for the site over the next two weeks. Stay tuned, there is more to come.