The new year has begun, and for me that means 2013 v.2.
That’s the year I made a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight and managed to do it.
I still don’t quite know how. I know how it worked — I ate less and exercised more. What I don’t know is how I managed to do that for nine straight months, enough to bring my weight down about 90 pounds.
My resolution this year is to figure it out, because since then, I’ve gained almost a third of that weight back. Statistics aren’t good for folks trying to keep much weight off. Most say 95 percent or more gain it all back, with interest, within three years.
Even articles trying to debunk that widely shared statistic say it’s actually only about a 50-75 percent failure rate within a few years.
I understand how it happens. You get back into old eating habits which leads to more weight, which makes exercise more difficult, which leads to less exercise, which leads to more weight.
What the statistics don’t usually say is that “vicious cycle” is actually lots of fun. All that food tastes really good, and my stomach loves being full.
And my billions of shrunken fat cells crying every day to be refilled are all absolutely thrilled to be among the 95 percent. They don’t want me to get back into my 2013 routine.
And there’s still holiday cookies and candy laying about.
And not doing exercise means more lounging around, which is quite relaxing.
On my side, though, are a bunch of Wolfpack runners who would love to see more of me on Saturday mornings at Depot Park, for their weekly runs.
I’ve kept up my running during the week, along the safety paths of Clarkston and Independence Township. Getting myself to run on the weekend on my own has been less successful.
Also, family and friends who would rather I stay relatively healthy.
And Wendi Reardon Price, here in the Clarkston News office, is busy with her Nuview Nutrition program. She helped inspire my efforts four years ago. She might have to do so again.