Journey to the Fringe of Normal

I preferred “Am I Normal?” when it was just a rhetorical question…

At some point, each of looks in the mirror and asks "Am I normal?" No one really expects an answer…and no one really wants a bad answer. I knew I had weight to lose, and I’m definitely not happy about my body at the moment...but my wonderful family and friends just kept telling me I was "normal." Despite their opinion, I set about my journey to lose weight without a crystal clear vision of my destination. Until I found out I was not normal.

David Kirchhoff, I blame you! David Kirchhoff, I thank you!

Until I started reading the book "Weight Loss Boss " by weightwatchers CEO David Kirchhoff, I really hadn’t thought much about my BMI. In the book David casually mentions the BMI of the average woman who joins weight watchers. It made me wonder what my BMI was. So I googled "BMI Calculator” and promptly punched in my height  (5'2") and starting weight. When the results appeared I genuinely assumed I had made a typo. I cleared the calculator and re-entered my information. The results stayed the same. I checked and rechecked the results key. No matter what I did, the results told me YOU ARE OBESE. (Okay, they didn't exactly say it that directly, or in all caps. But my BMI number mapped to "obese" on the key.)

Obese? OBESE! Me? Thankfully, I was one week into my journey and had already lost 3lbs from my starting weight. I punched in my new weight, and fearfully clicked "calculate." Through my office window, I saw the clouds part as the heavens opened to allow a golden beam of light to shine upon my PC, highlighting the new results which read simply, "overweight."  I had never been so relieved to be overweight before! It sounded so much better than obese! 

So now what?

I continued to toy with the calculator to find the highest weight that would allow me to call myself a "normal weight" person again, and discovered the destination is 28lbs away. So, for the first time in a long time, I mapped a set of destinations for my better-health, lower weight journey. My travel plan is below, and I would love to have travel companions! I invite you to follow this blog and come along for the ride – it’s bound to be interesting!

Here is the starting travel itinerary as of June 18, 2013: 

Destination #1: “Me Minus 10%” - Distance, 16lbs
Destination #2: “Normal” - Distance, 28lbs
Final Destination: “Happy Weight” -  Distance 39 lbs

Here is progress as of June 25, 2013: 

Destination #1:  “Me Minus 10%” - 13lbs ahead!
Destination #2:   “Normal” -  25lbs ahead!
 

Image by adamr

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