Work Hard

Ya wanna lose weight?

Twice this week I led two early morning high intensity spin classes, one Monday and again this morning. To be fair there were evening sessions as well, controlled, civilized, sub threshold 2x20 sets in the WFPB, world famous PowerBarn. 

After the second of the each morning’s sets and a nice shower, I hung the towel and stepped upon the scale. Those two, or the combination, tilted the balance beam in my favor by 4 pounds. 

But not so fast. I recognize that perhaps 90% of those 64 ounces comes from water AND that by the end of the following day I was back to where I was prior, but this is where the rubber meets the road, or, as the Bard might say, therein lies the rub. 

That 4 pounds is a fairly dramatic swing. Interestingly enough, the water equation, while convincing, pales in comparison with this little factoid:

That 4 beers, mostly water, is exactly the amount of the weight differential between the gain and loss, or loss and gain. Let’s go all-out pragmatic here. I, you, we, have choices. I see them in the binary light of cause and effect. I can:

A) Enjoy my nightly ritual of sipping a few ales while winding down my day, which, as mentioned above, is normally filled with enough exercise (in the form of training) to allow this somewhat guilty pleasure. It also is my default antidote to stress of all varieties and intensities, from gaming poverty to cheering for Robert Mueller, from coping with the challenge of chronic atrial fibrillation to fixing the fuel pump on my Honda Shadow and certainly spanning the chasm between my current situation and my dreams. We are relentlessly bombarded with stress. Beer seems to help. 

B) Quit and lose weight. I am, maybe, 5 pounds over. Not 50. I am at a healthy weight. I am not diabetic, lethargic or lazy. It is not the most important thing going. Losing the 5 pounds, especially if that meant losing the spare tire around my waist where I keep this emergency fat, would be cool, but it isn’t necessary for either enhanced fitness or a healthy lifestyle. I might look better, but so what, if that was important to me I would dye my hair and whiten my teeth before any type of organic liposuction. 

Comes down to making a(nother) brutally honest self assessment. Is being 5 pounds overweight as a result of the stress management choice I make, worth the agony and a state of hyper sensitivity and restlessness that cessation would create? 

If I REALLY wanted, or needed, to lose it, I know how. We must all come to grips with the choices we have. 

Until that time comes, I look at this as having the best of both worlds. 

I work hard for my beer.