Change I Can Live With
Warning: I’m going to ask for your help at the end of this post, but it’s nothing big and it’s possible you’ll enjoy it.
Living forever hasn’t always been one of my goals, but these days it just seems to make sense.
Overall, I’m in a great place in my life and the future only looks to be better and better. I’m married to my best friend, watching my boys become men, and watching my daughter become a person. Work may be a hassle sometimes, but I’ve got it pretty good.
On top of that, I think some of the things the Singularity people are saying have merit. We really are living in a time when the rate of change is itself changing exponentially. Who’s to say we won’t eliminate aging within the next 25 years? Nobody can, not with 100% certainty.
Which leads me to this: In the summer of 1992 I went to work for Federal Express. I mention this because I have a horrible chronological memory, but I can calculate this particular date from work tenures. More importantly, I remember what I weighed at that time.
176 pounds.
On the morning of January 1st, 2009, like so many others, I checked my weight.
301 pounds.
That’s no way to live forever.
So I did the usual thing. I bought an iPhone.
Okay, that’s not the usual thing, and it’s actually just a coincidence. What I did was…drum roll…decide to get in shape and straighten out my eating habits. Original, huh?
First I did the “healthy groceries” trip. Then I found a very nice free application for the iPhone called Lose It! that not only allows me to track what I eat, but also calculates a daily caloric budget based on my weight and shows me how many calories I have left for the day.
I’m doing great so far, but I know myself. I’ve done the first week plenty of times. It’s the part about never going back to the old ways that trips me up.
This morning, as I dutifully did my elliptical training, I had an epiphany of sorts.
What if I combined my hobby of photography with my hobby of seeking validation from strangers on the Internet? What better use of Internet nano-fame than to shame myself into doing what I should rationally be able to do on my own?
Thus was born the Project 52, a subset of my Project 365, in which I try to capture some portion of each day of the year in a photograph.
In spite of my absolute dread of being in front of the camera, I will be posting two self portraits to my Flickr photostream ever Saturday this year. They will be the classic weight loss mug shot: one facing the camera and one in profile. My goal will be to lose at least 52 pounds by New Year’s 2010.
Here’s where you come in.
Hold me to this. If I don’t post either the pictures or a very good reason they’re delayed, let me know. Email me, IM me, DM me, or tweet it for the world to see.
I know most of you could care less about this. Of those that do, most would feel it wasn’t their place to nag me. But I believe there are enough of you that somebody would give me grief, which is reason enough for me to make sure you never have any reason to.
So here’s to seeing less of me as the year goes on.
