A few hours ago, hundreds of millions watched the ball drop on Times Square, signaling the start of a new year, one of hope and promise, if not of prosperity.<\/p>\n
As they sang an ancient lay \u00e2\u20ac\u201d something about an elderly man named Lang who owns an old sign \u00e2\u20ac\u201d many people celebrated by uncorking bottles of champagne and later waking up to a man-sized headache today.<\/p>\n
As for me, the real ache is a couple of feet lower.<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
The distress that centers on and about my abdomen is self-inflicted. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not so much a pain as a gnawing concern that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep my promises very well. So please help keep me honest.<\/p>\n
Specifically, it was on Sept. 11, 2003, roughly 273 weeks ago, 273 Works of Art ago and more than five years ago that I used the headline, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My name\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Art, but friends call me 234.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
That was supposed to be the epoch in which I became so concerned about my weight that I announced publicly that I felt and looked like a Mack Truck and wished to do something about it. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the formula was, but about a year later, I was listing my weight as 204, yet was never able to go below that.<\/p>\n
I could argue that my current weight, 222, which has held steady for practically a millennium, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really indicate being terribly overweight.<\/p>\n
In fact, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have the perfect weight \u00e2\u20ac\u201d if I were 9 feet tall.<\/p>\n
Like so many others, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m painfully aware that a huge percentage of people who go on diets eventually fail and sometimes put on even more pounds.<\/p>\n
Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that sound familiar? And like so many others, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve tried many different diets and eventually become disillusioned.<\/p>\n
Why is it that I can be faithful to a sensible exercise and diet regimen for a week, begin to feel good about the program, and yet undo \u00c2\u00a0all the progress by simply plunging into a pizza, devouring a donut, swallowing a steak, consuming a candy bar, enjoying an enchilada, biting on a burger or sipping a soda?<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not with any particular pride that I announce my current weight with each column. I do it for me, with the hope that others in similar circumstances, or even different ones, will realize that \u00e2\u20ac\u201d hey \u00e2\u20ac\u201d carrying 40 extra pounds doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t conduce to good health.<\/p>\n
So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a person to do, particularly one whose 70th birthday looms?<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m faithful to moderate weight-lifting exercises and more so to almost-daily treks on the treadmill at the fitness center. Yet, few things seem to work.<\/p>\n
I learned last week about a couple of Immaculate Conception High School classmates from the late \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s who are experiencing severe health problems: dialysis and full-time oxygen. Will people like me, who post their plenitude of poundage with the regularity of lottery numbers, end up like the classmates?<\/p>\n
Well, this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t intended to be a column \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all about me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d nor did I intend to get into my diet-and-exercise persona. Rather, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to think that the new year, which started just hours ago, brings hope to others who have heard the riddle: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why are fat people always so jolly?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fight and we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t run.<\/p>\n
My wife Bonnie just recently came across a plan that might work. We are to weigh ourselves at the same time once a week, under the same conditions. If we lose more than a pound, we get to keep our money; if we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lose that amount, we pay.<\/p>\n
And what\/whom do we pay? It would be too easy to make a weekly $100 donation to a fund or charity we like, such as our church, a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, a scholarship fund, an animal welfare group, an established charity. But the rub is in donating faithfully \u00e2\u20ac\u201d every week until the pounds come off \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to a fund we would never support while in our right minds.<\/p>\n
The Klan comes to mind (but I could never feel good about such a donation).<\/p>\n
So, the chore becomes one of finding something to donate to, something we wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do of our own volition.<\/p>\n
I once heard of a man in my situation who asked a health trainer, while cradling his ample panza with his hands, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How much will you charge me to take this off?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The trainer fired back, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How much did it cost you to put it on?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not going to attempt any foolish diet. Rather, I hope it will be sensible and tempered with the right amount of exercise. And I promise to make the requisite donations when I fail to meet the goal. Possibly, finding the right person or organization to donate to may be as difficult as shedding pounds.<\/p>\n
Last year \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and by that I mean yesterday \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I stepped into recreation center to discover whether the four out-of-service treadmills had been repaired. A sign has been posted for several days, announcing that the staff expects the repairs to be performed by Dec. 30, bringing the level back up to eight functioning treadmills.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad to report that all the treadmills appeared to be working.<\/p>\n
With its hundreds of members, the rec center can help the many people who will have resolved to attempt a healthier lifestyle in 2009. Working equipment can provide a great incentive for us to reach our goals.<\/p>\n
Wish me luck, as I do to you! Happy New Year.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Regarding a recent question I asked in this column: The first word you spoke in 2009 was, obviously, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153happy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The last word you uttered in 2008 was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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