Leveling Up

“Nobody ever said that leveling up was easy.”

That’s what my amazing husband-to-be said to me tonight as I was doubled over my bike, gasping for breath, asking myself why the heck I do this to myself. He’s got a good head on his shoulders, that one.

Most days, I really do enjoy my bike ride to work or home. Really, I do. Sure, I have the inner monologue that changes its mind about once every thirty seconds, and I usually keep a healthy debate going with it pretty often. Especially right before the top of a few of the bigger hills. Tonight, though… well, it wasn’t easy. After two months of watching very carefully what I eat, recording everything that goes into my mouth, cycling at least three (if not seven) days a week… I’ve managed to gain weight. Not the “oh, you’re adding muscle mass” type of weight either – because I’ve added inches as well.

Let me stop here and say that usually, 99 percent of the time, I really couldn’t care less what the scale says that particular day. I could have lost or gained or stayed the same… as long as I feel like I’m being healthy, it’s all good. But really? I feel like I’ve been cheated or something. I’m doing everything (mostly) “right,” so why are the numbers heading the wrong direction?

Like Pete said, though, nobody said leveling up is easy. Unfortunately, there’s no little progress meter at the bottom of the screen for life. Like the poppies in our garden, though, I just have to remind myself that things don’t always go according to plan, but that doesn’t make them any less interesting or less beautiful. Just different — which, most of the time, is even better.

Multi-Modal kind of gal

I’m the first one to admit, there are times my brain get stuck on an idea and I get a bit obsessed with it. There are times that this has not turned out so well, and there are times it actually does alright. Multi-modal transport is one of those obsessions I have returned to multiple times, and I think I might finally be reaching a balancing point.

What exactly is multi-modal transport? Well, it’s a catch-all term for doing things other than just driving or just bussing or just riding one’s bike. I’ve tried to do the exclusively-bike-commuter thing, and that hasn’t worked well. Exclusively bussing causes issues now and again. Exclusively driving, well, that’s kind of the return point – something I’ve done because I always did it.

Growing up, I lived in rural Idaho where your best bet for public transportation was calling your parents for a ride. Cycling and walking worked sometimes and kind of – but our house was a good few miles outside of town, and that seemed like Such A Long Way when you’re 12. By the time I was in high school and could drive, I drove every day because it was the quickest and easiest way to get around. Sure, I rode my bike now and again, but more for fun than as transportation.

In college it was much the same – Helena didn’t have public transport, and I didn’t have a bicycle at college with me – so walking and driving it was.

When I eventually moved to Spokane, I was admittedly So Excited to live in a place that had mass transit. I would drive from my house to the park n’ ride lot, and then hop the hour-long bus ride to work. It wasn’t long, though, until I figured out driving took me 20 minutes. Then I moved, and a bus ride would have been 90 minutes. So, I drove most of the time. Mountain Gear was great, though, in encouraging biking to work (I didn’t appreciate showers at work until I didn’t have them). So, I bought an amazing cruiser bike that I dearly love from a co-worker, and starting biking every now and again. That was a 14-ish mile ride, and while I did it a few times, I didn’t do it as often as I should have. Cold, snowy winters and many workdays that lasted unexpectedly long talked me out of it.

The bug had been planted in my brain, though.

To make a very long story short, two jobs and a move later, I’m trying it again. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve gained about 100 pounds since college (ouch. That hurts to type) and am more out of shape than I like to admit. There are no showers at my work, and so I am going through deodorant at an alarming pace. I’m liking it, though, I really am.

Believe me, I understand better than anyone the arguments for not biking or bussing. If I didn’t work downtown, I probably wouldn’t be nearly as excited about it. At the same time, I am discovering that in less than a month I’ve cut my on-bike commute time from 58 minutes to 37. It feels good to wake up and have my working out done before I even start work. Best of all, I don’t feel guilty about the calories in the mocha I get some mornings. While the ride downtown is lovely and partially downhill, I still load my bike up on the bus rack for the trip home. I am not nearly as confident that I would survive the uphill.

Biking or bussing to work isn’t for everyone. There are benefits though, and this is one “lifestyle change” I’m hoping to keep up with. Besides, Bike To Work Week is next week, and if a 350-pound girl on a giant cruiser bike and a serious coffee addiction can give it a shot, I’m willing to think just about anyone could. Besides, I’m about to put a cup holder on the basket on the front of my bike… because what would be better than feeding two addictions at once?

Dear DOA, it’s me, Andrea

Dear Department of Agriculture:

I know, you are a terribly underfunded agency given far too much responsibility. I realize given huge tasks, creating nutritional guidelines can feel like a side job. Something you give to the second-year interns when they’ve run out of filing to do. I know that there are hundreds of people, though, that dedicate themselves to this incredibly important task. All day, every day, that is their job. I also realize that the human body is an varied and wonderful machine, with hundreds of millions of incarnations that are unique. Some are healthy, some are not. Creating standards can be very difficult and means stepping into a debate that most sane people would just simply stay out of.

Still, given all of that, all I can say to you is What. The. Hell.

Seriously, I am sorry to have to say such a thing to you. I appreciate and respect your work, I really do. But here’s the deal. I know I need to lose weight. I am even aware of the fact I have been overweight since … well, since a very long time ago when I was still in school. Like most overweight people, I have been through cycles of loving and hating my body, of working very hard to lose weight and then putting weight back on. Through all of it, I have tried to remain generally active. Sure, I don’t swim 2 hours a day like I did when I was in high school, but I still cut a mean rug on DDR’s workout mode every now and then. I bicycle for my errands in the warmer months. I even occasionally jump on an elliptical machine to watch TV, rather than just sitting there. I know I carry too much weight. I know all the health issues I am at risk for, and think about them pretty regularly.

Even with all of that, the number of the scale recently shocked me a bit. So I decided to start very carefully watching my calories and making more of an effort to move more. After a rough year of being in and out of unemployment, not to mention paying a lot more attention to how tasty (but not how many calories) my cooking was, I had put on some weight. So I decide to take a look at what these new-a-few-years-ago guidelines had to say about healthy eating.

First, finding the recommendations on your website took forever. Nowhere do you say “want to see what we recommend? Click here!” but instead it’s a “My pyramid” link very far down on the side of your website. Once I find your recommendation page, I’m asked to enter my height, weight, age, and gender. This is fairly normal-to-be-asked information when one is looking up nutritional information, so I happily enter it.

And what do I get? Not a helpful page that states “Here are the healthy eating recommendations for someone of your height, weight, age, and gender” but instead this:

The weight you entered is above the healthy range for your height. Extra weight can put you at a higher risk for many health problems including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Click here for more information about health risks you may have. Talk with a health care provider about a diet and physical activity program that is right for you. To learn more about diet and physical activity for those who are very overweight, check these websites:
Would you like to see a food plan that will meet nutrient needs for a female, 6 feet 4 inches tall, in the healthy weight range?

Uhm, wow. Thanks. You just told me “you need to lose weight! We can’t tell you what you should eat, you’re too fat for that. But, if you want to see what someone who isn’t too fat and is your height and age should eat, we can tell you that.”

Not only is this particularly unhelpful and provides no new information, but it has a great demotivational effect. I recognize that you have to give some kind of a warning – it’s important to let people know that they need to lose weight. But seriously, telling me how horrible it is that I am fat, and then offering to give me advice for when I lose weight? That’s terrible.

But it got worse. No, DOA, that was not the end of your insult.

I decided to test out your calculator and see what you did consider a healthy weight range (since you didn’t tell me on your demotivational page). I entered various weights, seeing at what point the warning went away. At 250 lbs, the warning got a little more subtle, but still told me I should lose weight. At least at that point you offered *some* nutritional advice. Not until 205 lbs, though, did you quit warning me about how fat I was.

205 pounds. Seriously? 205 pounds?? At my lowest adult weight, when I was in college, being very careful to eat only about 1100 calories a day, living on 90% coffee and exercising an hour a day, I weighed in at 230. I wore a size 16/18 – definitely not skinny, but what I would consider healthy. For reference, my almost-too-skinny-to-be-healthy fiancee is 5′10″ and weighs in at 140. You’re suggesting that someone six inches taller could only weigh 60 more pounds? 10 pounds per inch is barely enough to cover the ribs that he has sticking out.

So, U.S. Government nutritional guidelines, I’m pretty close to giving up on you. I appreciate what you are trying to do, but your attitude just is not working for me.

Sincerely,
Andrea