Time is a funny thing. All measurable signs point to time moving at a constant rate (at least at velocities well under the speed of light). Yet we don’t perceive it that way. As I look at the subject line of this post I think, “Week 5? That’s it? I feel like I’ve been at this for years!” And then I think, “I just want it to be Week 15, or 25, or 75, because at that point I will have reached my goal and I will live happily ever after . . . the end.”
Seventy-five weeks from now seems like forever. If someone said, “You can take a leave of absence from your job for seventy-five weeks, still get paid, and do anything you want with that time,” you might think, “Oh boy! I can do ANYTHING in that amount of free time. That’s like FOREVER!” Yes, sure enough, at the end of seventy-four weeks you’d be saying, “What?! There’s no way I only have one week left. I haven’t even finished my todo list.”
Here’s this week’s graph:
The Law of Averages worked in my favor this week. Whereas during Week 4 the line went down all week and I went up 0.7 pounds, this week the line kinda went up and yet I’m down 1.6 pounds for the week.
| Week Five | |
| Starting Weight | 224.0 |
| Current Weight | 216.4 |
| Change from Last Week | -1.6 |
| Lost So Far | 7.6 |
| Pounds To Go | 17.4 |
So that’s the good news. The bad news is that 216 seems to be my own personal speed of light: an absolute, universal, immutable constant that cannot be broken. I thought once I put my mind to this, no problem. I’ve lost this much weight before. This time? Well, this time I’m not so sure. And time is a funny thing.
I’ll leave you this week with a thought. If the television show Happy Days were still on, the famous Milwaukee family would now be living in the year 1994: a date twenty years after the show began.
on April 4, 2011 at 3:58 am
Hey Charlie
Glad to see you’re hard at it and losing!! That’s a super job. I’m having a de ja vue with Easter approaching! Did we start the train this time last year? Or is that just my usual annual goal to lose weight? lol The years seem to blend into one!
I’m still 1lb off my last year low, but I think I’ll go over it this week. I’m not even starting to count until I reach that low again. Feeling well adjusted and happy now the spring is here and motivated to lose another 10lbs by mid June.
Now wouldnt that be nice 😀
Anna 😉
on April 4, 2011 at 5:13 am
Dude, you are so not going to be doing this for 75 weeks. Get in gear and get it gone quicker than that! That’s my plan! 😉
on April 4, 2011 at 7:55 am
And I’m sure back in 1990, I didn’t think I’d be doing this for twenty-one years. (I really don’t know why I keep trying. What’s that definition of insanity again?)
on April 4, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Okay, that last part made me feel REALLY old!
on April 4, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I know! Because back in the 70s (for us) the 50s seemed like it was at least a century prior. To suddenly realize that the gap between TV show and TV show setting is just 17 years is hard to comprehend.
on April 9, 2011 at 7:02 pm
Good evening Charlie. Good job on the loss this week. Keep it up. It won’t take 75 weeks, you’ll have it done in lots less then that. Though thinking about it, I’ve been on my journey for 66 weeks and am down just over 50 lbs. Not a great number of loss for those amount of weeks but I’ll take it anyways.
Good luck Charlie. Have a blessed weekend.