Diet Chronicle, Article (4)

It is surprising how many people I am around that have lost weight. Some have lost a lot of weight. That, in itself, is not so impressive. I’ve long determined that losing weight is like falling off a log. Once you decide to do it, (and keep the commitment) you lose weight. It is accomplished in a finite period of time. Obviously the more weight you are attempting to lose, the longer the finite period of time. But, as I said, if you keep at it, you WILL lose the weight.

Tony Furbee/SDN photo

RICH FISHER, advertising director for The Sidney Daily News, appears to be rather overwhelmed by the 80-pound bag of salt on his back. The heavy bag represents the pounds he wants to lose on his diet. Fisher is also striving to become physically fit under the supervision of a physician.

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Keeping it off, that’s what is most impressive and perhaps the most difficult for those of us with numerous diet experiences. But these folks have kept it off for years!

One such person brought me a visual reminder recently, a "trick" that worked for her many years ago when she lost significant weight.

80-pound bag

Dini Hampton, our design supervisor at The Sidney Daily News, had delivered to my office an 80-pound bag of water softener salt. Just lift an 80-pound bag of anything and ask yourself, would I want to lug this around 24 hours a day? Well, that’s just exactly what I have been doing.

Now at any point that I might be tempted to deviate from my diet, I will think about that 80-pound bag.

I might, from time to time, walk over to it and hoist it up on my shoulder to gain an even more concrete perspective of the additional weight I have determined to drop!

Thanks Dini, I think I am going to take you, as my guest, to this week’s Kiwanis meeting to see if Mike Becker has the gumption to fine a guest for having her name in The Sidney Daily News!

Diet alone, you will recall Dr. Miguel Topalov insisting, is not enough. "Exercise," he repeated, making sure I got the message, "is VERY important!"

Exercise routine

The early part of my exercise routine is to walk at least two miles a day. Given enough time, a little more. The next step is to walk a little faster, then at more of an incline. This exercise works well for me. I like to set small goals that lead to larger goals.

For example, I keep track of my accumulated miles and measure the distance to a specific geographic point.

Originally I had planned to "walk to Denver." But I’ve had second thoughts. The nice thing is that despite the fact that I have already accumulated 58Ľ miles on my imaginary trek, I can just turn the wheel and can assign those miles to any direction I want.

I decided to look for a community with a name like "Weight-loss, Idaho," or "Thinsville, Tenn.," or even "Light-Weight, La." But I could find no such named communities.

But I did find four communities that by their very name are sending me a message. They are (in no particular order) Dietrich, Ill.; Dietrich, Pa.; Dietrich, Idaho; and Dietrichtown, Pa.

Now, you’re saying, "How in the name of (fill in the blank) do these towns have anything to do with your weight-loss and walking efforts?"

Well, it’s likely you are mispronouncing the names of these communities. Look at the name carefully. You are probably reading Dietrich like this: "Dee-Trick."

WRONG!

Obviously the proper pronunciation is DIET RICH! (And of course with the fourth one: DIET RICH TOWN.)

So, unless one of you can locate a more appropriate target community (e-mail me at rfisher@sdnccg.com) I am going to walk to one (or more) of these communities. But … I’m leaving the softener salt here, and what it represents, all along the way!

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