Willfully Disabled

My wife decided that she didn't need any more stuff for Christmas and wanted experiences this year. So instead of getting her jewelry or things she didn't need, I gave her a trip to Disneyland. Naturally I went with her and we left the kids at home. We had a great time but I came away from the trip with disgust of the willfully disabled. What does willfully disabled mean? Keep reading.

I have some friends that love Disneyland because they cater to their adult daughter with Down's Syndrome. Disney is great that way and always goes the extra mile to make sure anyone with a disability feels welcome in their parks. They even go so far as to hire characters that know sign language so they can communicate with deaf children. This is noble and should be applauded. There is a large group of people out there that know this and take advantage of Disney's niceness to get special treatment during long lines. These people are frauds and have a special place reserved for them in the afterlife. While I dislike the frauds, they are not willfully disabled.

There is another group of people that frequent Disney parks who leverage the disability system because they just don't take care of themselves. They use technology like electric scooters to get around instead of daily walks to get in shape (yes, I know that round is a shape too). Those scooters clog up already crowded walkways and lines. It is this group of people that are willfully disabled and they seriously annoy me.

What gives me the right to pass judgement? Well three years ago, I too was headed in the direction of the willfully disabled. My weight/height ratio bordered on me being obese, not just overweight. I tried using technology to help me get my weight down with no success. I came up with every excuse in the book to explain away my ballooning size. Ultimately I discovered the secret of losing weight. I lost 35 pounds in 3 months. Everyone that knew me couldn't believe how much and how quickly I lost all that weight. It has been 3 years and I have not put any of it back on. So how did I do it? Daily exercise and portion control. I didn't take any magic pills. I also didn't start some super exercise regimen. I did lose all that weight under the care of a doctor who made me come in every 2 weeks and provide blood samples to make sure I wasn't hurting myself. I also met with a nutritionist to make sure I included all of the right foods in my diet.

So what caused me to get serious about weight loss? What gave me the willpower to seriously control what and how much I ate? I finally recognized that I was killing myself with food and if I didn't make some changes, I wouldn't be around much longer. Guess what? If you have to use an electric cart to get around Disneyland because you are so fat, you are killing yourself with food. Put down the jelly doughnut and go see your doctor. Your family will thank you for it.

Lose It

I just found a new free app for my iPhone. To borrow a line from Charles Dickens, "It is the worst of apps, it is the best of apps." It is called "Lose It" and is sort of an electronic weight watcher's program.

The idea behind "Lose It" is to help you record the food you eat and the exercise you do every day. When you first start the application, it asks your weight, height, and gender. It then asks you your goal weight and gives you a safe estimate of how long it should take to get there. You are then ready to start inputing the food you eat as you eat it. Since I always have my iPhone with me, I just enter the information while I am chewing. Otherwise I might forget. Today I had some left-over Cashew Chicken with rice. While it was reheating in the microwave, I found a similar recepie in the program and had it calculate the calories.

The great thing about the program is you can see your calorie count as you go through the day. I started using it on Sunday and was 7 calories under my daily budget. Yesterday I went skiing for an hour at lunch and watched an additional 500 calories get added to my alotment. I only used a portion of them and went to bed with calories to spare.

You can probably see why it is the best of apps. As for why it is the worst, I feel hungry all day long. Given the temptation of snacking, it is too much work to enter the snack in the program and so I have cut down on those extra meals. I also am more careful about what I eat. The kids all had donuts and hot chocolate this morning for breakfast. I ate a donut but had to pass on the cocoa as I didn't want to start my day with too many calories used. Instead I drank water. What fun is water and donuts?

I love to eat and it probably shows a bit too much. My hope is that I can actually get down to my goal weight by April. Several of my cycling buddies have been using the program for a couple of weeks now and they have all lost weight. I probably should thank them for showing me the app, but I'm hungry and my next meal isn't for a couple more hours. I really hate those guys.