I’ve been trying to lose weight, and Wii Fit U (video game) has been a pretty effective tool so far. It recognizes the tendency to procrastinate and lures you in with cheap ways to get the game started – and then one you get started an exercise routine is an easier next step. I weigh myself on the Wii Fit balance board pretty much every day. I upload the information from my pedometer on Wii Fit every day. And then while I’m there I don’t mind starting up a half hour exercise routine. Weighing myself and keeping the pedometer strapped on keeps my conscious of how many calories I’m consuming, how much exercise I’m doing, and how I’m accomplishing my weight goals. I don’t know how much of the manipulation of the tendency to procrastinate was intentional by Nintendo, but in general it’s working.
But here is what I actually wanted to write about – I mentioned losing weight to my wife and she brought up the fact that I shouldn’t lose weight at the expense of my health. I should make sure I’m eating and not run myself ragged. To be honest, I disagree. I’m willing to trade off some – not all – of my health in order to lose weight. Sure losing weight will likely improve my health, and while it would be easy to lie to myself about how it’s about health, it isn’t. Health might be only 10% of why I’m trying to lose weight. The other 90% is in order to look better. Given that my main goal is actually to lose weight, not be healthy, it is acceptable to lose some extra health in order to lose some extra weight.
Thinking about health in terms of tradeoffs is a violation of a taboo, but the reality is that we tradeoff health all the time, and it is crazy not too. Anorexia would tradeoff health for weight loss, and so would taking up smoking. I will do neither because those aren’t reasonable tradeoffs, they’re extreme tradeoffs. But consuming a diet that is below the point at which it is optimally healthy is certainly reasonable. People who, like me, are tired of being overweight should consider trading off a little extra health for a little extra weight loss, or at least not fool themselves into thinking that it is about being healthy. It isn’t.
