"While I Must Decrease"

No, this isn't about John the Baptist.

At the beginning of my postings I said that I would use this as a log to keep some of my health concerns in order. So I'm happy to report that as of yesterday, I have lost 27 pounds according to my scale, and this over about six weeks. The computer program keeping track of my progress is red-flagging me that I'm moving too fast with my weight loss, but the doctors in my life do not seem to be worrying.

I'm about to go under 300 pounds for the first time in about 20 years - at least. I have made one partially successful effort before this time - losing 70 pounds for a short while on the Atkins diet - but this time I really seem to have accomplished a major change in my habits. At the time I lost the 70 pounds, I was exercising daily, walking several miles, but this time I seem to be accomplishing my goals without having to worry about hours of aerobic exercise every day. I'm finally learning portion control.

It is said that if you can keep up a new pattern of activity for 28 days, it becomes a new habit. At this rate, I have a new habit of approaching the table developed already. I'm happy for this for a number reasons.

First of all, as the old Dominicans used to say, God has given me one horse for the journey (my body) and I need to keep it healthy without cozzening it, for God's sake and that of my ministry.

Second of all, I think I can be a better witness to virtue, if my obesity comes under control. It's hard to preach about fasting (which is not however dieting!) when one looks like Friar Tuck of the Robin Hood tales.

Thirdly, my energy and focus greatly improve as my weight comes under control.

Finally, I will be able to do things I cannot do now as my health improves. When I hit 240 pounds, I have promised myself that I'm going horseback riding. That's 60 pounds away, but at the beginning of this program I was almost 90 pounds away. That's a big chunk of road in the right direction. I haven't been at 240 pounds since high school.

The charts say I should be shooting for a final weight of about 170 pounds. My brother Michael (a doctor) thinks that's a little extreme for me given my bone structure and my peculiar hobbies. I am likely to weigh more because muscle is denser than fat; right now, the charts say my body fat ratio is at about 45%; electrostatic measurement suggests that it is in fact close to 39%; which means that I'm bearing a lot more muscle on me than the charts initially suggest. But I think I'll worry about that kind of thing when I get closer to 180 pounds. And that's a way off yet.

I think I would be a better witness to the religious life if there were less of me. When I was planning to enter the Dominican order, I attended the ordination to the priesthood of the Dominican who had become a Trappist at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. The Trappists, who spend their time in agriculture, dairy farming, and other manual labor are as thin as rails; this is not usually true of Dominicans, who spend a huge amount of life at the desk or in the parlor in an age where we expected to get from place to place not by foot (as in the primitive fashion of the age of St. Dominic) but in motorcars, for efficiency's sake. Many of us end up with a substantially different body type than that of Trappists. I had traveled up to this ordination with an acquaintance who was also considering the priesthood. When we walked into the parlor near the main offices at St. Joseph's, we found four Dominicans sitting in the parlor. Each of these particular men, God bless them, was at least 300 pounds, and so among the four chairs we had a good half ton of Dominican flesh in the room. My companion noted, with disapproval, the contrast between the Dominicans and the Trappists in this.

I should hasten to add that most Dominicans do not run to this kind of avoirdupois; but I do. And I think I would be a better witness to self-discipline if my body, which after all, is the physical manifestation of the life of my soul, should also show forth the shape of discipline in these matters, which for me have been a battleground since I was a small child.

It would be nice if I could hit 297 pounds by Wednesday - which is my weigh-in day. But that might be too fast. I think I can certainly hit that by the week after. In Spe Vivamus.