Shaping Up Without Selling Out

Last weekend, my wife bought a pair of Shape-ups from Sketchers.  You may have seen them; they look like normal athletic shoes on top, but abnormal on the bottom.  In fact, they rock on the bottom - literally!  According to their literature, Shape-ups are designed to help burn more calories, tone muscles and improve posture.  The tag line is "Get in shape without setting foot in a gym."

That tag line is unfortunate.  It comes across as saying one only needs to wear Shape-ups to get one's body into shape.  I disagree.  These shoes might help, but they are not a magic solution or a silver bullet to the problem of obesity.  Reading the pamphlet that came with the shoes, there's lots of good information - which makes the tag line even more sad.  Since they know so much of the right info, why put a marketing jingle ahead of the real problem?

With around 130 million Americans either overweight or obese, there is tremendous potential for people to not only wear these shoes, but to wear them to the gym!!  The US Department of Health and Human Services suggests 40 minutes of daily physical activity for adults ages 18 and over.  Children need even more - 60 minutes of activity daily.  Wearing these shoes should be considered the add-on - not the be all - to make the most of that activity.  Exercise is half of the issue to being overweight.  Eating too much is the other half.  Sketchers ought to describe how their Shape-up shoes boost the exercise - giving the one who wears the shoes a 20% gain in calories burned, for example. (And of course, they ought to commission a study on that to determine just what these shoes actually do).  Without that, they're simply selling out to the idea that Americans want to stay as lazy as possible.  That might work from a marketing standpoint, but not from a healthy lifestyle one.

I haven't bought any Shape-ups for myself - although they make them for guys, too.  So far, I've done pretty well without them.  I joke about missing my goal weight target.  I wanted to weigh 220 pounds by the time my daughter gets married on June 11, but that's not likely to happen.  By March 26, I was down to 217!  My weight as of April 9 is 214.

How have I lost more than 40 pounds since January 1?  By eating less and exercising more.  It's that simple; and it's that hard!  I've taken sodas off my consumption list - and I previously was a hard-core Dr. Pepper drinker.  I've eaten pizza twice in 3 months, when it used to be a weekly staple.  I cut back on the portion sizes and stopped going back for seconds.  I work out at the YMCA twice a week, try to walk at least 3 times a week, and have started doing nightly sit-ups and push-ups.  All that effort is paying off!  Now, my goal is to be as close to 200 pounds by June 11 as possible.  That means I need to keep losing an average of 1.5 pounds per week over the next 9 weeks.  That's doable as long as I keep up the effort to make it happen.

Actually, as I've said in previous postings, it's not just me doing this.  God's doing this with me.  So I gotta keep my thoughts and attitude focused on Christ, then the rest will continue to fall into place. 

Lord, give me strength!!