Losing Weight, Gaining Gracefulness

Today on the lifehacker site there is an article titled How I Lost 100 Pounds by James Golick. The article is very on point, and stresses some of the same dietary basics that paleo does, namely: avoid starches, sugars and processed foods, and stick mostly to meats, seafood, fruit and vegetables. He tried various diets, including forms of vegetarianism, but this method has worked the best for him.

I especially appreciated this paragraph from the article:

Losing weight requires an enormous amount of motivation. You're going to have to change your lifestyle and make real sacrifices. It's going to be hard. Motivation will help you continue to justify the changes you've made, and prevent you from slipping back in to old habits.

I’m examining motivations in my life as well. So far, again, the strongest motivation for me is to be different, to be unlike the average denizen of the United States, with his daily bucket of fried chicken and Cinnabon visits. Not that I can never have those things; but such indulgences should be very rare, and therefore all the more enjoyable. I want to visibly appear different from these people. Not just in physique, but in carriage.

I work near Union Station, and sometimes go there during the day. I can generally tell red staters from locals, and both from Europeans. Red staters plod and waddle; locals stride briskly; Europeans glide. The Euro-glide is something to see. I guess it helps not to have grown up in a culture originated by Christian Puritans.

Of course, the question then becomes: as I begin to appear different from the average estadosunidense, as I begin to look thinner and to carry myself with greater grace, whom do I want to see me? Where do I go to show the world who I am? Because isn’t that too part of the motivation?