The four stars of pressure

Among my many nerdities, and there are several, I am a movie buff.

Don't play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon or any other actor with me. You're likely to lose. That's not a boast, but just the reality of the fact that during my life, I've spent an inordinate amount of time watching movies. My DVD shelf is beginning to collapse, and some time I'll get around to making my own list of my favorite films of all time.

One of my 37 majors while at UConn was, in fact, film studies. Technically, it would have been an independent study since UConn didn't offer a film major, but I wanted to be a screenwriter. I still do. My favorite movies aren't necessarily the ones with the best plots, but they do have excellent characters and great dialogue. I love the Coen brothers, classic Billy Wilder films, and comedies that rely more on just fart gags to make me laugh. I wanted to write one of those movies, and someday, read a four star-review of something I had helped create.

Well, last week, I got my first four star-review. But it didn't come from the academy of anything, but rather Weight Watchers. For every five pounds you lose, you earn a little star. For those of you at home doing the math, that means I've now lost 20 pounds. A milestone? Most definitely. Worth celebrating? Yep. Complete sentences? Not here. Heh heh. Time to get complacent? I'd better not.

It would be easy to look at this first month and go on cruise control. After all, I've lost one-third of my goal, or 33.33333333333 (and a whole lot more threes) percent, and the number 20 just happens to be the number of my favorite baseball player of all time, Mr. Kevin Yoooooouuuuukilis. In a strange way, Youk helped me celebrate the weight loss. On a trip to Fenway on Saturday, after the Sox beat the Indians, I got a Yoooouuuuuuuuk shirt from a street vendor. The only size they had was an XL, not my usual 2X, but Megan encouraged me to get it. Sure enough, the shirt fits. Another milestone. Thanks Youk!

But complacency would be a very bad thing. I've been complacent many times during my life, and it never leads to weight loss or anything productive. I have to keep working, getting to the gym, bearing the terrible music pumped by the staff, and I have to keep tracking my points. I've been a little too lax about that of late, taking the entire weekend off, and I must be more diligent. After all, it's not Youkilis's number that's the final goal. It's the number on the back on Daniel Bard's jersey that I want to reach.

And after this week, it's become clear that some folks are paying attention. At a recent event in East Hartford, several people came up to wish me luck on this quest and to tell me they've been reading. That's quite flattering, really, and I'd hate to let everyone down. Others have called me crazy for making something as personal as a diet and weight loss a public event, open for the reading delight of any person with a keyboard.

When I started, I had no intention of a public event. In fact, all my life my weight has been a source of shame, and not one that I've wanted to share with anyone, let alone strangers. But I'm trying something different here, an experiment. Give me the pressure. Don't let me fail. No, if I look like I may be slacking, don't call me a fatty or anything like that, but tell me you're in my corner. Words of support mean so much, and if in the process you find some enjoyment from my experience, all the better.

So while the four stars are nice, I want to have 12 by the time Megan walks down the aisle in a beautiful gown (which I have no idea what it looks like- guessing white?). As far as I know, there's never been a 12-star movie. Not even the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy or even Howard the Duck (kidding). Here's hoping for great reviews in my own endeavor, and if at the end of it Ebert wants to write about me, he's more than welcome.

Stat Attack!

Weeks until wedding: 42 (only 40 before I have to look at tuxes)
Week 5 pounds lost: .8
Total weight lost: 20 pounds on the nose. Wait, does weight have a nose?
Percentage of overall 60-pound goal: 33.3333333333333333333333 percent
Pounds remaining to lose: 40
Things I hear are unpleasant about turning 40: prostate exams, ear hair, people who tell you what sucks about turning 40.
New feature!
Percent body fat: 25.5. Which, I learned this week, is actually within normal range of an adult my age. (I was expecting about 45 percent. Sweet.)
Number of subscribers to this blog: six
Number I hope will subscribe by next week: more than six.
Sad that I can't attend: Aaron and Karina's wedding. Mazel tov!