You’ve heard of the “last mile”. It’s a phrase that ostensibly comes from telecommunications, where it described the final stretch of a network: the copper line, cable, or fiber running from the local exchange or hub to an individual home or business. Telephone engineers had long called this segment the “local loop.” “Last mile” became the popular term, likely in the 1980s–90s as cable, broadband, and telecom deregulation made that final connection the costliest and hardest part to upgrade. The mile was never literal. It meant the endpoint where a shared backbone becomes a separate link to each customer. From there it spread by analogy. In logistics and e-commerce, “last-mile delivery” is the final leg from a distribution center to the customer’s door. It’s often the most expensive part of shipping because volume stops being consolidated. In transit planning, the “first-mile/last-mile problem” is the gap between a transit stop and a rider’s actual origin or destination. In each case the idea is the same: moving things in bulk is efficient, but reaching each individual endpoint is slow and costly. The phrase itself is older and grimmer. John Wexley’s 1930 play The Last Mile, later made into a film, used it for a death-row inmate’s final walk to execution. That sense (a final, unavoidable stretch) probably made the expression feel natural when engineers and logisticians adopted it. But mostly it means the last part of a journey that becomes the hardest part of the journey.
Well, I am on my last mile of my weight loss journey and it is both a rewarding time and a frustrating time for me. I am approaching the one year mark from when I started taking my weekly Zepbound injections. Let’s start with the rewarding part of that journey. The shit works. I’m not sure how exactly it works on me, but the results are plain to see. Almost everybody I run into comments about my weight in a positive way. I have become leaner looking and yet not unhealthy. I have yet to have anybody ask me if I am unwell, which I take as a very positive indicator that all that I’m doing to keep myself fit by working out is….working out. I certainly have more energy by virtue of my reduced weight, and especially in my legs (yes, I am still religiously wearing my compression socks…they feel so damn good on my legs when I put them on in the morning), the reduced bulk is both noticeable and energizing. But the real reason for my being and looking more fit is not Zepbound, but my force of will in working out in some manner every single day. As I’ve said before, there is nothing automatic or natural about that for me, I have to make myself keep moving and I have to affirmatively force myself to train with Albert on Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning for an hour, go with Kim to Susan’s Gyrotonics studio for two hours on Tuesday, take Buddy on walks once or twice a day for a half hour, work in the garden whenever I have a chance, and occasionally fill in the gaps with a stint on the treadmill. Let me be clear, that all requires a force of will that no Zepbound injection causes to happen. Do I have a reason for that voluntary act? Not really other than I want to feel better and be able to do more. There is a bit of pride at stake, but anyone who is as willing to share this journey as openly as I do cannot be too driven by pride. Perhaps the one bit of pride that does show through is that I’m very happy with my appearance and especially so when it comes to all my new and much more comfortable clothes. It’s a real pleasure to have a closet full of new stuff that all fits very well and drapes properly and gets positive comments from others.
Now for the frustration part. Since the middle of August my weight has only gone down by about 3-4 pounds. My caloric math suggests that I should be down about 12 pounds in that timeframe. The methodology is very simple. Calories used minus calories ingested. The accuracy of the calories used is pretty straightforward, especially with the measurement devices I now wear including my Apple Watch and my Oura ring. They tell me that I expend an average of 3,100 calories per day based on my weight and my activity level, a number I consider quite accurate and not subject to too much debate since its measurement-based. My daily intake records (which I have been religiously keeping for 364 days now on a spreadsheet on my iPhone) have shown an average of 1,726 of calories consumed. If that were accurate, that would imply that I have a daily deficit of 1,374 calories per day and should have lost 20 pounds over that time. I have always assumed that my calorie counts were somewhat light, so my math has those ratcheted up by 25%, which is why my estimated loss gets down to 12 pounds. What history and record keeping is showing me is that my calorie count is WAY more understated than I thought. My caloric deficit must only be about 300, implying that I am actually consuming 2,800 calories per day. Is that possible? Absolutely. I have fallen into the all-too-human trap of finding things I like to eat and convincing myself that they are minimally harmful to my calorie count when, indeed, they are far more impactful.
On the other hand, I have no excuse for my indulgence on the snack crackers front. It is a well-understood phenomenon of my weight loss journey, through both the lap-band and the Zepbound, that where some things like chicken and beef get stuck in my craw and simply will not go down my gullet at times, things like popcorn will always go down. The same is true of certain favorite snack crackers. The good news is that they are not potato chips. Those do not exist on my menu any more. But flavored baked Ritz crackers or Schwartz bagel chips are ever-appealing. They are my go-to snack of choice and I have clearly overdone them. Now for the tough part. How do I find a balance between giving myself some degree of necessary indulgence while not overdoing it to the detriment of my continuing march towards my weight and BMI goal? I have a few tricks up my sleeve and I will try them out this week. The first is to be more accurate with the caloric input of those values (I have been quite lax in estimating both consumption and caloric value of those two difficult areas). What gets measured gets addressed. If I have to look the higher numbers in the face, that alone should help adjust my behavior. Let’s see how that works on getting me back on my track to this last mile.