Weighty Resolutions

January resolutions often revolve around improved commitments to health and fitness. This is a big time of year for diets and exercise programs. Inspiring stories appear in People Magazine and inspiring people appear on Good Morning America. The optimism can be invigorating because it ignores the failures of the past. This year you can finally lose those twenty pounds and keep them off. You can kick your cigarette addiction. The Mariners can make it to the World Series. In my working days, January was the most crowded month in the company fitness centers. I am surprised this year at the volume of weight gain advertisements I have seen. This can be a serious issue but I have always had a callous instinct to dismiss a need to gain weight as a nice problem to have. My first college roommate used commercial products like protein powders to try to bulk up. I was envious that he was thin, three inches taller than me, and could walk on his hands. Best of all, he could eat anything he wanted without getting fat! In high school, he was a high jumper and was voted Best Dancer in our Senior class. What the heck was wrong with his life? Maybe he looked skinny at the beach but our friends used to tell me I looked fat without my shirt and that I needed to spend some time in the gym. Back then before I knew about anorexia, I found wit in the quote that you can never be too rich or too thin (popularized but apparently not invented by Wallis Simpson). Watching big industries relentlessly promoting both weight loss and weight gain now makes me sad to think how collectively unhappy we will always be with ourselves.