Fat = Unhappy

When I left my last job in the Fall of 2019, I weighed about 164 lbs. I know this because earlier during my time there, I'd noticed I was getting fat and started weighing myself weekly on the heavy-duty postage scale they had in the mail-room! At the most, I hit 169 lbs six months before I left, and had gone down about 5 lbs by the time I left, after months of paying attention to my weight.

Today, in 2023, 4 years later, I weigh 155. Not through intentional dieting or anything, but for one big reason: I've worked from home since 2020, and so now always make my lunches at home---sandwiches and soups and black-bean burritoes and salmon/broccoli and such. I'm not forced to take a whole "official hour" for lunch, and I don't feel the need to go get a big lunch "treat" from a drive-thru as a reward for the stress of the previous 4 hours at work! 

Ideally, I'd like to be under 150 (I'm 5'8"), but 155 feels great. 

169 felt terrible---I was very unhappy in that job, though I didn't recognize it at the time. I liked the editing work, thought it was a prestigious job---but the people there were awful and inbred. I had an argument nearly every day about every comma, and my immediate boss was an idiot, as were a couple of people who had been there for literally 25 years and were slackers in the extreme. (A couple of people in leadership positions, though not slackers, were equally dumb.) I was there for 5 years and was probably miserable for the last 3 years.

Quitting in Fall 2019 was a huge gamble. No one thought I was right for doing so, and I didn't even think I was right. When I left, I had $500 in my bank account. Today: I work with actually smart people that I respect, and I have $18,000 in my bank account, and I make $16K more per year than I did in 2019.

I made the right decision. And I weigh less! :)

NOW: With a little extra money to spare, perhaps I should take some yoga classes. One thing I've noticed: People who do yoga look long and lean, not hunched over, like I do. When I look at people walking around, I can tell if they've been doing yoga or not! (Paul McCartney, at 80+, is a great example of a yoga practitioner.) But I need to find a VERY basic class to get started in because I'm so currently creaky and decrepit... And I need to stop smoking so much. And drinking so much. After days when I don't drink and smoke (every other day), I wake up the next day feeling very energetic and hopeful... Need to intellectually incorporate this feeling: "If you don't drink and smoke, you feel good the next day." But then there's the equally strong feeling of relief at the end of a work-day with the reward of beer and cigs... It's a battle.