let's see, 20 x 5 = 100.....

I now have a reason why my waist seems to be expanding. It's my metabolism, and it appears to be slowing down.

According to an article I read yesterday, when men reach 40 their metabolism decreases by 5% each year. If this is true, I'm down almost 10% from when I was in my 30's. And because our metabolism is shrinking, we need to eat less and exercise more. If that's the case, by the time I'm 60, I'll be down to eating a speck of wheat germ and running 27 miles every day. And that's just to stay where I am, not lose any weight.

This same article mentioned that as we get into our late-30's and early-40's, our lives become busier and it leaves us with less energy (and time) to exercise. Meetings, family life, taxi driver for kids, it all factors in.

I saw a book in our church's bookstore a couple of weeks ago that looked encouraging to me. The back cover claimed that you could eat the foods you love, not exercise, and STILL lose weight. I skimmed the first 40 pages this past Sunday, and the back cover lies. The author claims that it's simple, all you have to do is substitute fresh fruit whenever you want something sweet. Easy enough. Then a couple of chapters later, it says to eat almost no bread. Then the next chapter says to "learn to love fish!" and substitute it for red meat. Again, the back cover lies.

I guess I'm going to have to do something to make my waist feel smaller.....buy bigger pants.....