So this happened

There's now a "fitness challenge" being set up on my campus.

It includes exercising 30 minutes five days a week (Well, I do 40 minutes 4 days, so that doesn't count, I guess. Though I am trying to slowly force myself into doing five days a week, but it's hard, getting up that early every day), "trying" to lose weight (there are weigh-ins), doing readings on "health," and "maintaining or losing weight."

I won't be joining. Oh, yes, I could stand to lose some weight and I'm trying to reboot my following of the DASH diet so I can. And I exercise. And I could get a free pedometer out of it. But I'm not a joiner, and also, stuff like this is not good for me psychologically.

I know myself too well. I know feeling like someone else is hanging over my shoulder, monitoring me, despite the claims of confidentiality, will make me unhappy and will lead to me overtaxing myself - exercising when I really should take a rest day (because I'm injured or it's very hot or I need the rest), doing stupid stuff in re: eating (when I did something like this years back, I looked at what I was eating and what I was doing and realized I wasn't being smart, I was restricting far too much, both in terms of actual food and in terms of things that might give me a little pleasure).

They're also offering "release time of 30 minutes a day" Uh, that doesn't work for faculty. We're not hourly. We work 'til the work is done (or really: until we can't work any more, because the work is seldom done), which is why I get up at 4:30 to work out, because there are many days I wouldn't have time to otherwise. They also have prizes and stuff and I know I've complained about how too many people seem to expect a "prize" for stuff they should do anyway, and how I never get "prizes" for the stuff I do - but a "chance" at an unnamed prize is not enough of an enticement for me to enter the whole round of guilt, frustration (when my weight doesn't budge), maybe doing dumb stuff like fasting to try to make it budge, and just the general "I don't need another round of tasks (weigh-ins, check-ins) added to my week" thing. (And the weight loss is based on a percentage of body weight lost: so a heavy person has to work harder to make the same goal as a thinner person: a 200 lb. person losing 5 pounds has lost 2.5%, whereas a 130 pound person losing 5 pounds has lost almost 4%. Not that, I would say, a 130 pound person should be losing that much weight, unless they're like 4' 10" and with a tiny bone structure.)

I'm hoping this doesn't become mandatory (or "mandatory" in the sense of there's incredible peer pressure to do it, and people are always asking me why I'm not).

The thing that bugs me is this: for the past two days, there were platters of donuts out every morning (and no fruit). The "provided lunch" was lunchmeat sandwiches, chips, and cookies (so I went home: I can't eat lunch meat, too much sodium, and also no fruit or vegetables were on offer). We were stuck sitting for HOURS with limited opportunities even to stretch. And yet, they tell us to "get fit and lose weight."

(No, I didn't take any donuts. I don't like the kind of raised donuts they get all that well. Once in a very great while I will go out and buy a cake donut as a treat, but that's maybe once every three months....)

Also, for me, the "carrot" I use to keep eating my vegetables and exercising is NOT what the scale registers so much as "I feel better and I don't hurt so much*." So my goals are different. (And, yeah, yeah, going down a band size in my brassiere was NICE, but it's not the main reason I keep doing the workout that includes "core" exercises)

(*My hip bursitis has been far less since I've been interspersing the exercise dvd with the cross-country skiier and I notice the elbow-and-shoulder arthritis (I think it is) I have in the arm I broke years ago is less when I'm exercising regularly. Also, I really, really, really want to avoid getting arthritis bad enough in my knees to have to get a replacement, and exercise can help with that. Well, weight loss could too, but exercise goes a long way)