I was listening to the radio the other night. The announcer was interviewing the mayor of Oklahoma City. At one time, Oklahoma City was one of the “fattest” cities in the United States.

The mayor himself remarked that he was in the worst shape of his life. Eventually, Oklahoma City did all kinds of things to change their reputation. They put in sidewalks. They encouraged one another. The mayor started a campaign that called for the city to lose “a million pounds.” It worked. Eventually, Men’s Health magazine listed the city as one of the “fittest.” Good job.

The mayor said something that was interesting to me. He said he had typed in his height and his weight on some type of  online calculator. The calculator told you your “fitness label” as far as what weight you were at what height. Categories ranged from underweight to obese. He said, at the time of the “fattest” ranking of his fair city, that he had registered in the “obese” scale. Sheesh. No wonder he put in sidewalks.

Obese is a pretty harsh word.  In my opinion, it’s worse than “fat.” In this day and age where no one wants to follow the rules and everybody wants to do their own thing, we don’t like hearing such harsh words. I felt sorry for the poor mayor, actually. How dare some silly computer program tell him what he was to think of himself.

I can’t deny that I was curious, though. I mean, coupled with the magazine article and his own personal realization, the mayor made big changes in his life. Yes, curious I was. Perhaps the whole thing could motivate me.

We started our annual weight loss contest here at school. It’s very helpful to have the support of your colleagues plus a little old-fashioned competition to motivate you. The first week, I lost eight pounds and was completely flabbergasted. At this rate, I’d be skinny as a beanpole by March. I was sure I’d win the weekly contest, but alas, there were coworkers who had lost a larger percentage than I had. I would have to work harder.

The second week, I did not lose as much but am still ranked third in the overall competition.  I’m nowhere near my goal. But heck, being so close to the top and being able to lose more than a couple of pounds per week is a great thing! I was starting to feel pretty good.

So, after the radio program and after watching this new show “Fit to Fat” (a ridiculous show, actually) on TV, I decided I might as well type in my height and weight, too.

I Googled the information, found the website, and typed in my height and my weight. I pressed the indicator button. The computer began calculating things.

You guessed it: I was obese.  I was far enough in the obese range that I will need to work extra hard to get into the “overweight” range. In fact, my goal weight for the contest still registers as “overweight.” Losing 40-plus pounds would barely put me in the “normal weight” category.

I’ve written about my constant battle to get into shape before. It’s an ongoing battle, and different things can motivate a person. I can’t tell you yet how much this “obese” label has affected me, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.

I’m planning some alone time with the treadmill tonight.