videos: racing weight

well, here in the U.S. we're heading into Memorial Day weekend, meaning that we're encountering what is traditionally seen in American culture as the unofficial start to the summer. for most Americans, this means summer vacation season, with students off school and families taking holidays and everyone doing their best to take advantage of the warm weather and extended daylight to spend a lot more time outdoors in the sun.

as idyllic as this sounds, it also involves a sudden realization that season-appropriate and activity-appropriate demands call for attire that is not particularly discrete--and so not particularly flattering--when it comes to hiding our bodies. it also involves an additional, often horrifying, realization of the true state of our bodies...and invariably that state is not as good as we'd like it to be.

especially when the reality of it is made clear to us the first time we pull on a swimsuit and look into the mirror. especially when we realize that reality is going to be what everybody sees when we take that initial foray to the beach. especially when we realize the true magnitude of what it feels to have our muffin-tops, love handles, waist tires, cellulite butts, and jiggly wintery whales suddenly open, exposed, and utterly naked for all the world to see in our glorious blubbery infamy.

as the common joke goes: what kind of shape are we in? round! that's the kind of shape we're in.

some of us (me included) would like to deal with our beach body issues in sufficient time to take advantage of the summer. and so for us our weight is a preoccupation. an obsession of activity and nutrition and body mass index and body fat percentage. to the extent that it's a neurosis.

well, for those of us caught in this situation, i offer the following find:

• http://video.competitor.com/category/running/racing-weight-running/

it's a video series called "Racing Weight" hosted by Competitor (the same company that publishes Competitor magazine). the videos are from Matt Fitzgerald, the writer of the book "Racing Weight," and they deal with a range of topics associated with weight control. there's currently 8 videos, although it looks like an ongoing series, so presumably we can expect to see more in the future.

i should note that all these videos are oriented towards athletes, specifically endurance athletes, and so are more focused on topics relevant to sports performance. but they do cover the full spectrum of athletic life, which makes sense considering that sports are tied to active lifestyles with the key word being lifestyles, meaning that an athletic life is a full-time year-round life-long endeavour and very much a way of living. as a result, i consider them useful for anyone interested in trying to get into better shape--and that certainly means better shape than round.

i agree with everything these videos say and i've followed pretty much everything they suggest, and so i can vouch for them and say that they definitely work...if (and this is the catch), if, you follow them. which can be hard, given all the bad habits most of us acquire over the winter.

but just think about the summer. and think about the body you want to show off during the summer. and then think about the body you have now. and then commit to making the change. and then just do it. you know how. and you can.

you can start by checking out the videos. they're highly recommended.