Get Fit Slowly

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Congratulations to GFS reader (and muse) Sally Parrott Ashbrook, who recently achieved a personal milestone. She writes:

TODAY I OFFICIALLY WEIGHED IN IN THE 160S! Yippeeeeeeeee! Aaaaand . . . I made my husband go clothes shopping with me, and I discovered that I now generally wear a size 12 in pants and a size 10 in tops! So, by two measures, I am back to the size I was my senior year of high school.

And this weight loss and exercise is not even a painful process, when I just make sure to keep my mind on taking care of myself. That’s what’s so amazing. How many times did I try to lose weight before? (Many.) How far along would I get in forcing myself through the weight loss process before I would give up each time? (Not very.) How many times did I end up at a higher weight than I was before that diet? (Nearly every.)

But not this time. Taking good care of myself works. I’m now 19 pounds from my goal weight—down 34 pounds since Jan. 1, 2007, and down about 55 pounds from my highest weight. It’s been a very gradual process and will continue to be. And that is 100% okay with me. I’ll get there.

Congrats, Sally. I look forward to your continued success. You’re an inspiration! (Read about Sally’s progress at Aprovechar.)

Meanwhile, things are picking up around Get Fit Slowly. Thanks for your patience as we find our way around. Your support has been phenomenal so far, and we appreciate it. Mac has some good stuff planned for the coming weeks. I have some deep background information (”what is a carbohydrate?” “what is aerobic exercise?”) ready to be written, but it probably won’t see the light of day until late March. I’m training my replacement at the box factory — when that’s finished, I’ll have more time to write about (and experience) physical fitness.

I spent part of this morning making some changes behind-the-scenes at Get Fit Slowly, primarily responding to reader requests. The following changes should now be operational:

• Your comments are editable. For fifteen minutes after you make a post, you’re able to make changes. This is useful if you spot a typo, or if you decide that you oughtn’t to have said something in a moment of anger. Mac and I can make changes for you after the fifteen minute time limit expires.
• Feed items now have author and category info. At the top of every post in your feed reader, you should see a note that says “by J.D. in Administration” (or whatever). Though our posts are clearly marked on the site, there was no way to tell us apart in the feed before.
• Our stats are in the sidebar. I’ve added little “badges” containing our ages, heights, and weights. These will probably be tweaked in the coming days, but they’re fine place-holders for now. (Is Mac really only an inch taller than I am? That doesn’t seem right.)
• Line and paragraph spacing has been reduced. The big gaps were driving me nuts, and apparently I wasn’t the only one. A couple of people wrote to suggest I reduce the spacing. It’s still not ideal, but at least it’s not bugging me anymore. If you see other layout stuff that bugs you, drop us a line.

The archives still don’t work. I know that. It’s on my list. Bet I need to get some Get Rich Slowly articles written, so my GFS modifications are done until next Tuesday. Also, we’ve had a request for a discussion forum. From my experience, these are ghost towns unless there are a lot of users. I don’t think we’re ready for a forum here. However, if there’s interest, I’d be happy to add a “Get Fit Slowly” section at the Get Rich Slowly discussion boards. Let me know if this is something you’d like to see.