The Physical Shinn (Prior)
Last update: December 4, 2025
The John Shinnick Website
The Physical Shin
The 2025 – 2026 Fiscal Eating Season
We all know that holidays are just the worst for watching your weight, unless of course you want to watch your weight go up. If you’ve been following these pages the last few months, you already know that I’ve been working to bring my weight down. I started about five months ago at a little 218.6 pounds. So said my digital scale. The CDC said on their website that for a man of my height (5’10”) and age (74) that made me “obese” not overweight, but freakin’ OBESE! I’d have to get to 208 to merely be overweight.
I went so far as to bring it up with my health care professional, a “nurse practitioner” who never initiated such a conversation. It’s funny the things the medical profession addresses and the things it doesn’t, even in so-called wellness exams. But I was concerned and even asked for a referral to a dietitian. I figured that with all my previous attempts having failed, this might force me to take the effort seriously.
It also led me to try on my own one more time. My philosophy was the same as before. No crash diet, but rather just sensible eating habits. I stopped my ice cream habit, my too-big portions, my grocery store impulse purchases (a half-can size Pringles eaten on the way home just couldn’t be good) and a bowl of cereal at bedtime couldn’t be good. I check calories in my meals and generally stay around 1,800 per day. (One on-line calculator says that to reach 185 by my next birthday on March 3, an intake of 1,964 calories per day is recommended.) And my back is again up to two-mile walks.
Slowly but surely, the weight has been coming off. I even hit 190.0 once. My goal of 185 (still overweight by CDC reckoning seems attainable. Which brings me to my battle with the 2025-2026 fiscal eating season. It was during my years in the corporate world that I observed that there was a “fiscal eating season which began with the first United Way Bake Sale, continued through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and ending with Valentine’s Day. It is characterized by obligatory pigging out, followed by cries of “oh what have I done and attempts at dropping the excess pounds gained.
This year has actually gone well so far. I retired nearly 20 years ago now, so bake sales are a thing of the past. Halloween saw me brilliantly buy just enough candy for the kids with but one piece left over for me. Thanksgiving was a non-event. I went nowhere and visited no one. None of my favorite restaurants were open. No problem and a shot in the arm for my dieting. I expect that, as usual, Valentine’s Day will again be another non-event. Another romantic and dietary bullet dodged. That leaves Christmas and New Year’s. Somehow, I’ll cope.
Hidden behind all that paper is my refrigerator, to which I generally make too many visits this time of year.
But leading up to these last two holidays, my health is throwing me a bone. December 22, in an effort to figure out what ails me, I’m going in for a colonoscopy / endoscopy. That means I’ll be on a restricted diet, and for one day, on the famous Jello diet. While not sustainable, this may give me just enough weight loss to get to my goal of 185.
Why 185? It’s somewhat arbitrary, but I remember it as the last time I felt good doing athletic things like running. CDC still calls it overweight for someone of my height. So be it. To them, 173 is the top of my “Normal” range, and I don’t see myself making that kind of effort. For now, my old vest fits again and my new pants (about 6 months old) don’t. Dieting is funny that way. I recently found a belt that has a ratchet system in back instead of using the traditional buckle so it gives much finer gradients, very useful as I tighten it a little more in the following weeks.
PS – As of this posting, I started out the day at 189.8!
