Decreasing Returns…

I know you have all been just about passing out with anticipatory breath-holding – waiting to see what might become of the social experiment (link to an earlier post) aspect of my weight loss journey. Wait no longer…here it is.
As a part of my term paper I am working toward a proposal that will include an auto-ethnography of my experiences in around weight loss. Since the course is focused on objects it will be goal to explore the topic through the lens of some groups of objects. One of the main groups will be food objects. Another will be the body itself. Another might include several ‘accessory’ objects including clothing, weighing devices, medicine, exercise equipment. My goal will be to use these objects as “good to think with” (to riff on Levi-Strauss’ discussion of totemism). Not my dear friend (he says blathering on into the ether) in order to come up with some sort of definitive position on the weight loss is perceived in society or what potential function it serves. Rather I am interested in reflecting on the questions that arise out of my own experience along side some interesting readings I am and will be doing as I journey through it.
Now as you might already know – I have already lost a fair amount of weight so it might seem odd that I start so late into the process. I think that my tardy arrival might actually be legitimate for the following reasons: 1. I have no clue when I started this thing back in June whether I would actually lose any substantial weight at all 2. It hasn’t been until recently that the social distinctions have become apparent to me 3. This is when it fit into my studying schedule.

Let me go back to that first reason for a while…I suppose it might have been interesting to writing this autoethnography from the perspective of someone wanting to lose weight. In fact that narrative might have yielded a fascinating observation of how the imperceptible evidences might have begun to shape a new identity for me. At the same time, I get the sense that it is not until something significant has occurred with regard to weight that there really is any recognizable evidence to think with. So in a really odd way it is the very non-existence of a significant amount of the former mass of my body which no longer resides on my person that I am able to think about weight loss at all. It’s almost like the object that I am using to think with is no longer a material object – ooooh that has potential Bat Man!
So here is what you are going to get…
a fairly daily posting of some of my thoughts for the day – I will warn you that I will be referring to texts and readings that I am doing that might not be easily digestible – where I can I will cite their online sources but if you have further questions feel free to ask…or comment…
you will also get a daily weigh in. That’s right I will update you on my weight that day. I am working down toward 100lbs and I am roughly 15lb away from that target.

Feel free to comment – I will especially appreciate your own reflections and questions about this topic – and as always (as I am sure many of you do anyway) feel free to not pay attention to this at all. I say that because in this world of endless facebook photo albums and other monotonous collections I would hate to be reason for any more of your time being wasted on this triviality…