Americans really are getting fatter and fatter, as this set of yearly obseity maps shows. It’s pretty scary, particularly when you consider just how fat people have to be in order to be obese. For instance, given my height of 5’8″, I would have to be almost 200 pounds in order to obese! I wouldn’t even hit the overweight mark until 165 pounds! Given that I was looking pretty porky at 155 pounds last winter when I declided to lose those extra pounds, I shudder to think of what Overweight Diana would look like in the mirror, let alone Obese Diana.

Since I was always within the “normal weight” range, my recent weight loss does my blessed state of Colorado no good. But it delights me a great deal — and that’s far more important. I suspect that Paul, who has transformed himself into a svelt god-like man over the past year with exercise and diet, is probably pleased too. (But unlike him, I still have some fat to burn off.)

Interestingly, I think that my high level of fitness helped me recover from the flu faster than usual. I was back to rowing 4-5 miles every other day (albeit somewhat slowly) within eight days of the onset of symptoms, despite a lingering cough. I hope to be back up to a full workout next week — meaning running and/or rowing about 5 miles per day. Then again, maybe it was the drugs. (I took TamiFlu, an anti-viral.) Either way, I’m very glad to be substantially on the mend.