The twin dangers of self-improvement.

When I weighed more, hearing people boast of their success on the walk-half-an-hour-every-other-day method would annoy me because my wife and I walk nearly an hour every single day, yet my weight was going up, not down. Thus, I discovered in myself the ugly little idea that I felt entitled to any success others were having and by the easiest way possible.

Eventually, I accepted the sad truth that, if I was going to lose weight, it would have to be by eating differently and much, much less. So, now that I’ve dropped about 30 pounds on the vegetables-and-starvation diet, I have another problem: arrogance.

See, this was one of the most unpleasant things I’ve ever done in my life, mostly because I LOVE to eat and HATE to be hungry. Nevertheless, I endured it, and it worked. So now I’m prone to looking down on people who say they want to get thin but can’t as wimps who just won’t pay the price I paid. This, too, is an ugly thing to see in myself.

Who would have guessed that physical improvement could be so morally treacherous?