Part 1: Have you looked in the mirror lately?

If you’re a corporate lawyer, the first thing you might want to do is to see the defined terms section for “fit.”  Fitness for me is divided into three main buckets: (1) weight; (2) managing illnesses; (3) fighting mental slowdown; and (4) fueling your fun and productivity.

Here, we’ll talk (1) weight.

While weight is hardly a proxy for a full picture of fitness, it’s a great starting point.

The research

According to a 2016 Harvard study, study participants within a healthy weight range had the lowest mortality risk during the time they were followed and the risk of mortality increased significantly as the weight ranges continued. According to the CDC, obesity may also triple the risk of hospitalization for a COVID-19 infection. The significant limitations of BMI notwithstanding, weight has value as a tool for estimating mortality risk that we should not take lightly.

Weight as a monitoring tool

Weight is also a useful tool for monitoring fitness improvements and decline. If you find yourself gaining weight, it may only signal a temporary change (perhaps you’ve had a particularly high month of billables), but it could be a sign of something more significant. Consider whether you changed a routine that’s contributing negatively to your overall fitness. Have you made subtle lifestyle shifts for the worse? This happened to me.

Weight snuck up on me

In my first year and a half out of law school, I didn’t own a scale. Instead, I used the “mirror test.” When I got out of the shower each day, I’d look in the mirror and mentally ask, how do I look? How do I feel? After noticing in a beach photo that I didn’t look the way I thought I would, I stepped onto a scale at a friend’s house. Wow. Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, I learned that I was 25 pounds heavier than when I had finished law school. Unfortunately, it wasn’t 25 pounds of muscle. While you don’t have to own a scale in your home, if you don’t check in on your weight periodically (perhaps every 1 to 4 months) you might miss an opportunity to stop a newly forming bad habit (that added cookie each afternoon isn’t doing you any favors) and you might not see the signs of gradual fitness decline.

As you’re working on your LawyerBody, don’t neglect the importance of weight.