Of pants pulling and safety gear

Weight loss is not always the best thing. For example, it can make snow shoveling more difficult. But have you ever stopped to wonder at what point in the day or night you lose weight? Well, I think I learned the answer. But it requires some set-up before getting to the answer (and hopefully hilarious punch-line).

Friday morning I checked in at a svelte (comparatively) 235.1 pounds, down from a peak of slightly over 265 and, pat myself on the back, just over half of my total weight loss goal, seeking to get down to 210.

Well, that requires certain changes. For example, my pants...well, they fit loosely. And Friday morning I had to stick my belt in my last notch. No problem.

On the bright side, I was also using an I-pod for the first time. The problem with that is that I am completely unable to insert the ear-buds in such a way that they stay in my ear. As a result, about every 5 minutes or so I have to reinsert them. This is not as easy as you might think when wearing gloves. But there is a third piece of information you need to know.

At work, we can voluntarily choose to wear safety harnesses when running the pickers. Of course, the term "voluntarily" might have interesting connotations...such as, anyone who does NOT volunteer to wear them is immediately fired for safety violations. So it is kind of involuntary volunteering.

Ha, just kidding, they are completely required.

Which is fortunate. We are often working 20+ feet in the air and should we fall off one, it would probably not be healthy. So it really is a good safety measure. 

Well, something about the way I wear them is not quite right. They are constantly getting twisted. Then when I bend over to snag something off the bottom row, it catches to keep me from falling to the floor. So then I have to stand up, jerk on it where it attaches to the machine until it loosens enough to allow me to reach the product. Sometimes it takes me pulling on it  half dozen times before I get it out of the "lock" position.

So between the I-pod ear buds and the harness, I was spending an unfortunate amount of time tugging and inserting.

Then came lunch time. 

Apparently, I did not eat enough at lunch or something. Once I got back from lunch, I noticed something strange. My belt was no longer tight enough to  hold up my pants. So now I had to hitch them up.

So the next 4+ hours of  my day went something like this.

Drive picker to bin location. Hitch up pants. Re-insert ear bud. Bend over to get product. Realize the harness wouldn't let me. Stand up to loosen harness. Hitch up pants. Re-insert ear bud. Loosen harness. Bend over, put product on pallet. Stand up, hitch up pants. Drive to next location

Hitch up pants. Bend over to pick up product, have harness hitch. Stand up, hitch up pants, reinsert ear bud, bend over, pull product from shelf, put it on pallet, stand up, hitch up pants, reinsert ear bud, drive to next location...

You know, that could get frustrating.

*sigh*. Who knew I-pods and weight loss, 2 things that should vastly improve my job enjoyment could be harmful to my (mental) health?