September Weigh In - Made It!

I know I usually wait until Wednesday for my blog posts, but this one's pretty important to me! Later this week, I'll be writing a little bit about Greek mythology and the River Styx, but you'll have to wait to find out how that topic is relevant to my own journey.

As I've stated in the past, it was January 7, 2012, when I (at 275.6 pounds) really made the commitment to weight loss; well, I kinda sorta made such a commitment. The problem was that I had not defined how much weight I wanted to lose; rather, I had basically set my sites on "about fifty or so" pounds.

It was not until January of this year - when I weighed in at 226.6 pounds - when I arrived at two realizations:

1. I saw that a loss of 50 pounds (well, 49) still left me in the "Obesity" category; and
2. I knew I needed to set a "Healthy" category goal weight

As such, I decided then and there to set a goal weight of 175 pounds, and I chose this number not because it was 100 pounds from where I started but rather because it would put me comfortably under the "Normal" ("Healthy") weight line, which for someone my height and age falls somewhere between 180 and 185.

Fast forward eight months, and here's what my scale screamed out to me this morning...

I Stepped on it Three Times to Make Sure!!!

This number was actually pretty amazing to me, for although reaching the goal this week/month was anticipated, I did not expect to have fallen this far below 175...but I'll certainly accept it!

So today is a day of mini celebration...but it's not a day to go out and eat everything in sight. Although weight loss is no longer the goal, I've now moved into a lifelong weight maintenance stage. You see, I've lost weight in the past (not anywhere close to this much, though)...and I've gained it back (I think they call that a yo-yo dieter); so I have absolutely no intention of changing what I've been doing to get here. I'm still going to track my intake and my exercise; the only difference is that my daily calorie target (my points total in Weight Watchers) has climbed a bit because I'm no longer tracking to lose weight but am instead tracking to maintain my weight.

As a safety net, I have a very close friend/accountability partner who has promised to come down to Florida and kick my butt if I were to ever start packing on the pounds again...thanks for that, Roger...and thanks for all the support as we've watched the weight loss happen over the past year. What helped the most was the tough love you offered when I gained some weight around the holidays, and you'll never know how thankful I am that you didn't allow me to get away with any excuses!

So there you have it, everyone...102.4 pounds in just under twenty months.

Was it easy? Absolutely not!

Was it worth it? Every second of it.

And as I've said many times to many people over this past year and a half...

If I can do it, ANYBODY can do it! So whether it's 100 pounds or 10, go get started! You can do it, too! You CAN!!!


Tune in later this week to see how Greek mythology relates to my marathon journey.

Until then, enjoy your journey...