Year-End Weigh-In

It has been a long road in 2008. I started with a weigh-in of 285 lbs - a number which made me wince and want to crawl under the rug in embarrassment. But it served as the motivation I needed to finally get up off my behind, stop ordering in pizza and french fries for every meal, and start getting serious about my weight/health. I swore off sugar, drastically reduced the carbs I was eating, became extremely strict about my portions, and began an exercise program that included daily biking, either on a stationary bike in the attic or on a new outdoors bike around town. It has been a bumpy road. Some days, I had no problem eating less and avoiding sweets. Other days, it felt like I was digging out my own heart with a dull spoon to avoid a calorie-rich meal. I gave myself a few "free days" here and there to take some pressure off (birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) and was relentless about measuring my weight every day, and writing it down where I had to look at it. I combined that with a weekly posting of the weight graph here on Mod-Blog, so that I could not delude myself about my progress. If I did well, everyone would know. If I did poorly, everyone would know.

Well, while the last week did not lose me as much weight as I had hoped, I think I did well in 2008. I lost over 60 lbs, gained considerable strength and endurance, and am actually able to outdo some of my athletic friends... at least when we are all on bikes. It feels good to have accomplished so much. Please be praying that I can keep it up in 2009. My goal for 2009 is to maintain what I have lose and to stay below the "obese" line on the BMI graph. The only hard number I have in mind is to hit 200 lbs by December 31, 2009. We'll see how it goes, one day at a time.