My 2nd anniversary

On October 24, 2005, I resolved to make enough changes in my life to put a halt to the weight-increase cycle. I started out with very small steps, cutting back on the snacks and adding a little bit of physical activity into my daily schedule.

On October 24, 2005, I weighed in at 255. This morning I weighed in at 152.2 lbs, a 102.8 lb. loss.

That is almost exactly 1 lb. of weight loss per week for 2 years. Of course, some weeks I lost more, and some weeks I lost less. But you can see from the complete weight loss chart at the bottom of this blog that the losses have been steady.

All obese people hear the warnings from doctors and other professionals to lose the weight slowly, that it's about life-style changes, not about crash diets.

I can confirm this through my own personal experience. I will be very happy to continue to eat the way I am eating now, for the rest of my life. I enjoy my food, I eat only foods that I like, and I am eating sufficient to satisfy both my physical and emotional hunger.

It didn't all happen at once. Over the course of these 2 years, my body and my mind have gone through adjustments to rid themselves of the cravings.

I have gradually, in small steps, increased my physical activity. I am strong and healthy, and feeling great.

While I am rid of the addictions, I remain a food addict. It's not quite as precarious a prediction as it is for drug-users or alcoholics. I'm not exactly only one bite away from obesity.

However, I am just as vulnerable to obesity now as I ever was. In fact, probably even more so. For this reason, I have to be ever vigilant. When those thoughts creep into my head to console myself with food, I have to get rid of them immediately. How? Simply by telling myself that food, used this way, is my worst enemy, and will kill me if it gets the chance.

My next milestone is 135, as that will bring me out of the overweight category into the moderately overweight category. If I continue to lose 1 lb per week, I will reach this milestone around Valentines Day next February.

I have not accomplished this alone. Like other obese people, I needed help. I needed help from God -- for the strength to overcome temptations, and for the wisdom to develop a healthy diet. I needed help from my family - for the encouragement and opportunities needed to succeed.

This is my current routine, which I follow quite faithfully, but not absolute rigidity:

I eat 3 meals a day, use a smaller plate (a salad plate instead of a dinner plate) and no between meal snacks. For breakfast I have whole grain cereal and a fruit. For lunch, I have a cup of soup/stew/chili and fruit. For supper I have a 1/2 sandwich, fruit, and either vegetables or cottage cheese. The fruits are fresh fruits, and the fruits I am enjoying now are bananas, fuji apples, black grapes, and red pears. The sandwich is made with whole grain wheat bread.

At night before bed, I do a 20-25 minute pilates routine, either abs or lower body. This is followed by 30 minutes of step exercise, using up-beat and lively music to keep up my pace.