I have now lost 77 lbs in 5 and a half months. That 83 lb goal is getting closer, and I am thankful for it. Then we will shoot to hit another 50 after that before thanksgiving. Then....who knows what.
Weight loss has been slower now than at the beginning. About 2 lbs a week. I believe, with limited exercise and after five months of cosistent controlled eating, this is a healthy normal rate. I would like to lose weight faster, but I am more and more confident that if I continue to make progress slower, I will like the results in the end.
I have chosen the way of "organic" weight loss. I have not tried to go with some fad diet. I have not used surgical intervention. I have not gotten on a television show. I have not read some new book. I have gotten on a weight watchers program that has kept me accountable for healthier, more controlled eating. This is not the easy way. It is not the "quick fix". For me it is the best way.
Not that I desparage the quick fix, if it really works for you. Quick fixes don't work for me though. I will just take them for granted.
Not taking the easy way allows God to slowly teach self-control and persistence to my stubborn soul. Even though, when my wife asks what I want to eat I often say, "I want a pizza buffet where I can eat pizza until my stomach hurts, and to wash it all down with a 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew, but I will settle for...." And then we have a healthier normal meal.
Having said that, local observers will notice that I structure in "cheats" into my weight loss system. Instead of using my weight watchers weekly allowance during the week and tracking it, I wait to use the weekly allowance until after I weigh in. Then I allow myself to have some generally forbidden "treats" for that afternoon and evening, and get back on the wagon for the next day. So, there are some days when I do hit the pizza buffet, but it is planned and structured, instead of at the whim of my impulse control.
I wonder, as I write this, what other people's experiences are with weight loss, and the challenges they have faced and the insights they have learned.
2 comments:
77 lbs! What an awesome number! Being a woman, this is probably not something everyone can identify with, but a big challenge for me is hormones. Two weeks out of the month I have self control, two weeks out of the month I don't. It repeats itself over and over. I think I have good and realistic goals, but maybe what I am missing is something like Weight Watchers to hold me accountable.
Great Job, Clint! I'm proud of the steady progress you've made!
~Matt
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