Week 1

Has it been a week already? I don't know about anyone else, but it sure feels as if the older that I get the faster time moves. When I was a kid, a week seemed to take an eternity. Now, weeks pass by so quickly. Anyway, let's look at the numbers.

I weighed in this morning at 407.2 pounds. Looking back, my previous weigh in registered at 410.5 pounds. That means that I have lost 3.3 pounds this week.

I am not displeased with those numbers. However, I am aware of a couple of times that I could have done better. It was interesting trying to lose weight again. It seems like I had to remind myself of a few things a couple of times. The times that I could have done better I was a pretty down on myself. I had to remember that with weight loss, it is important to focus on winning the overall war. Individual battles may not always be won and when things go that way it would be silly to wave a white flag and surrender. Because even though a couple of days could have been better, I still lost a decent amount of weight. This was because I won more of the battles than I lost this week.

There is something that feels empowering about taking control of your diet. When not paying attention and counting calories it is easy to be unaware of how much I am consuming calorie wise. I think for me anyway, it is because I don't often think about what is in food. I guess that maybe I just go off what I perceive to be quantity. That is a mistake. For example, this burger is the same size as that burger therefore they are equal. But what if one burger has mayo and ketchup and the other has only mustard?

Patience is difficult. I remember when I lost close to a hundred pounds on my first weight loss journey. That took years. Because the goal was a couple of pounds every week and sometimes you would hit plateaus. This will test me. Because I want to make progress quickly. Frustration can easily set in even when making progress. More so when I hit a plateau. Some of the most frustrating weighs in from first journey were when I had a really good week, hit all my marks, only to weigh in and be the exact same weight as the week before or maybe even post a small gain.

I am not a doctor, but it stands to reason that there are many changes going on when attempting to lose weight. It was my experience the last time I had success that as I lost weight it was much easier to be more active. I had taken up walking to assist with the progress I had made. When that is the case then you are surely building some muscle mass. But on the other hand, it takes muscle to move around a 400-pound frame.

Should anyone else be following along and in a similar situation with needing to lose large quantities of weight, here is something that I have learned. Well intentioned people will want to help you. And to that end they may say things like, what would really speed this up is if you took on insert exercise routine here. Something like P90X maybe. Usually, the people that have told me this are not massively overweight. So, I just say in a nice way, imagine you had a person exactly your weight piggyback and then you tried to do P90X. How long do you think your joints would last? Would your knees or ankles hold up or would you do a lot of damage to your body? I do not say that to be mean to that person as I know they are trying to help.

Oh, that reminds me, well intentioned people may also say you should try X diet or Y diet. There may come a time where exercise routines or diets are the best way to move forward. But at double my target weight I need to do things that are doable for me right now. As it stands now, when I get home from work, I am exhausted. Specialized meal prep and so on most likely would not happen or be something I could do long term. I feel like making it through the workday is a battle in itself.

At any rate, my plan right now is to stay within my calorie budget. I know that once I drop some weight it will be easier for me to do activities. At that time, I will take up walking again. That was how I lost a hundred pounds the first time. Perhaps when I am down a hundred pounds, I will need to take up something else to continue to move forward. For now, I think this is the best plan for me. I appreciate all the encouragement I received from everyone. It is great knowing that people care. I hope that if you are someone that has recommended an exercise routine or diet to me that you understand where I was coming from. It is a blessing to have people care enough about you to want to help. I appreciate and am lucky to have people in my life that want to help me. If someone has never been massively overweight, it is difficult to fully communicate what it is like. When I lost those hundred pounds, I keep talking about I could do so much more activity and I felt like a million bucks. It will transform my life and I cannot wait to get there. Until next week my friends. Goodbye.