My Own 600-Pound Life

If you come to think about weight loss, I would imagine around 97% of people don't have a physical problem with losing weight loss.  What I mean is that most of us can actually lose weight if we stick to a reasonable diet that is less than what we are currently consuming.  If it is possible to lose weight without the assistance of surgery, diet pills or something along those lines, why do, according to the American Obesity Association, 95% of people fail at diets?

I believe it all comes down to attitude.  Like Tweety to the left, we sometimes have bad attitudes about weight loss.  Most of us who are overweight are there because we like food.  I realize that some are overweight because of a physical limitation, but most of us are here simply because we like food.  When we think about dieting, we think of it as our enemy.  Even a lot of "diets" have started to call it a "lifestyle change."  While they are correct that the new eating habits are a lifestyle change, it's still a diet.  Let's face it, folks - after I get to my goal weight and can gauge how much food I'm supposed to be eating to maintain a healthy weight, I'm not going to be counting my Points any more.

So what if we just try to change our attitude a little?  What if we said, you know, this is an OK thing to be doing - this diet.  Also, we need to change our attitude at the scale.  You see, with me having to lose approximately 400 pounds, little losses for me right now don't make me very happy.  After coming off a week of a 15 pound loss and then a 6.6 pound loss, I only lost 3.2 this past week despite being "perfect" on program.  That simply was a bad attitude.  I lost 3.2 pounds.  I know some people who wished they could lose 3.2 pounds in a week!  Besides that, even at 3.2 pounds, it would only take slightly over 2 years to lose the weight when I've gained the weight over a couse of 29 years!

So, as you are on your diet or lifestyle change, try and remember that it's all about attitude.  Don't succumb to the bad thoughts and attitudes that tell you this is horrible or that you aren't losing enough.  You are doing this to get healthy and there are changes that are occuring every day in your body as you follow a healthier diet.  Be proud of what you have done and move forward with your head held high!

So things have been crazy around me.  Between life, weight loss, work and emotions, everything seems to be stretching me a little thin.  I just went to the doctor yesterday and was put on a medicine that will hopefully help with some of the problems, but after I did that, I found out that the weight loss supplement I was hoping to be put on may have some serioud interactions and I may not be able to take the medicine!  I have to stay on the medicine that was prescribed to me yesterday, so the weight loss supplement will be the one to take the fall if I have to chose one over the other.

This has all put me into a blur of life right now.  Everything seems to be happening and I'm actively participating in it all, but I don't know if any of it is making sense right now.  I feel like I'm just going through the motions and trying to keep all parts of my life in balance.  Now, don't get me wrong - I've made the choices I've made and they are mine to deal with.  It's just it seems a little stressful at some points.

My whole point in mentioning this is, in the middle of it all, I still have to watch my weight loss journey.  I'm doing good - another 6.6 pounds down this week, which brings me to 22.2.  I'm not disappointed with it at all, but I think my point here is that we just have to keep on with our weight loss journeys.  No matter what is going on around us - we have to keep ourselves moving towards being a lower weight and healthier.  I've had so much problem with this in the past.  When things get hard, you want to stop your weight loss journey because, if you're like me, you used to cling to food for comfort.  It is almost like a "friend".  We each have to learn how to deal with those things and keep strong on our programs or we will never get to our goals.

If I run the numbers, I've almost lost 6% of the total amount I have to lose.  That's amazing for two weeks.  But if I had stopped and decided that I need that comfort in my life via my tummy, I might be back up a few pounds.  Just keep on moving towards the goal.  It may be hard, it may not be fun, but we aren't doing this for fun.  We are doing this because we have gotten to a place in our lives where we realize that being the size we are is not worth it and we have to do something about that.

Stay strong.  Stay vigilant.  You can do this.

So I've never really been a patient man and without patience, persistence can be more difficult than you would think.  As is how it happened today.  I woke up this morning and tried to weigh myself and the scales wouldn't register me.  The one kept going over limit and I couldn't get a firm weight to stick.  I cannot even tell you how bummed I was.  I had worked super hard this last week to make it a perfect week on program and I had succeeded, but now I couldn't use the one measure of success that I count most dearest to me to measure that success.  I think I literally sulked all morning and most of the afternoon.

Then I thought of an idea - well, Weight Watchers has to have people that have been my size in the past.  I wonder if they have scales that will go to my weight.  I'm an online member right now, so I call member services and ask them and they say that some of the "branded" sites (the ones that are specific Weight Watcher corporate sites) do have the higher weight scales, but not all of them.  They couldn't tell for sure and since the sites don't have any phones at the locations, they couldn't call to see if they really did have what I needed.  Still, I was pumped.  The one nearest to my location was open until 7 that night.  Could I possibly get weighed and be able to know what I actually lost this week?  Could it possibly happen?

Well, as soon as I got off work, my wife and I drove to the location.  And then I sat there.  It finally came to my realization that even fat people aren't as fat as I am right now.  Well, at least most of them aren't.  To walk in and ask if they could weigh me was more than just asking a favor - it was asking them to guess my weight or me have to tell them.  After about 20 minutes of encouragement from my wife, we walked in there together and I went to the lady and asked if she had the higher weight scales.

To my dismay, she wasn't sure, but she said, "Go ahead, step on up here."  So I did, but I was scared to death.  What if I broke the scale?  What if it went to capacity?  I was in a weight loss place, but it wasn't full of people my size.  I stepped on the scale and low and behold, it held me quite nicely and showed the number - 583.4.  I was ecstatic.  Not only did it show a 10 pound loss without counting in the other factors, but it was able to weigh me!  When I got home, I adjusted my weight for the new scale (adding pounds for clothes and also weighing after 2 meals instead of in the morning) and calculated my overall loss for my first week at 15.6 pounds.  Holy crap!

My point here is don't give up.  I wanted to.  I didn't want to take these extra steps just to verify that I had done a good job!  But I took the time, the energy and the willpower to do it.  It took patience to find the place and figure out how to weigh myself and it took persistence to keep myself moving in that direction.

We all are on a journey and we all will get there at different paces.  For example, my wife lost 7 pounds this week, which for her body weight is proportionally more than what I lost this week.  She did great!  That just goes to show that we all can do this.  We just need patience, persistence and a little positive support along the way.  Find your support and you might find that the patience and persistence just fall into place.  Don't give up - there is a reason you made the step to weigh less and get healthy.  Remember that reason and keep on!