Week 1 - New Beginnings

Today is my first re-posting on this blog.  In the beginning of 2012 (as can be seen in this blog) I began a journey that was to change my life, and for a time it did.  I weighed over 300 pounds and at one point I actually made it all the way down to 247.  I was feeling and looking healthy and great.  I went away on vacation that summer and fell off the wagon completely.

Mind you prior to 2012 I ate very poorly in every meal and every day which caused my gain in the first place however between the summer of 2012 and now, I've been in some sort of different place where I sort of eat healthy for a few days and then mess it all up with a bad weekend of bad habits.  This new struggle is even worse than the first attempt at weight loss because not only am I back to over 300 pounds, I'm not even eating the delectable junk food that I like 100% of the time.  For 3 and a half years I've been fooling myself and on my 43rd birthday in December, 2015 I finally said enough.

This blog reminded me of HOW I lost over 60 pounds and how I could have kept going back in 2012 and so, I have decided to start again.  I began Monday, January 4th with a weight of 307.8 pounds and a new resolve to get to my healthy weight however long that takes.  Now today, I am 1 week in and 2016 IS my year to get it right.

WEEK 1  |  January 11, 2016  |  Weight: 299.5 lbs  |  Loss of 8.3 lbs

My first week wasn't that tough simply because I was full of resolve.  I used to smoke and remember trying to quit so many times, right after I finished smoking one.  It's always easy to say you're going to stop doing something when you've just finished having it.  The real challenges are yet to come.

That said, I am still very proud of having a very successful week.  It's been the first FULL WEEK of eating right, avoiding drinking (mind you I'm not quitting, just reducing) and even getting some walks in.

Oddly enough, this week was also the same week I caught a nasty cold and spent some time in bed sick.  Did that impact my weight?  I don't know but I did my best to stick with the meal plans I had laid out for myself for the week and I did just that.

I also came to accept that much of this is water weight from the copious amounts of sodium I ate the previous week so I won't expect to lose these kinds of numbers on a regular basis.  Looking back at my blog, I see that I settled into what I would expect to be normal weight loss of a pound or two a week after the 2-3 weeks.  I hope for the same this time around.

Wish me luck.