Everybody Wants To See Less of Me

Like so many people, I've been struggling with weight loss for years and years. Two different times in my life, I have lost significant weight (60 lbs and 90 lbs). It was just last year that I lost the 90 lbs.

Clearly, I can loose weight – and it turns out, I'm pretty good at it. Just the fact that I've done it twice and am now starting a blog about doing it again, tells you that I am NOT very good at keeping it off. So, while I can't promise any insight into keeping weight off (other than don't think of this as a diet but a lifestyle and never stop doing it – that's the part that gets me every time), I can promise to give some insight into losing weight and, maybe together, we can keep each other motivated!

Today, Tuesday, September 1, 2009, I am joining with a group that looks like it will shape up to be about 15-20 people for a friendly weight loss competition. For the next 12 weeks (until Mon, November 23rd) we will all be losing as much weight as we can. While we do it, we'll be helping each other (and ourselves) out by earning points by sharing tips with the group. We also earn points based on weight loss and exercising for 30 minutes a day.

I'll be giving updates on all three aspects of the competition as well as my personal progress. Which brings me to my first tip. Don't just hold yourself accountable, make your venture public so (at the very least) you will feel like you are accountable to others. It is so easy to “fudge” if you are the only one who knows what's going on. So, make your weight loss commitment public. For me, I think that includes getting over the public humiliation of sharing THE NUMBER. If you are overweight or significantly overweight you completely know what THE NUMBER is. You've been hiding from everyone – probably even yourself.

In January, Jeanette and I bought a house. I started in on a major remodel of the kitchen and we both began planning for our April wedding. Well, THE NUMBER was the last thing on my mind. Until then, I had been obsessive about it. Over the course of a year, I had gone from 310 lbs to 220 and was looking forward to dipping below 200! In January, I stopped and not-so-surprisingly the number started going up (or so I assume) because my pants size certainly was. I say “I assume” because I was so embarrassed that I didn't want to know the number and I started hiding it from myself by not getting on a scale – at all – since January....until today.

Step one: Weight-in and make your venture public. OK, here it goes – 275.

(Sub-200 here I come!)