Released Over 22 Pounds In 29 Days!

Facebook friends are nice to have, especially when you develop the relationship by connecting in person or on the phone. Yesterday I finally got to talk to Valerie Rene Sheppard after being connected on Facebook for a little while. She is an encouraging person with a lot of experience coaching. I would check her out if I were you.

Connecting with someone like Valerie isn't just "nice", it's productive. I commented on her Facebook profile and she reminded me that she and others are waiting to hear about my weight loss progress. If you want to find out HOW I'm doing it, you can read previous posts (not necessarily yesterday's).

Here are some facts:

-My scale read 254.0 this morning versus 276.2 when I started 29 days ago.

-I've only been hungry twice and neither of those times have rated more than a
5 out 10 on my hungriness (dictionary, please!) scale. Once was when we had
done a lot of walking with a friend at SDSU and the time between breakfast and
lunch was nearly 7 hours with only a mini-mini snack in between (3 cherries).

-I gave up coffee more than a month ago and I'm not tired!

-I conquered what I call a level two gout warning last week when we were
celebrating (too much - skip the pulled pork, pita chips and what do you call
those things...cream puffs, riiiight) with that friend and his family before
he went back to Michigan to profess about Sociology.

-I have better sleep overall except when I'm awake and excited about being
so close to a weight that I haven't seen in at least 14 years.

-My body fat read 35.1% and that's a big improvement over the 40% area I was
at when I started less than a month ago.

Woot! There it is!

Keep walking!

Sometimes You Just Gotta Walk

Here's a little bit of an update:

I did gain weight in The Bahamas. I want to stress that the walking was effective. I'm sure I gained a pound or so LESS because of all the walking. For you skeptics, that's just the way it works. Your body does physical work and it burns calories. There is no magic (except in romance). I DECIDED that I was going to eat basically what I wanted after a couple days at Atlantis. I had never been east of Florida before and I was not going to miss out. I chose to eat more and a wider variety, knowing the consequences. I had already done a little of that New Year's eve.

Regular readers may recall that earlier on New Year's eve I weighed myself and that final weigh-in for 2008 was 112.2 kilos. I started the year at 123.2 kilos and that difference of 11 kilos means that I lost 24.2 pounds. Some (females, especially) are amazed how much weight a man can gain in a short period of time. If you're really curious, email me. I am back to "being good" with what I eat and this morning I weighed in at 113.7 kilos. That is down from our arrival home Sunday night.

New readers may actually wonder, "What are you telling us all this stuff? Do you just like to hear yourself speak(/write)?" [ Let me think...MAYbe...I did once tell a mentor that I treasure my own company! ;-) ] My hope is that by seeing what is actually going on with a real person you can be encouraged that YOU can do it, too. No matter what it is for you, you can do it. (And, for 90%+ of us, walking is something we can do and it helps our bones and our brains!) Weeks or months or years from now you can revisit my blog and as long as I'm alive and coherent (some already see this as iffy) enough to post, you will see me making progress. I know you can do it. I'm DOING it in my life right now!

I want to acknowledge our creator here. (If you don't believe, you obviously have the choice to skip ahead, but please don't stop reading this blog entirely. People who care about you want you to reach your goals and be around when you're old to do things like bounce your grandniece on your knee or teach her math and science or read Where The Wild Things Are to your grandson.) In 2007 I wanted to lose weight and I barely achieved that goal. I lost 1 pound in 2007. On December 31, 2007 I asked God for help in losing weight and getting in better shape and in 2008 I lost 24.2 pounds. (Thank you.) I also want to thank you who are reading my blog. Knowing that you're out there (especially when you comment!) means that there are some people to whom I'm accountable. That helps me and it can help you, too.

Right now I'm going to do it - some walking - because no matter what else is going on, sometimes you just have to close your mouth and stop what you're doing and saying and get out there AND DO IT! And my loyal dog, Mellow, will be a little happier. Somebody said, "Just Do It!" That's what I'm going to do. Right now.


Keep walking!