How my journey has been

A couple people have asked me to summerize my bumps in the road so far.

I will say that from when I started in early December until the first week of February I did a really good job of cooking stuff on my own and limiting the amount of eating out that I did.   Then we had a cruise scheduled for February 7 - 14th.  So the week right before we left on the cruise I resorted to a lot of store bought items, some veggie burgers, some frozen veggies, maybe even some take out salads, or veggie subs.   On the cruise I was lucky because there were SO many good veggie options that I was able to maintain my weight and really not over eat. Then Valentines day hit.  That is the day my Mother passed away.   So for the past 6 weeks I have been living in a fog of swirling emotions and events.

I do not think that I have had a weekday breakfast since then.   At least at lunch I have been trying to eat salads from the cafeteria, but dinners have been at restaurants, since Deb and I have needed to eat away some of the grief.   The amazing thing has been that I really do eat a LOT less food than I normally do, so even when we would go out, I would not pig out, I would order whatever the smallest meatless option was.  We have had house guest for a bunch of the time, so we have been ordering in food, or going out to let them sample the Chicago food scene (John is from here, but his wife Andrea is not, so we had to show her the good places) Lou's, portillos, Dappers....   Again, the choices I am making, while not "healthy", are still a lot healthier than I had been in the past.  Recently at work my boss has decided that he wanted to provide a "snack" drawer for his team.  This is just TOO tempting, knowing that it is less than 10 feet from my desk.

I am so glad to realize that the 2 months of being strict on my eating style has turned it in to a habit.
I have received so many compliments from you guys and the people I see on a daily or weekly basis. This really keeps me from falling off the deep and and going back to my old ways.  I am much more open to trying new foods and enjoying the new flavors and textures that I am experiencing.

I really want this to be a FOREVER way of life, so I am content with staying the same weight.  If I can go through a month where I feel that I ate AWFUL (relatively) and actually lose 5 or 6 pounds, it really helps to motivate me.

I know a lot of women are now saying "it is not fair, guys lose weight so much easier".  That may be true, but I honestly tell you that I probably used to eat around 1,600 calories a MEAL, now I am probably around that for a day.   So I have dropped a lot in terms of what I ate.  A typical person probably eats around 2,500 calories a day, and you probably should never drop below 1,500.  So if you are that person, then my results will not be the same as yours.  I am probably consuming 20,000 less calories a week, but that would take a normal person 3 weeks to do.   My old lifestyle was NOT healthy, but it would have been easy to maintain for the rest of my life, because eating that much would have guaranteed me a shorter life.

Losing my Dad when he was 66 and my Mom when she was 67 SUCKS.  Here I sit 45 and both of my parents are gone, worse yet my sisters are 43 and 32.   We don't have kids, but I don't want to think that my life is more then 2/3rds over.  I know that tomorrow is not promised to anyone, but I want to do what gives me the best odds of making it to tomorrow (and beyond).

I write this blog for a couple reason
1) Just to see that I could do it
2) To be able to go back and look at my journey
3) To inspire (hopefully) some others, if they see a MEAT LOVING FAT GUY make a change and keep it up for 4 months, maybe they can start their journey.
4) It helps me think about what I put on my plate.  Taking a picture of everything I eat, makes me stop and wonder if it is worth it.

This is not an easy path, but it also is NOT nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  There are so many  "healthy" choices out there and they actually taste good.

Again, I cannot express how overwhelmed I am when a fried of mine tells me they read this blog.  The fact that 30+ (almost 40) people seem to view this every day, is a driving force.  I do not know who it is that sees the blog, I only know the count. So I say Thank You for keeping me motivated, and hopefully I am doing something to motivate you to make a change.