SUCCESS!!! SUCCESS!!! SUCCESS!!!

It’s always great when you reach a goal. Today, I did it.

But first, a little catch up.

I haven’t blogged lately because of my horrific schedule. I’ve been teaching classes and I’ve also had a number of writing assignments that have been keeping me up for long hours. So here are three weeks in brief.

My current short term goal is 250 pounds. By August 10 I was hovering at 252 pounds and I stayed there for two weeks. This is frustrating, but common in weight loss. Your body weight drops to a certain level and doesn’t seem to budge, no matter what you do. Well, the experts tell us our bodies have adapted to what we’ve been doing to it.

There are two ways to break this impasse. One is time: if you are exercising and eating properly according to your weight-loss goals, then after a few weeks the weight will again begin to go away. The second is to do something to break the impasse, usually some big increase, temporarily at least, of exercise to charge up the body’s metabolism.

I chose a more difficult, third way. Well, I didn’t “choose” it. It just happened.

One thing I try to do with my weight-loss program is to be sensible in my exercise and eat using healthy principals, but I am also unwilling not to enjoy myself. I refuse to “punish” or “deprive” myself. To me, that means I am willing to occasionally “stray” just so long as I don’t get myself down. One mistake so many dieters make is if they “go off the wagon” and eat something they shouldn’t. Then they become depressed and get full of self-loathing because of their “failure.” Then they abandon their plan and soon they are gaining weight again.

Well, I know I’m not perfect and I WILL sometimes do something stupid. I’ve just come to the decision that I won’t feel guilty about it and I’ll work harder next time.

So I was all the way down to 252 pounds, only two pounds from my short term goal. But my wife and I were going on an all-inclusive tour to Cartegeana in Colombia. The all-inclusive means that everything, drinks, alcohol, food, snacks, everything is included. Well, some might have tried to keep their diets while on a trip like that. But that option won’t work for me. So I decided to give myself permission to break from my diet and exercise for a week so I could enjoy the trip.

I did promise myself that when there were different options to eat, I would chose the more healthy options. I just wouldn’t stress about it if it was a problem. And I didn’t stress over it. Sometimes I ate very healthily but sometimes I didn’t. There were some chances to exercise, including one memorably brilliant time doing aerobics on the beach at Santa Marta, sweating to some fine salsa music. But I did not exercise near as much as I do normally. So, while I was gone on the trip I gained five pounds.

And I didn’t feel guilty.

But, of course, I was now at 257 pounds, seven pounds from my goal. I had backtracked. But instead of getting discouraged I told myself I now had more work to do.

So back to a healthy, everyday diet. Back to exercising. And between the little break and then my renewed vigor at the gym I am now standing at 250 pounds. I’ve dropped 53 pounds since I started, in a healthy manner free of injury. I’ve attained my short term goal and I’m well on my way to reaching my long term goal of 200 pounds.

Next up, I’m going to continue what I’m doing for right now as far diet and exercise. But I’m going to establish new short term weight-loss goals and develop a plan to take me there.

Congratulate me on what I’ve done! And wish me luck on the future.