Where I am today on my journey!

When I was writing my blog in July/August 2015, I had lost about 115 lbs. total by then which is what I wrote about.  By the time I clicked "publish," I had lost another 7 lbs., but no sooner did my blog go online than the universe started messing with me and I gained weight.  It took several weeks of struggling before I could get those pounds off again and could continue on my weight-loss path.

My entire journey has been fraught with setbacks, injuries, medical issues, binging episodes caused by emotional issues, and plateaus.  Most of my plateaus usually last a few weeks but the worst lasted about 16 months!  Losing weight has been basically a pattern of one step forward, two steps back, three steps forward, one step back.  It's been a frustrating, awful, annoying, slow, and yet wonderful journey.  When I see success despite all of these setbacks/issues, it is a sweet victory indeed.   The key has been to keep going and not give up no matter what.  Somehow I managed to continue getting up and trying again and again until I kept succeeding, despite the fact that many times it was painfully slow to get there.

My weight loss has slowed down considerably these last few months.  Whereas during most of 2015 I was averaging a weight loss of 7 - 10 lbs. a month, since late 2015 I've been averaging maybe 0 - 4 lbs. a month, if I was lucky.  Regardless of what the scale says, my body continues to shrink.  It's because of muscle build-up (since muscle weighs more) so the scale doesn't always truly reflect my actual success.  But I can see the "shrinkage" in the mirror and in how my clothes fit especially.  Plus every few months my trainer takes my measurements and has me use a gizmo that shows my body fat percentage, all of which confirm that I am, in fact, continuing to shrink and it's not my imagination.

So this is where I am as of today, April 15, 2016:

·         I'm 55 years old, but I feel 20 years younger.  I was in a self-imposed "coma" for way too many years because of my morbid obesity so that now, when my weight is no longer an issue, I've reverted back to living life.

·         I weigh 168 lbs. which means I've lost a total of 138 lbs. so far, down from my heaviest weight ever at 306 lbs.  

·         My body is 45.2% smaller now than it was just a little over three years ago.  

·         I went from wearing pants in 24/26 sizes to my present 12 size jeans.  

·         My shirts are no longer 3XL/4XL, they are now medium (small depending on the cut of the shirt).

·         My Body Mass Index ("BMI") was 43.9 (morbidly obese) and now it's 24.5 (normal).

·         My body fat was 51% and now it's 28.8%.

As I've said many times throughout my blog, today I'm an entirely different person, inside and out, than the old me just a little over 3 years ago.  Everything has changed, not just my body size.  Every aspect of my existence has improved:  spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, outlook, energy, physical ability, life goals, etc.  The list is endless!  More importantly, I have a future now whereas before I was just waiting for death because I was so miserable and had no energy or desire to change anything.  My only regret is that I didn't undertake this journey years ago before I reached the morbid obese category.  But that's okay.  I wasn't ready until now.

I've used one word in particular throughout my blog to describe what losing the weight has been like and that word is:  intoxicating!