Here we go again.
I hate to admit it, but one of the defining things in my life has been weight loss, but I’m pretty sure that I have lost more than 500 pounds in my life, despite being a skinny kid. I think I was 22 the first time my weight topped 200, and I was 61 the last time it was under 200.
As for that 500 figure, I lost that much weight despite never weighing more than 284 (in 2010).
I don’t know if it was ever easy to get into shape, but I remember the easiest time. I was 21 the first time my weight got above 170. I was surprised to see I had slipped to 188, so I started playing an hour or two of basketball every afternoon. Eighteen pounds gone, just like that.
Then there was the involuntary diet in 1974. I weighed around 185 and got tonsillitis. I dropped 20 pounds in two weeks.
It got more difficult after that, but I always managed to lose what I needed to lose. The problem was keeping it off.
My last success was in 2010, when I combined diet and exercise to lose 116 pounds.
I weighed 168 at age 60 and I promised myself I would never have to go through this again. I was doing a good job, too. I was walking six miles every morning and eating reasonably.
I even kept it up for a while after we moved to Georgia that November. I extended my walks to as long as 10 miles some days.
Then I injured my foot and couldn’t exercise for a while. If there’s one thing that has pretty much always been true it’s that my weight loss has a lot of trouble surviving adversity, and in 2011 all of a sudden my wife was having serious health problems. My weight started going up and down — mostly up — and exercising became sporadic.
To make a long story a little less long, arthritis hit me hard and it became nearly impossible to exercise. At 71, when I walk it’s with a cane, and when I go to the supermarket I ride one of those little carts at least half the time.
I haven’t played a full round of golf in nearly four years, although I’m trying to get back into that.
If I’m going to do anything, I’ve got to lose weight again. As you can see from the first picture, I bought a really good exercise bike. It arrived yesterday and I’ll start using it today. I’m looking forward to trying some of the programs it provides.
I’m walking some too. It hurts, and I’m only up to half a mile or so, but I’m making progress.
As far as the other part of it, Nicole talked me into doing Noom, and I have been very impressed by it. Recording calories and exercise and weighing myself every day appeals to my personality. I’m also benefitting from the lessons.
I’m a week into it and I’ve lost nine pounds.
Still a long way to go, but I’ll get there. Once I do, that’s when it becomes really tough.
Keeping it off.