On a positive note, as of waking this morning, the teller of truth, my sometimes adored (recently very much adored) and often times demonic, scale reports a current loss of 146.6 pounds. With that “official” weigh in, my current weight now stands at 228.4lbs. February’s starting weight was 375. I have lost the holiday weight gain, which I discussed in a video yesterday but didn’t mention the numbers — so here it goes: I didn’t get on, what I knew would be the demonic scale until Sunday, and what was reported was a disheartening 241.4lbs. Not only was I back to being well into the 230s, but I crept back into the 240s. The emotions at the time were mixed — anger, sadness, disgust and for one brief moment, desperate hopelessness. I took a step back and had to remember; that as someone who is a relatively low carb eater, this was to be expected. All of the carbs I consumed, which had started Wednesday night with fantastic pizza from Cebula’s, and continued with traditional Thanksgiving carbohydrate loaded sides, to many, many, many slices of homemade apple, chocolate, pumpkin and lemon meringue pies, which didn’t completely conclude until Monday night, caused a huge release of insulin, which in turn caused retention of sodium, which of course as many who are afflicted with hypertension know, water follows that sodium and collects in the the tissues of the human body. The chiropractor and educator understood all that — the person battling obesity was upset and emotionally crushed. Yet, most disturbing, and frightening, was how easily I slid back into a gluttonous and slothful pattern, I had stopped exercising as well. What was worse, was how many days it took me to regain control. On Monday night, as I was consuming the last of the pumpkin pie, I thought for sure that I was done being in control of food, and once again, food was to be in control of me. Thankfully, I had my accountability buddy and coworkers, Annie and Racquel, to support and help get me on track. On that Monday, I went out for a walk during lunch and by the end of the week I was back to jogging, walking and doing some weight training. The fluid retention started to disappear and the scale began a rather rapid descent through the 230s and today landing 1.3 pounds less than the Saturday prior to the Thanksgiving Holiday.
With all that has been going on during this pandemic, we can get lost in what we no longer have, or what we can no longer do. However, it is now that I
realize just how grateful I am for what I do have, and for those whom I have in my life. To everyone on social media, my blog, Racquel and Annie at work, my colleague Doc Malcolm Conway, and my accountability buddy on Facebook, thank you all for your words of support and
encouragement. I know for a fact, that during these most difficult times, which have been greatly compounded by other forces, without your positive comments pushing me forward, the results would not be what they are. Perhaps during times of adversity, the best we can do for ourselves, and others, is to “take the hits, keep moving forward” and most importantly, smile.