Over fifty pounds lost!

It's been a life changing seven weeks. Yes, I'm still heavy- some 90 pounds to be lost to get to my goal weight, 60 pounds to get to my law school weight and maybe twenty pounds to get to my married weight- but I've erased some eight years of weight gain in less than two months!

So how do I feel? Like grabbing a double cheese burger and celebrating! Sorry... old habits die hard, I guess. Overall, it's gratifying to receive compliments on pretty much a daily basis and I'm thrilled with the weight loss so far. Still, I feel impatient to reach the weight where I can, say, go to the beach without feeling self conscious..without fearing that someone will try to throw this whale back in the water! I think I'm maybe another fifty pounds away from that.

My Optifast weight loss group has gotten smaller. On Thursday, there were only six of us. It's small enough that maybe I'll take the liberty to describe the people remaining in the next few posts. There is an IT guy, I'll call him Jake. He's twenty pounds away from reaching his goal weight and has an attitude that I appreciate towards food encounters. He deliberately puts himself in situations where he's around food, to improve his willpower at resisting junk food. I don't go this far, but I don't avoid parties where there will be food. Last night, I went to a birthday party with plates of chili nachos. It's getting easier to resist.

In group we talked about our families and the ties that they may have on our weight gain. For many people, being obese starts in habits that they develop as children. For me, I can't really blame my parents for any part of this. I was among the luckiest of children- born into a loving and supportive family. The weight gain that I later had in my thirties was completely my fault- my family consistently talked to me about my weight gain and offered advice. I remember being cajoled on to a scale when I weighted 265. For a while, my brother Carlos would even pick me up to take me to the gym.

So why did I gain weight? Stress of being a lawyer? Metabolic changes as a result of my cancer? Married life? I'm leaning towards seeing my eating as a way to cope with stress. Next step, I'm looking into doing some stress reduction via meditation. So, if you see a Kung Fu Panda of a guy stretching out on a yoga mat...

Eight and a half pounds lost this week.

Week 1- 5/8/14 334.5 16.5 318
Week 2- 5/15/14 318.0 6.9 311.1
Week 3- 5/22/14 311.0 5.1 306
Week 4- 5/29/14 306 6.0 300
Week 5- 6/5/14 300 4.5 295.5
Week 6- 6/12/14 295.5 3.0 292.5
Week 7- 6/19/14 292.5 8.5 283