Weight loss really is one of the greatest battles a person can fight.

I’ve been in a bit of a slump for about a month; I hadn’t been noticeably regaining the weight, but I wasn’t losing any either. A couple days ago I knew I had to get back on track (I’ve got a beach trip coming up) so I’ve been pushing against my habits pretty hard. I try to keep my daily consumption consistent so, when I weigh myself every morning, I get a more reliable picture of where I stand. Now, as an aside, let me tell you I’m an old gamer and I love trading card games to exercise my mind. I always play how I want, but I also play to win. Tying that back into the theme: Every pound I lose feels so much more like a victory than any win I pick up at the card tournament. I step off that scale after a good showing and it feels like I just made it into the finals of the World Cup. I come down off that scale beating my chest and pumping myself up for the next match. That match begins when I start contemplating what I want for lunch and ends when I get on the scale the next morning.

That being said, weight loss isn’t hard. Ah, well let me explain. It’s not any kind of physical or intellectual feat. Weight loss isn’t hard in the way that gymnastics or chess is. While those pursuits require strength, intelligence and stamina, weight loss only requires will, which is to say, anyone can do it. Remember, it’s a battle of you against yourself, your will against your habits. Now, I’m aware that there are people out there with special conditions such as hypothyroidism in which case they must confer with their doctor on a weight loss plan.

If you’re curious about my technique, I basically just skip dinner. I try to keep myself to one large meal a day, usually lunch, and not eat for the rest of the day. There are exceptions of course, if I feel particularly hungry later in the day I’ll sate myself with a piece of fruit. If I know I’ll be going out for dinner with my parents that night, I’ll have a lighter lunch and choose a very light dinner option. I get my daily exercise at work and my reasoning is that if I work an afternoon shift, say 12:30 to 5:30, I’ll have lunch before I go so I have sufficient energy but after I get home I generally won’t have anything more to do that day so why take in more calories for nothing? I also have a workout regimen I do every night before I go to bed. I have a naturally large frame but was disappointed not having any muscles to go with it so I starting lifting a bit. It takes me about twenty minutes to complete and it’s not very strenuous, just something I wanted to do for myself.

Well I think I’ve rambled on enough so I’ll close with this. When I graduated high school I weighed 280 pounds, and every couple years I made it a point to lose some weight in the same manner. I went from 280 to 250 to 220 to 190 and I’m currently closing in on 180 and aiming for my final goal of 160, nestled right in the middle of the suggested weight range for my height. You know, that gives me an idea; for those of you who like visual aids, make a line graph of your progress to put on the wall so you have a physical representation of your fight. I hope sharing my experience can empower someone else out there, and to you and everyone else who’s fighting against their weight I say: Stay strong and don’t give an inch. Draw that line in the sand and stay away from it.

God bless.