Discussion Board

It is time to start a new journal. There is nothing wrong with the old journal, but it is now about 50 pages long. That is a lot to wade through for people who haven't been following along. It is a good read, and anyone who wishes to get some background on where I started from is encouraged to read it. You can find it at: A Journey Home

This is an appropriate place to start a new journal because in so many ways I feel like I'm at a new beginning. I have reached a weight that is low enough that most people in my life think I've "arrived" and that to push on would be overkill. And everyone else would still be quite pleased if I stopped where I was at.

This is an appropriate place to start a new journal because I really am starting a new leg of my journey. I admit, and have admitted from Day One that for the most part my weight loss has come quite easily. A cost/benefit analysis clearly showed that for little effort I reaped huge rewards. Many others struggle from the start. For those, it would be understandable if they held some resentment for the ease at which I made such great progress. To those I say your day has come! A current cost/benefit analysis shows me that from here on in there will be much more work involved for much less reward. I only have another 30-40 more pounds to go. A good portion of that I may not ever lose without skin reduction surgery. I am now one of you! I'll be working just as hard for every pound as any of you. I'm no longer a massive man shedding massive pounds effortlessly! I'm just an overweight guy struggling to finish what I started.

This is an appropriate place to start a new journal because I am starting over, both with diet, and exercise.

Exercise: Hernia surgery has left me weak and although I've been building up how far I can walk, I've not been doing any other exercise. I will be starting over soon with my yoga, and hope to be back to bike riding soon too.
Diet: I've been struggling with comfort foods. Chocolate. Dried fruit. Flour products. And high volumes of food in general. I've not struggled this hard with these issues at any point up to now. This truly is a new beginning.

Follow along with me on the next leg of my Journey Home!

-Norm

Norm,

I will be following.

Congratulations on reaching this next stage of your journey.

Feels a bit like the old video games I played as a child in the early eighties ... you'll never appreciate and enjoy the next level till you work your way through the previous one.

Thank You for the old journal and I look forward as you take on through the next one.

All the best,
John

It took me quite a while but I finally got my weight-graph and charts updated and current. A bit of background... I have a spiffy little set of perl scripts that take my daily weight and calculates my average weight for the past 10/20/30 days, then spits out a neat graph. Very simple, all I have to do is enter in my daily weight. But if I do not add my weight in on a particular day it throws everything out of whack. And when I went in for surgery there was a couple days I did not weigh myself. I kept track of my daily weight since then but could not enter them into my little scripts because I have to edit some files manually, run some scripts, and edit the files again, for each day I didn't enter my weight in. Because I let it go so long I ended up having to edit those files dozens of times.

It's all done! Weight shown on my graph and ticker here, as well as the weight graph on my blog, is the Ten Day Average for April 7th, which should have been my normal weigh-in day. For that reason alone it's a good reference point, but it's also near the peak of my recent weight spike, so that is another good reference point. My Ten Day Average actually peaked April 8th at 217.0 pounds. Fortunately it's now headed back in the right direction.



I'll post some recent pics soon, since this is the start of a "new" journal.

-Norm

Oh, one obsersvation I made comparing the data... given my recent weight spike I have pushed back the date I project I'll reach my target weight by at least 2 months... Even though I'm headed back in the right direction I think it'll be a bit yet before I'm back up to full speed, so my best guess is I'll now reach my target weight 3 months later than originally "planned".

Oh well. Better late than never, eh?

-Norm

Set backs are part of life, it's how you respond to them that counts. Sounds like you have the recipe for long term success. I look forward to your updates. You inspire me to do better.

Norm,

Hang in there we are all rooting for you!

Set backs are a part of life it's what you learn and how you handle them that counts and you have that covered!

Good luck and keep the posts coming!

Pudgypumpkin

Was just browsing your blog and saw your Then and Now picture. Wow! You look 20 years younger now. You are truly an inspiration to all of us Norm!!!!

I liked your photo on the first post of your other journal. It was a great starting point.

I can relate to what you said:

I am sure many are afraid you will lose too much weight. Reading your journal has been very helpful to me and I always look forward to your new posts.

Hey Norm! Your journey has been nothing but miraculous!The weight-loss and consistency of effort given how long you've maintained this lifestyle is amazing and very impressive.

I wouldn't look at your recent bump in the road as a set back at all. You've put your body through some extreme stress with the surgery so it needs time to heal itself properly. Your refocus on your goals and new journal are definitely the right thing to do. You may find that the going gets a little tougher and slower as you get to that goal but don't worry about it, its not a race. You will get there! Just keep applying what you've learned over the past years, keep refocusing on your goal and most important, relax Good things take time and you have plenty of it.

BTW, I would expect to see you as the next Star McDougaller before years end No pressure eh!

I love starches! I remember times in the past, when making soups or stews, that I had to limit the starches I put in the pot because as any Western Conscious dieter (wrongly) knows, starches are the enemy! I could put potatoes in the pot. Or noodles. Or rice. But I sure couldn't put more than one of those, and all three was just a dream. If I limited the amount of potato, rice, or noodles I added I could put in a little bit of corn... but not too much!

I am glad those days are gone! Today one of my favorite meals is to just put lots of starch in a pot and cook it up! First I put water in the pot... then I add in a bit of rice since it takes the longest to cook... then as the pot heats up and comes to a boil I add in other things... butternut squash, potatoes, cauliflour, any and all veggies I feel like.

Then, when it's all cooked, rather than discard the water used to cook it all in I'll add in some mash potato flakes to thicken it all up to a nice consistency. Sometimes I'll mash up all the other ingredients first so the whole thing comes out like some freak twist on mashed potatoes.

Then I'll add in any frozen corn or peas that I feel like adding that particular day. I never like to cook frozen corn or peas long, prefer them just as they are, and they warm up very quickly in that hot pot of deliciousness, plus help cool it off so I can have a bowl of it quickly!

To think.... All those years I believed I couldn't restrict my diet enough to live with a healthy diet.... yet I was restricting myself from wholesome health giving starches that whole time... and now I can enjoy them to my hearts content! I find some twisted humor in all of that!

-----------------------------------

Sunday was my normal two-week weigh-in. I posted a rather lengthy blog post about it which I wont bore you all with here, not when it can be summed up quickly with the following chart depicting my 1/10/20/30 day weight averages for the past 90 days.



If you want to read the entire blog post that goes with that graph, it's on my blog Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy

Happy Eating!

-Norm

Yum, potatoes and corn.... my favorite food! I often do those kaleidoscope mashed potato pots. The more color the merrier!

rainbow bowl!

red potatoes, squash or sweet tatties, sliced green onion, red bell pepper, berries, mushrooms, purple cabbage?, mixed vegs...all in a bowl together. YUM!

Norm, your journey has been very inspiring.

I want you to know that this advice that you gave in Morphine's journal has really helped me:



I did that 3 weeks ago when I started, and it has worked for me. Thanks!

Thank you!

Again, thank you! That is advice I give people who can't get over all hurdles at once, which I think is most people.

-Norm