45 pounds
In January of 2004, I decided that I was going to
lose weight. I
made a
resolution, and recorded it in my
Treo on
January 13,
2004. The description I provided was this:
Lose weight with hacker's diet.
Starting weight: 231
Goal weight: 180
I have all kinds resolutions in my Palm, although, most of them don't
have a definitive
goal. Essentially, things like "don't put
things off until later" and "take responsibility". I've always
been a goal oriented, list-making kind of guy. Although, what
I've learned about myself is that I tend to make the list and then
forget about the items on it. Afterall, taking the time to
accomplish the tasks on a list only takes away from time that could be
devoted to making new lists.
It is August now, and I weigh 186 pounds. It may not be in my
best interest to lose any more weight, since I
arbitrarily picked a number
that a chart said was good for my
height.
I'll chat with my doctor to see what she thinks, but I have always been
a larger framed person and suspect that I am probably at a good
weight. I started by reading the entire contents of The
Hacker's Diet online,
downloading the Excel spreadsheets and picking an arbitrary caloric
value that was 500 less than an estimate of what I would need to eat
per day to maintain that weight. (It ended up being closer to
1600 calories less than what I needed, according to my charts; it is
easy to not notice how much you are really eating when you aren't
paying attention.)
So, what was the trick? Why was I able to succeed with
this
resolution but not with others? This had not been my first
attempt to lose weight. What was different this time?
Although I have declared my diet officially a success, I knew before
I lost my first pound that I would accomplish my goal. The keys
were:
- A devotion to my weightloss
- The knowledge I needed to create and follow a plan
- The tools I needed to to measure my results.
Reading the Hacker's Diet gave me the knowledge I needed, and also
provided the Excel sheets for tracking calories and charting
weights. But, the mystery is, where did my devotion come
from? Really, I cannot be certain. I think it may have been
that I was officially obese for too long and was simply tired of
it. Once I intellectually understood exactly how to lose
weight, and knowing that all I had to do was keep track of what I was
eating to do it, it became less of an effort and almost automatic.
For a long time, I was under the impression that people couldn't
change, not really. Sure, they could start something, and maybe
be with it
for awhile, but they would eventually end up back where they
started.
Now, I know that is not exactly true. Instead, I now believe that
change can be very difficult, takes time, and requires a good
reason. If you aren't convinced by your reason, save yourself
some time and give up now.