Tip the Scales 2012! That’s a Wrap!

What a year it’s been!

I’ve said plenty already about what the year has meant to me.  I have fallen short of my 100-pound goal for the year, but if I knew last Christmas that I would be nearly seventy pounds lighter this time around, I think I would be pretty darn thrilled about it!

Over the past 50 weeks, I’ve seen all my health numbers improve and have nearly eliminated my medications.  I have more energy and fewer aches and a general heightened appreciation for good health.

Thank you all for your support over the past year, and I look forward to seeing what I can do in 2013, particularly leading up to my 40th birthday in May.

Now for the final results of Tip the Scales 2012!

My final weigh-in of 2012 is 245.6 pounds, a square 65 pounds below my 310.6 starting point!

I have received $1,051 in paid donations so far and anticipate receiving $2,293 after all donations pledged are paid this week.  This is a wonderful achievement made possible by the kind generosity of 27 donors, along with the prayerful support of countless others.

While I’m not done yet, Tip the Scales 2012! is technically drawing to a close this week.  That means it is time for some obligatory “Before / After” shots.  

Stay tuned over the next few days for updates, pictures, and my plans going forward.    Meantime, I hope you’ve all had a blessed Christmas day!

Peace,
Steve

Week 49 – The Final Countdown

Gained a little ground this week as I head into the final week of TS2012!

Week 48 – Say it with Me: “Grunt – Stumble, Stumble – Grunt”

As you might’ve guessed by the delayed update this week, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about posting it. But, here it goes nonetheless.

You can see, this week went the wrong direction.  Not that I was surprised. We made our first batch of Christmas candy on Saturday, and I indulged.  That evening, some friends blessed us with a wonderful “stork party” in honor of our forthcoming fifth baby, and I indulged further.

The biggest lesson from this year is probably that indulgence alone isn’t a vice; the damage comes from indulgence sustained.  It must be contained before festering again into a habit and then a lifestyle, and that’s the discipline that holds the fundamental secret to success.

Sunday, though, I felt the cold creep of that festering complacence settling upon me again. I didn’t lose control, but I didn’t snap back into form as I should have, and it took the 255.2 scales reading yesterday morning to wake me up.

So, I’ll say it again . . . NEVER AGAIN!

After reading the scales yesterday, I took a step back for a critical review of my diet and realized just how much I’ve been eating.  The beauty of the “low carb” diet is that it doesn’t leave you hungry; there are some things (fresh, lean meats, leafy greens, etc.) you can pretty much eat as much as you want.  An honest eye, however, revealed that I’d slipped into a pattern of “abusing” this benefit like some magical dieting loophole, and I’ve been eating a lot lately.  While the stuff I’ve been eating is low-carb, eating a lot of it . . . well, adds carbs. 

Duh.

Dark chocolate, for example.  Four squares of Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate yields only 14 net carbs.  But, eating a whole bar of 2.5 servings across a day yields 35 net carbs.  Funny, this addition stuff.

So, long story short (too late, I know), while I allowed the moment of common sense to soak in yesterday, I pledged to cut out carbs.  Just for the day.  One day at a time.  And what a difference that one day made.  This morning, I was back down into the 248 range.

A Note on Advent and the Home Stretch
For me, this is no normal Advent.  This time, it culminates a year long effort.  It’s interesting how when I run, I always begin to slow as I approach my target “finish line”.  I don’t know why I do that. It’s a tendency common among people, but psychologically, it’s something I want to fight against this Advent.  Tip the Scales 2012! isn’t over yet, so I pray now for the strength and will to finish strong with a new low by my final weigh-in on Christmas Eve!

Week 47: Coping with the “But . . .”

Good news and bad news: my weigh-in this week was exactly flat from last week.  And that’s both the good and bad.

From the beginning, I understood that 100 pounds was ambitious but I fully intended to hit it.  In the back of my mind, I feared that falling short – the realization that I would “fail” – would cause me to regress.

I’ll say that I have not regressed thus far, but I find myself in a lull concerning the zealous enthusiasm I’ve had for most of the year.  History shows a lull in enthusiasm being potentially deadly for progress, then morale, then success altogether.  Of course, my awareness of that is my greatest armor against a repeating history, so I’m clinging tight.

My overall goal is to get my weight below 200 pounds.  I figure that gives me a good ceiling to stay under as I learn to maintain my health and lifestyle.  Right now, I feel like I’m working with a 250-pound ceiling.  An overall perspective of my progress shows a good achievement for one year, but . . .

It’s the “but . . .” that’s bugging me.

Ten weeks ago, I dropped below 250 lbs.  At that time, I crunched all the numbers and began to accept that I would likely max out my 2012 weight loss at about 85 lbs.  Not 100 lbs, “but . . .”. 

Eight weeks ago, I hit my present weight.  In the time since, I have ranged between 242 and 249 lbs.  At the same time, October 18 each year begins a kind of Devil’s gauntlet, a streak of wonderful occasions that carry tremendous temptations, namely the birthdays of my wife, three of our children, and a couple other family members, plus Halloween and Thanksgiving thrown in for good measure.

The fact that I now find myself on the other side of that gauntlet having maintained my weight loss feels great.  “But . . .”

I think if eight weeks ago I would have known that I would have only held flat for the ensuing eight weeks, I would’ve been extremely disappointed.  Maybe even “fallen off the wagon”.   Now I find myself pleased but not satisfied, and with Christmas looming, I feel resigned to the idea that I’ve gone as far as I’m going to go in 2012.

With three weeks left, I still want to muster a last push. It would be sweet to hit 70 for the year, “but . . .”

Therefore, as we head into Advent, I want to ask you all for another boost of prayers down the home stretch of TS2012. One last boost of discipline to finish the year strong.  Many thanks, once again, for all the support you’ve given me all year!

Week 46 Update

Well, I actually made it through Turkey Day with flying colors.  Friday and Saturday, however, were abysmal from a diet perspective, as we celebrated my eldest daughter’s birthday.

This whole week was a little off kilter, so I’m hoping to get back to a routine this week.

 

Giving Thanks in 2012

Since January 4, I have lost sixty-eight pounds.  Barring some miraculous – or otherwise unhealthy – drop over the next month, I will fall well short of my 100-pound stretch goal I established at the start of the year.

Yesterday, I received my first check from a donor.  He had pledged a dollar-per-pound but sent a check for the full hundred.  I take that as a vote of confidence that I’ve done my best, given a “hundred pound effort” thus far, and will eventually realize my goal.

Such is the amazing support I’ve received over the course of 2012. From family, friends, and strangers.  Blacks, browns, and beiges.  Catholics, Protestants, and others.

Tip the Scales 2012! began with a hope to pull myself up from a despair sown by a lifetime of poor choices and, at the same time, to help pull some others up from a lifetime in true poverty.

As the vision unfolded in January and February, I quickly realized that this wasn’t about pulling myself up but giving myself for others to pull up.  Christ’s example showed that giving oneself brings healing, so I began to see TS2012! working also as a way to help my kind supporters in their own lives, simply by giving them a cause to give themselves to.

Finally, there were the truly poor.  The unwanted and unloved, in Kingston, Jamaica, and beyond.  They are pulled up everyday by Missionaries of the Poor, by Brothers who, by every measure of the world, are capable and yet give their full capabilities to those rejected by the world.  These Brothers live in poverty alongside the poor, with utmost faith that the Lord will provide for their needs.

For a God whose love provided all creation, it is easy to wonder why such poverty exists, and yet through such poverty, we see such wealth.  Prayers, workers, donors, and “lovers” all reveal a wealth beyond dollars and cents, a wealth of humanity, serving as God’s hands and feet for fellow man. In that, God lets us share in his godliness and glory in a unique way.  One of countless ways the Lord, without causing evil, uses it to incite a greater good.

For all these things – your generosity of attention and finance, the opportunity offered by the poor to teach greater love for fellow man, the faith examples of brothers and sisters who have freely given all, for God’s working in all this, and finally, for all the success I’ve had so far in finding better health – I am thankful today.

God bless you and yours this Thanksgiving! 

Most sincerely,
Steve 

 

Week 45 Update

My astute observers will note that I did not post an update last week. Christy and I did a late-night dinner and movie the night before weigh-in, and, well, we’ll call the week 44 weight “artificially inflated”. 

I did 15 miles by foot this week and ate well, so I’m pretty surprised that I’m not back down to 242 today.  So, I’m still sitting at about 67 total pounds lost.  

I ate at the Cheesecake Factory yesterday, and I was good; I ordered the roasted half chicken with green beans and broccoli . . . then bought some cheesecake to eat after my weigh-in today.  So, with cheesecake today and Thanksgiving on Thursday, I’ve got some cards stacked against me.  

At the same time, I realized this weekend that over the last three weeks, I’ve celebrated three family members’ birthdays and Halloween, while maintaining steady weight.  I guess that’s what you’d call a “moral victory”.  

Week 44 Update

Halloween was fun, but it set me back a little. Short update this week, back up 1.8 pounds over last week. Hopefully better progress to report next week.

AAARRGGHH! My belly aches!

I was able to don me olde sea captain costume last night fer the first time in many a year, but I fear it fit me a might more snug by night’s end.  Amidst the witches and their rounds, I fell hard beneath the spells of candies cursed.

I woke this mornin’ with fleeting, foggy memories of mouthfuls of peanut butter fillings and smooth chocolatey shells, but with a hankering fer but one thing: PROTEIN!  A hearty serving of bacon and eggs has me back on course, the dismal, choppy seas cast now well behind in my wake!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Week 43: BAM!!!

Great week this week! Actually matched my best single-week loss of the year this week, dropping 4.4 pounds to bring my total lost to date to 68.6 pounds.  Just 32 more pounds to go to reach my 2012 goal!

I attribute this week’s boost to a couple factors:
1)  Among the medicines I was able to reduce this week was one that my doctor said is known to cause weight gain. Go figure.
2)  I had a stomach bug on Tuesday that forced me to trade eating for napping for a day and gave me a little spark. Fortunately, it was only a 24-hour thing and I was able to maintain and even further my losses over the balance of the week.

Fingers crossed that number one above helps me this coming week, too!

Today, for Mass, I was able to wear a shirt and slacks that I’ve never been able to wear before, which felt great. I’m also down to my last hole on my second belt, and it was actually a touch loose this morning.  For a chuckle, you can click here for a funny little fashion feature made possible by my progress.

If you’d like to add your support to Tip the Scales 2012!, please email me your pledge today at tipthescales2012@gmail.com!