45lbs later...

So here we are in April 2016. At my lowest I lost about 47-48lbs, but I've since gained about 5lbs back owing to a disastrously amazing vacation.  But do not fear, I aim to lose the 5lbs (and more), to hit the magic "minus 50lbs" number before my next amazingly disastrous vacation in May.    

One year, 10 months and 40 lbs later...

So I did lose 40lbs after all, it just took me almost twice as long as I planned.

As with most things in life, this achievement is anti-climactic.  For some reason I thought that if I lost the weight, I would transform into Megan Fox, like I was this beauty disguised as a fat person.

Nope, still me.

My current short term goal is to lose another 5lbs before my high school reunion in January 2016.

At 6 weeks away, this would have been an easy task, except the three weeks leading up to the homecoming are the holidays.  Just maintaining my current weight will be a challenge.

30 lbs later

Yay for me!

I've lost so much mass that I'm at the point where my skinny clothes are getting loose.

Now the goal is to hit minus 40 by my birthday in January (which would be equivalent to me losing 40 lbs in 2 years). 

Not bad, methinks.

26 pounds later...

Weight loss has gone frighteningly well over the last 15 months.  The plan is to lose 30 lbs before I spend the summer in Manila (and to keep it off while I'm home).  The second prong of this plan is much harder than the first.

1 year and 20lbs later....

So I didn't lose 20lbs by December.  I lost 19.  Which was great for about 2 seconds.

Then there were the holidays. A couple weeks later I celebrated a milestone birthday and then I went to a destination wedding.  Long story short, I gained back 6lbs.

And only now have I lost 7lbs so finally, after 2.5 LONG months, I have finally lost 20lbs.

It took a f*cking year to lose 20lbs.  

9 months later

I've lost about 15lbs now.  At this rate I'll lose 20 by Christmas.  So not bad.  With any luck I will have accomplished half of my goal, the rest in 2015.

Veegee.

8 months later...

I've lost 10 pounds.  Ordinarily, this would be great news.  But the goal is 40 and I'm less than 2.5 months away.  At this point I'm shooting for 15, and hope to lose the rest during my 40th year.

It’s about the narrator, dummy.

We have all heard them before: the stories our parents tell us about ourselves when we were younger. The same stories over and over again.  Moments we remember through memories other than our own.

“You used to cry when you saw the mountains.  You said the trees were tall and scary.”

“You would open all the cabinet doors.  You would close all the cabinet doors.  You were the cabinet Nazi.”

I would always wonder why they would laugh each time they recalled the silliness.  What is so nostalgic about a kid who fixates over cabinets?

35 years later I figured it out.

The stories were never about me. They were about themselves, as they saw the world a lifetime ago.

“You were adorable.”

Two Weeks In

So I've been at this lifestyle-change of a diet for a couple of weeks now.  And I've lost about two and a half pounds.  By lifestyle-change I mean:

• No alcohol 4-5 days a week
• Walking more
• Salads for lunch
• Stretching before I sleep

I guess you would say "I am on track" two weeks into this experiment. 

Day 3: By the numbers

I just did the math.  If I have 330 days (well 328 now) to lose 40 pounds, I need to lose 1 pound every 8.25 days.  That's one 1 pound a week.

I can do that.