Unrelated to Anything Else

Two years ago today, I read (and re-read) a couple of articles on Boing Boing and Mark Evanier's site, and had a bolt from the blue: I needed to lose weight, and I had to start NOW. Not next week, not next month, not once I've finished all the garbage in my pantry. I had to start immediately. I spent the rest of the day gathering information and tools that would help me to lose weight, and on June 10th 2006 I started tracking my eating.

And here it is, my promised visual evidence of my weight loss.

The 2005 image is from my driver's license (January). The 2006 image was taken after I'd lost about 40 pounds. The 2007 image was taken at Emerald City Comicon 2007 by Steven Saunders, after I'd lost about 70 pounds. The 2008 image was taken at Emerald City Comicon 2008 by Brad Guigar. I'd lost 110 pounds. I seem to be stable at this weight, so I'll probably stay close to it. The most I ever weighed (according to my doctor) was a bit over 300 pounds. I'm hovering at about 170 now, and don't expect to lose much more.

I want to thank everyone who helped me lose weight. While I technically "went it alone" without any official support group or anything, I relied on the people who responded to my posts with encouragement and positive words. In particular, I want to thank my hubby-Eric, who gave me every ounce of support I needed, and more. Without his willingness to change, I could not have done this at all. I also want to thank my sister Lisa, who was both an inspiration and a help, supplying information and advice whenever I most needed it. Another person who helped immensely was Heidi Meeley, whose reaction I looked forward to each year at ECCC. Thanks, Heidi!

For the record. I lost 83 pounds the first year. I lost 32 pounds in the second year. I expect to only lose another 10-20 pounds at the most, but my biggest goal is to maintain my weight at 170 or under. For the future, I'm going to try to post every two months with an update on my current weight. I will no longer be posting every time I lose another 5 pounds, because I expect those milestones to be few and far between. I plan to continue counting calories, probably for the rest of my life. I know I cannot stay under my limit unless I count and track calories. I would eventually fall back into old habits and regain my unwanted poundage. I also plan to continue exercising by walking, bike-riding, swimming, and hopefully getting a Wii Fit to help out during the winter, when other exercise is hard to get done. Eventually, I want to do more toning and real workouts, but I want to deal with my other health issues first.

Here's to two years! And to many more to come!