Roswell

In short, readers, things are going great. I just came from SlimGenics--I weighed in 51 pounds below my starting weight. My pants are falling off, my shirts are all baggy, and my feet are always cold--I MUST be losing weight! Bigger than that, though, I feel my self-image turning around. When I look in the mirror, I've really started to see how far I've come instead of how much further I need to go. I see accomplishment and success instead of years of tacit failure. Now, that's not to say that I would be content to stop here--not nearly--it's just an emotional component of the weight loss journey that I feel blessed to enjoy. You skinny people don't understand how deeply obesity buries into your self-concept--it affects so much more than just what you see in the mirror. It affects every aspect of how you value yourself in one way or another. I will explore that topic more deeply sometime when I'm not on my lunch break.

Oh, and I've started exercising again! I've discovered that the stationary bike is a great place to read my textbooks because it is doubly productive and makes the time go WAY faster. I am amazed at how much less pain I feel when I exercise. Don't get me wrong, I sweat HARD and my body fatigues, but the aches and pains that were CONSTANT 51 pounds ago are not even worth mentioning anymore. At this point, the only thing that pulls me off of the bike is boredom. Sooner or later I'm going to start incorporating weight lifting to fill out the space the fat is vacating, but for now I'm just trying to give my heart a chance to benefit from this diet as much as the rest of my body is.

51 and counting. God is good.