On Dieting

For the 4,932nd time in the last six years, I resolved again yesterday to start dieting today. (I find Mondays are usually a good day to start again). I had actually been doing pretty well up until Christmas. In fact, after reaching a high of 310 lbs. at the start of law school, I somehow got below 250 lbs. this December to 245 lbs.--roughly 10 to 15 lbs. short of my goal. This was no small feat given my affinity for donuts, brownies, and cookies--not to mention my tendency towards excess.

By December 2005, I'd dropped a size in clothes and was even fitting into the suit I wore at my wedding! Perhaps more importantly, I no longer was instinctively sucking it in when fit people walked by or pranced across the TV. Instead there was calm.

My suspicion has long been that those daily habits that brought the weight loss actually brought me daily happiness and self-confidence irrespective of whether I was shedding pounds! For whatever reason, I can't ever get myself to belief that until after I've exercised (and am already experiencing it).

Umm...that all changed again at Christmas. With all those edible Christmas delights, New Year's excess, and then the stress filled 6 week business trip, I gradually lost all of my good eating and exercise habits. I didn't think too much of it (latency and lethargy seem to produce their own form of anesthetic that almost masks the happiness that comes with exercise and right eating). Last week I tipped the scales again at 259 lbs. and realized just how far I'd fallen. I'd exercised exactly 3 times in six weeks and started eating just about anything and everything I pleased, at any time I pleased (though I always tried to drink skim milk).

I've been sucking it in ever since.

So as I start again today, for the 4.932nd time, I thought I'd share three maxims that guide my perspective on weight loss:

"Eat to live, not live to eat."
-Who knows

"We never repent of having eaten too little."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Never take weight loss advice from a fat person."
-Aaron Clark

Here's to hoping I won't be starting for the 4,933rd time next Monday.