I don’t remember exactly what the final straw was, but last Spring (2010) I decided I was going to change my life. I was back up to the most I’ve ever weighed, 424 lbs (I know!). I’d been having back pain, pain in my hip and shoulder. When I walked around shopping, the middle of my right foot and part of my leg would fall asleep! How creepy is that? It’s like walking around with a dead limb.

My whole youth and adult life I’ve been looking for an easy way to lose weight; crazy diets mostly. Last Spring something popped and I didn’t want an easy solution anymore. I wanted to earn my way to health. I wanted to burn and pound myself into the ground; I wanted to rise up from the ashes like a phoenix.

I haven’t reached a standard of lasting health yet, but I don’t think a goal like that is a prize to be won and then forgotten. It is a life-long commitment. I can say, I’ve dropped 43lbs, and all the pain and weirdness that was going on in my body has mostly gone away.

What are the steps I’ve taken so far?

1. A radical change of attitude. I’m not looking for a quick fix anymore. When you are 424 lbs there are NO quick fixes. Whenever I feel weak I repeat to myself, “I’m changing my life. I’m changing my life.” I want to earn this. I am going to earn this. My health is my #1 priority. I started in on my stationary bike, six days a week, conditioning for our . . .
2. Wild goal. Dixie and I found a hiking guidebook for our area on the book tables at Costco. We are making an effort to finish each of the 60 hikes in the guidebook. As of this writing, we’ve been on 37 of the 60 trails and only had to turn back a couple of times before reaching the trail’s destination (you have to know when you’ve reached your limit, knife-edges and rock-scrambling are not my cup of tea). I’ve been posting pictures on Trailing Ahead. We’re probably only going to get a few more in before winter now that Dixie’s back teaching school, but there is the spring and summer of 2011 to look forward to. Until then, we plan to continue 3 days a week of hiking, biking, walking, swimming, etc., anyway we can get it in.
3. At first, I just made it a goal to start eating less. About a month ago we made the decision to start following a simple eating plan and go organic when we could with our food selections.
4. A while back, on non-hiking days, I started doing weight training.
5. I’ve made a commitment to simplify my life . . . this has been the hardest thing of all. I am interested in way too many things, but I’m trying to reorient myself. I don’t know what will come of it yet. I recently came to the the realization that I need to start paying more attention to my spiritual health if I am going to find peace.

I’ll talk more about each of these things individually on future posts.

Sometimes I’ve gotten side-tracked. A couple of times I blew a whole week’s worth of progress at a family party or on McDonalds and doughnuts (after Dixie broke her wrist by falling off her bike). The important thing is that I get right back on track, because “I’m changing my life.” I’ve got a long way to go, I weighed in at 381 lbs this morning, but I feel confident that I am on the right track, that’s less than I’ve weighed in many years.

I hope this and future posts will inspire you, especially if you have been thinking about ‘changing your life’ as well.

Harmony,
Ryan

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