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In 2008, I made a decision to lose a lot of weight. I went from 222 to 167 pounds over about a year and a half by designing my own meal plans based on vegan low caloric density high fiber foods. Sporadic weighings since kept me close to the bottom and mid-range of that weight range for years, but then, by 2021, I had gained most of the weight back. So I worked on it again when I returned in Feb 2022 from a five-month trip to Mexico. This time I wanted to kind of use an Optifast-inspired home-tweaked diet at first (lots of protein powders). Everything was going along fine, and I had a goal of 163 pounds by October of this year. I was on track, but then I scheduled another four-month journey through Central America, and a few days later, I realized that I would not get to the end of the time period for my plan before I had to leave, and there would probably be no way I could be disciplined enough to continue caloric restriction in the chaos of travel. So, by the time I had to leave for Colombia in May, I had only dropped to about 182, which was not bad for only a little over two months. After my last period of travel, I found that I had gained about 13 pounds, and was at 195, so now I’m working it again, this time without a real tangible goal before I leave in a couple of days again for Antarctica and other explorations. Today I weighed in at 181, so I’ve dropped again to about the point I was at May. My long-term goal is still 163, but I keep sabotaging the process by making new travel plans 😛.
But, I’ll tell you, this has not been easy. It’s tough and difficult to lose significant amounts of weight. Persistent plateaus suddenly seem to happen and there has to be some experimentation with tweaking the protocols to make it work again. And it’s a constant struggle with hunger. I do support individuals in whatever is going on with their weight, especially since there is a lot of weight-based discrimination. I realize not everybody can (or should) do this. This is my path and not anyone else’s path.
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