During my lunch break this afternoon, I started reading about the people who have been inducted into The Today Show's Joy-Fit Club. These remarkable individuals have all lost 100 lbs. or more and their profiles on msnbc.com detail how far they have come and what changes they made to bring about their transformations.
Obviously, I like browsing stories like that to see dramatic before and after photos just like anyone else does, but I also have another reason to be particularly interested in the lives of these Joy-Fit club members. I am trying to become one.
I should take that back, actually. I don't mean to say that I want to appear (scantily clad) on The Today Show and tell Matt Lauer or Kathy Lee Gifford what I eat every day and how many minutes of cardio and resistance training I do in a given week. Nothing about that sounds like a good time, actually, except for the free trip to New York. But I do want to loose 100 lbs. (or more).
The goal sounds incredibly lofty but I am well on my way, actually. The decision to make the change came Labor Day weekend after a summer of some serious self-reflection. Since that time (nearly 7 months ago now) I have lost 70 lbs. and gone from a size 22 to a size 14. I suppose loosing 70 lbs. in 6 1/2 months sounds pretty fast but it doesn't feel that way. Physically, I feel better than I ever have in my life and hardly a week goes by that I don't run into someone I haven't seen in months who seems floored by what they see. It's a great start and it's tempting to be content where I am, but I definitely don't want it to be the end.
In reading about these people who have already accomplished what I have set out to do, two of their stories really struck me. One person who stood out was a 35 year old mother of two who lost 110 lbs. and went from a size 22 to a size 6 in a year and a half. Her starting weight was 252 lbs when she made the decision to drop the weight and she looks absolutely incredible now. She even came on set in a bikini. As someone who, just 7 months ago, boasted virtually identical stats to her pre-loss weight and size, the thought of ever allowing myself to be seen in public, ever, in a bikini is just mind-boggling.
We started in the same place but she is about 40 lbs ahead of me. On the one hand, 40 lbs doesn't seem like that much. After all, it only took me 3 1/2 months to loose the first 40 lbs. However, the further I get into this endeavor, the slower the weight has come off. At the rate I have been going this month (5 lbs. for all of March) it will be another 8 months before I get there. I know that 8 months is not a super long time and that, expecially considering how fast the weight came off in the beginning, I shouldn't let it discourage me, but I guess I am just impatient. I have shocked myself with what I have already accomplished and I am interested to see what else this journey has in store for me.
The other Joy-Fit Club member who stood out to me was a guy who, when all was said and done, lost 214 lbs. Although it's not the largest weight loss among the Joy-Fit club members, it is still a number I can hardly fathom. But that wasn't what struck me about this guy. The article also mentioned that he was a restaurant reviewer who recently started writing a regular column on 'life after weight-loss' called "Second Helping".
It struck me because, especially in the last month or two, it has become (at times painfully) obvious that there is, in fact, such a thing as 'life after weight-loss'... a life that is proving to be very different from the one I had been leading before.
You see, most of the articles I read about the members of the Joy-Fit club talk about how they felt like outsiders and outcasts because of their weight. In many cases, this was what led them to pursue this change. I can't say that my story is the same. While I always saw myself as overweight, I never saw myself as fundamentally different from the people around me and tried to do everything I could to never allow anyone else to see me as different either.
That said, when I started to drop the weight I did anticipate that there would be some changes. I figured that I would feel healthier (though I didn't know what to expect healthier to feel like) and that my self-confidence would get a boost from looking better. Both of those turned out to be true, but 'life after weight-loss' has been anything but predictable.
So that's why I'm starting this blog. Life after weight-loss is proving to be unlike anything I had imagined. Sometimes it is hilarious, sometimes it is trying and sometimes it is painful. In most cases, it is unpredictable and almost always a great story. And, since I am only 70% of the way to where I want to be, I would imagine it will only continue to be interesting from here on out.
We'll see...
