Staff writer
At my weigh in Thursday, I (just barely) reached my weight-loss goal weight at 180 lbs. Like a rapper at the BET Awards, I’d like to give some shout outs.
Props to Lucille Bitner and everyone at Taking Off Pounds Sensibly — you have provided me with a resource of accountability.
Much love to trainer Karen Williams — working with you has kept me engaged and motivated to continue working out. Thanks to you, I’m in the best shape of my life.
Thanks to Greta Smith for teaching me some swimming strokes — now I look less like a frightened deer thrashing in the water as I plod up and down the pool.
Thanks to Adam Stewart for playing basketball with me this winter.
Big ups to Rowena Plett my TOPS buddy and fellow reporter at the newspaper — you’ve helped keep me on task.
When I first attended TOPS in the final week in December, I weighed 228 lbs. I’ve lost 48 pounds. I’ve gone from comfortably wearing size 38 pants to 34s.
People ask me most about what I’m doing. This weight loss would not have been possible without the combination of diet and exercise.
My diet has not been very specific. I’ve tried to avoid fried foods and hefty carbohydrate intakes. I’ve also tried to eat a vegetable with every lunch and dinner and fill up on healthy foods — salad, green vegetables, and pistachios.
Some key things on the food front are cooking for myself and consistently washing dishes. I can eat meals that are full of flavor and healthy if I cook them myself. It is very difficult to eat healthy in Marion County if you are going out all the time.
However, I like to cook. I hate doing dishes, but I have to do dishes regularly to have the tools to cook. Some of my worst eating days — donuts for lunch and an entire large pizza for dinner — were had when I had a sink full of dishes.
For the past three months, I’ve been working out six days a week. I’ve progressively been swimming and running longer and increasing the reps on my callisthenics exercises — a variety of pushups, crunches, pull-ups, etc. I’ve re-learned that I enjoy working out.
Before I made all the excuses, but mainly: I don’t have time to work out and I can’t eat healthy here. With the help of the people listed above, I quit complaining and did something.
I’ve made time to work out and cook because it was important. I’m a more productive person because of it.
I want to keep going. I want to see what kind of shape I can get into. I lost a bunch of weight before — 40 pounds before my freshman year of college — I don’t want to go backward. I’m not getting any younger and this is my last opportunity to get into tiptop condition.
It will be a struggle. When I deliver papers in Hillsboro, I look at the ads outside of a gas station for cream-filled doughnuts and I want one bad. I can’t have just one; I’ve proven that to myself. I’ve also proven that I’m better than to give into my impulses.
Another thing I won’t do is put on a little black dress like Charles Barkley to show off my physique. I’ll leave the theatrics to Sir Charles.