Thanks for the Journey (not diet)

DanOhh · January 2011

It was one year ago, January 16, the day after my wife’s birthday, that I started my journey for a change in my life. To be honest I really didn’t know if this journey of weight loss would be any different from the multiple times I took it before. We had gotten for my wife’s B-day the Wii Fit Plus and I decided to make a commitment to bring that number and the size of my avatar on the TV screen down.

I had only told my immediate family that I was doing this, mainly because I thought I was going to fail again. In the past weight loss had been, “try to exercise, do it for a little while, then get bored/distracted stop working out and be back to the ‘same ol’ routine by the next month”. This first month was different then all the rest, I had made the exercise my routine. My new routine was wakeup an hour earlier get my Wii Fit workout, in for the day. I also started walking a lot more. This started with parking at the farthest spot in our lot and then moved to parking in a lot a ½ mile away from work. I loved the way I was feeling and the weight was beginning to go down.

I was eating less too. This was easy to do in the beginning just by cutting out snacking in the evening and reducing the portion size of my meals. After about a four months though I needed to take it up a notch because I was beginning to plateau.

This was when I had discovered this wonderful website, My Fitness Pal.com. A free website that I could daily keep track of where I was at with support from others that were on or had been on the same journey I was. It was just the ‘carrot’ I needed to keep going to reach my goal.

Through MFP, I’ve found new and healthier foods that I would have never tried before. I’ve also discovered that I’m now a runner. I never made running a goal (I was happy with just walking) and if you’d told me that I would have ran in several 5Ks by now I wouldn’t have believed you. I had talked to several others that had done ‘Couch to 5K’ program and now I’m addicted to running.

At the end of August of 2010, two weeks after my 41st birthday, I reached my goal to get below 200lbs. I’m now healthier than I’ve been since high school (maybe even more than that). I still hang out here on MFP to ‘maintain’ my weight and help motivate others, like others had done for me. Thanks MFP (and everyone on MFP) for not only helping me reach my ‘destination’ but letting me continue on my journey.

SassyMissDasha · January 2011

What a great story Dan, thanks for sharing it with us!

Cupcakebettiejo · January 2011

You sound like you have had an amazing journey. Its incredible motivation to hear these stories it keeps me going knowing that i to can reach my goal.

Well Done and im sure you will keep under 200lbs with that kind of determination.

Jo