6 Months of Growth on MFP

It was the end of December, when I decided to count calories and found the free counter program on MFP. That's all I wanted...something to track my food.

I had already began to lose weight, using just meal replacement bars and shakes during the time from Thanksgiving through Christmas; but my doctor said that I should be eating "at least some regular food". So, to please him and for my own knowledge, I decided to shift over to calorie counting and add some other food to my daily 'diet'.

'Diet'...Oh, how I hate that word. I had spent a lifetime despising that 4 letter word that had reflected every kind of torture. Yes, I did Weight Watchers, OA, Adkins, Mayo Clinic and a few of my own horrible creations in my youth. Imagine living on radishes, watermelon and diet cola for a year and a half. How about Slender, one orange and diet cola each day with only one meal of barbecue beef and lima beans for lunch on Thursdays? Those were my crazy days of dieting in my youth.

Did those 'diets' work? Sure, at least for a little while. I lost anywhere from 52 to 99 pounds on each of those insane trips to Diet Land.

What was I doing now? Trying to lose 70 pounds to convince a surgeon to give me knee replacements, so I could get my life back and get out of wheelchair. That was my goal and the faster...the better. That was all. I had no delusions of really going any further, and I wasn't even thinking about what would happen later...after I got my new knees. I would worry about that, when I got there.

Then, my doctor's request for me to eat regular food got in my way. Without realizing it at the time, I was about to become a part of something that would change my life like no diet had ever done. I was entering into a place called My Fitness Pal.

The free calorie counter got me here, but it was the people I met...the friends I made...that kept me here and changed my attitude about what I was doing. I learned a lot about myself, my attitude toward food plans (a much better word than diet) and the need to make a commitment EVERY DAY. That began as a daily commitment to my food plan, but it became so much more.

My daily commitment is now to my MFP friends; but more importantly, it is a daily commitment to myself to become stronger, healthier and more accepting of me. I arrived at MFP weighing 255+ pounds, down from 270.9 in November. Then, I began the slow but steady weight loss that has marked the past 6 months. Today, I am 214.8 pounds and getting ever so close to my surgeon's goal.

However, many things beside my weight have changed in those 6 months. My goal is no longer my surgeon's goal, though my ticker shows 199 pounds as the final destination. It is only the surgeon's goal. No, I am thinking well beyond that number and that initial desire for new knees. MFP has helped me to want more for my life.

My goals have changed...grown to include:

1. A healthy weight, perhaps somewhere near 170 or even less.

2. More daily physical activity, like walking, biking and swimming.

3. Maintenance of that healthy life style, not just getting to a goal, only to go back to my old thoughtless eating and laziness.

4. Liking myself better. I have spent too many of my 68 years not liking me...feeling ashamed of my body.

I want to thank all of you, my friends on MFP, for helping me to grow into someone who I like a lot more than I did 6 months ago. You have taught me and are still teaching me to be a healthier, happier person.
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