Confessing my story - at 87 pounds lost

Hello, I've never posted before, so bear with me.

I decided to publish my results since I'm starting to get quite a few friends who are interested in my progress and thought perhaps someone here might benefit by finding some tips. I'll warn you it's a loooonnngggg story.

I'm at 87 pounds lost on my journey that started on February 19 of this year. I could still afford to lose another 40-50 pounds, but I now know that I'm on the right path and will succeed.

I started my journey really sort of by accident. I didn't have any lofty goals to lose 100 pounds or be skinny, or get forced into it because of bad health - but my health wasn't great, I was on high blood pressure medicine, taking cholesterol medication and I had joint pain quite a bit. But it wasn't debilitating, since I live on a rural property, have horses, do chores and was getting along. I was having some symptoms of gout, which is painful, and turned out to be a side effect of my blood pressure medication. After switching medications and feeling better, I thought it's a good opportunity to get some exercise. My father and grandfather had lost weight later in life, so I had some idea that it was possible to get healthier even though I'm older. My final motivating factor was my wife and I went on a cruise, and many things I wanted to do had weight restrictions, so even though I knew I could do them physically I was forbidden.

I got on the treadmill, one that had been collecting dust in the basement for years. I had heard from a friend that I should try to do it 6 days per week, since the typical notion of 3-4 days doesn't get habit forming. This was a key discovery for me. In the past I would say 'tomorrow' way too often and still attempt to get 3 workouts in. I always failed. Targetting 6 workouts found me thinking "do I want to skip my workout on Saturday or Sunday?" It started with walking 20 minutes, and growing my time to be able to walk 30 minutes. Once I got to 30 minutes, it would be an increase of slope or speed to burn more calories in the same amount of time. I just kept slowing increasing my workout intensity.

As I started to workout, I found myself thinking it doesn't make sense to sweat that much and blow it by eating half of a pizza, so I started thinking about my diet. I had tried point counting on weight watchers before, and done a fat free diet so had some idea of what I should and shouldn't eat. I started loosely counting WW points, letting myself eat as many fruits and vegetables as I wanted. I found my breakfast turning to fruits, my lunches being last night's leftovers plus fresh raw vegetables and fruit. I wasn't starving myself at all, just eating better. I did force myself to bring A LOT of fruit/vegetables to work, so I would have something to eat instead of running to the vending machines when I was hungry.

After about a month, I was feeling a little less stress on the button of my blue jeans, and I decided to myself I must be losing some weight in my efforts to get more fit. It caused me to wonder how much I had lost. We didn't have a functioning scale in the house, so off to Wal-mart to buy a scale. I measured my weight, only to realize that I didn't know how much I was when I started this journey. So I looked up my medical records from a doctor's visit in August of 2012 and used that as my starting weight. I think I probably weighed more than that in February since I tended to be at my thinnest in the heat of the summer. I turned out I had lost about 20 pounds!!

At this point, I came to the realization that it wasn't that difficult to lose 20 pounds, and I should get more 'structured' in measuring progress. I searched the app store and found myfitnesspal. I liked that I could track exercise and food. I set a target to lose 3 lbs per week. I liked at the end of the day that it would tell me if everyday was like today how I'd do in the coming weeks.

I also found that the app asked me to set an 'objective', and it got me to thinking. If I lost 100 pounds I'd be at my weight when I graduated from college. If I lost 125 pounds I would be at the weight I was in high school when I wasn't in the best of shape, and if I lost 140 pounds I would be at the weight my senior year of high school when I was captain of the football team and as buff as I have ever been. But I didn't and haven't set a goal for myself. A goal sounds to me like an end of this routine, and frankly I need to keep this routine up forever. So I don't know where I will bottom out on weight, I simply know that I need to keep this habit/routine forever.

I weigh myself every Friday. I am lying, I weigh myself all the time, but only count it on Friday. At my birthday in April I was down 30 pounds, and proclaimed my losses to my facebook friends and then every Friday I'd give them an update. I found that to be motivational, but when I started getting into the 50-60 pound range I found I was motivating my friends. There are several who are dieting and losing weight themselves. People ask me if I forget or am away and don't post results.

So, here I am at minus 87 pounds. I transitioned from my original wardrobe to my 'this is a little bit tight on me' wardrobe. I then transitioned from 'this is a little tight on me' wardrobe to a closet full of old clothes that were "too nice to give away". I hadn't fit into them since the 90's. I even found a pair of seafoam green parachute pant like shorts I wore on my honeymoon in 1991. THEY FIT! My wife enlisted the fashion police and told me those shorts were hazardous to my health if she ever saw me wear those again. Now the "too nice to give away" wardrobe is too loose, and it's time to start buying a few things. I'm thinking I might buy them as 'this is a little tight on me' clothes to keep me motivated to lose a little more. I also am starting to think of what I can do to treat myself when I get to the century mark - 100 pounds lost. I should be there in a little over a month.

I have to say while I do feel great, I am somewhat befuddled to think I've lost 87 pounds. If I carry 2 bags of 40 lb dog food or grain for our horses, I can't imagine carrying that around all the time - but I was! I no longer take high blood pressure medication, and go to the doctor on Monday where I hope she'll take me off of my cholesterol medication.

If you got here, you must like to read, since it was long. Hopefully you gained something in reading it. I know I gained in sharing it. It's been a great journey so far; I have a journey still ahead.