EDollah has logged in for 1000 days in a row!

The subject heading was a message I saw when I logged in this morning. I used to view streaks like this with some level of skepticism, at least for people that didn’t seem to be making progress. I’d wonder what was the point of logging in if you weren’t doing so to stick to a plan. I’ve come around on this way of thinking though.

Two years ago, I wrote this post in the “Success Stories” forum: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1153071/phase-one-complete-110-pounds-lost-in-8-months/p1 where I detailed losing about 110 pounds (340 to 230), the end of a 1st phase. I went on to lose another 40+ pounds (186 at the lowest) to reach close to a goal weight. I was at the planning stage of composing a sequel to that post, but wanted to lose a FEW more pounds before doing so. A weird thing happened though, weight went back up up up. I’m talking about up to 250 pounds. Fortunately I got things back under control and lost another 20 pounds, that takes us to current date where I’ve gained back those 20 pounds and am back to 250.

Not much of a success story, you the reader, may be thinking and I agree, this isn’t the update I wanted to write. However, at this 1,000 day mark, I do take some satisfaction for where things stand currently. Over the years, I’ve had several attempts at weight loss, each time, at least for those efforts over 1,001 days ago, all of the weight would return with the bonus of even more weight added.

I’ve found that logging in, just to log in, tethers me to a healthy lifestyle of mindful eating and exercise. Even if I happened to be in a “bad” phase, where consumption was out of whack, the simple act of logging in, even if not to update my food diary, would remind me of what I needed to do. Sometimes (not every time), this would keep good days from becoming bad, bad days from becoming disastrous, and disastrous days from becoming disastrous-er.

So, the “success” here, such as it is, comes from not only not gaining all of the weight back, but from being able to recognize when it was time to get back on track, which is the state I’m at right now. Eventually, of course, I’d like to get down to a target weight and stay there forever and ever. That hasn’t happened yet but that doesn’t mean it won’t and that I don’t keep trying. I’ve learned some lessons about what doesn’t work - specifically, candy bags around the house are my kryptonite. “Just learn moderation” hasn’t worked for me for this stuff. Everything else that used to be problematic (pizza, ice cream) is manageable, but not cheap, store bought candy, go figure.

Hopefully my “part 3” update where I write about hitting an ultimate goal and maintaining for a period will be published before my 2000 day streak, for now I’ll just keep plugging away!