Getting on my bi/pap machine therapy in 2010. Life and health changing.

Two important insights:

(a): I realized in my mid 40s that I could not run the way I did when I was 20+ years younger, and - once I accepted this and set my sights appropriately - running was actually very enjoyable again.

(b): I realized on the cusp of turning 60 that insight (a) needs to be revisited frequently.

If I think about all I have learned about weight loss, the real key was something I learned when I first found GOAD. I learned that diets don't work if you just complete the diet and go back to what you were doing before. The insight is to think of weight management as a lifetime commitment. That seems obvious to me now, but it was quite a revelation at the time.

I haven’t responded because I can’t think of any epiphany or “aha!” moment where things crystallized for me. There’s no point where I had a blinding flash of insight or had a U-turn in my direction. My motivation to start WW at the end of 2007 was a bit of a walk-up, but that’s not the question.

I’m reminded that shortly after I hit goal, my Meeting Leader (back when we called them that) asked me during a meeting whether it was a big change losing weight. I responded without thinking “no - but it was a lot of little ones!” I think that’s largely the answer to this question.

The one possible thing that might qualify as “biggest insight” was Covid. I’d been drifting, and I was about 89# over my goal weight. It became apparent early in the pandemic that the disease was claiming the elderly, the infirm, and the overweight. I couldn’t do anything about my age, but I could do something about the other two. I’m that exception that lost weight - and in fact got back to goal - during, and largely because of Covid. Between February 2020 and November 2022 I lost the 89#, and since then I’ve weighed in “free” every month so far.

My big insight is that most of if my weight gain over the years has likely come the last two months of each year. I've let those losses compound. If I can ONLY manage that piece from now to the end of time, I'll probably be ok.

The other insight is that I don't always have to be "dieting" to lose weight. I do, however, have to stay engaged in thinking about what I'm eating more often than not. Mindless eating is a bigger issue for me than I realized.