A bit under a year ago, I told my story of how I had “let myself go” over the years, and encouraged others not to follow my path. In that post, I talked about what I have been doing to try to reverse course. To my surprise, over the past year it’s been one of my most popular posts¹. I hope those who stumbled on it found it useful. In the meantime, I’ve continued to work towards getting back into healthy shape. I figured now was as a good a time as any for an update.

Since that post, I’ve mostly continued exercising in some form or another three days a week. There were a few weeks early this winter where I fell off the path. I had plenty of excuses; the weather was bad, at several points various members of the family were sick, including myself, etc.

Eventually I kicked myself in the butt and made myself get back to it. I had no desire to jog in the frigid temperatures we had, or the foot of snow still on all of the sidewalks and jogging paths. So I started riding my wife’s stationary bicycle. I have to ride longer to burn as many calories as I do jogging, but I can watch TV while doing it – a nice bonus. Now that the weather is getting nicer, I’ve been out to jog a few times. I have enjoyed the bike, but I am looking forward to making jogging my primary exercise again. Soon.

I’ve also made more changes to my diet. My body seems to finally be adjusting to taking fewer calories in. I’m not hungry all the time any more. And, recently, I started eating quite a lot more fruit. For the first time in my adult life, I head to the produce section first thing when I go to the grocery store to pick out some apples and mandarine oranges. Such a simple thing, but I’m sure it’s made a huge difference.

The net result? Over the past two years or so, I’ve lost about 50lbs. I’ve gone down a pant size. My wedding ring is now too loose and needs to be resized². I feel and look much healthier. I feel good about setting a good example for my kids³. This is a chart I feel pretty darned good about:

I’m feeling great, but I have work yet to do. I still have 20lbs to reach my goal weight, and I’ve recently hit a plateau. I’m not going to worry about that plateau too much yet. With spring finally here I’ll be back to jogging, which I sense is a better workout than the stationary bike. If after a few weeks of jogging I’m still on that plateau, I’ll start considering doing something more. But as mentioned above, I want to do this right, with the goal being my overall and lasting health. That means being patient. I think I can do that.

If you found this post because you, like me, had let yourself go, I hope this serves as motivation to get back into shape. It’s hard – boy is it hard – but also possible and absolutely worth it. Make yourself do it, you won’t regret it. Good luck!