Day One

This is day one of what will prove to be a fairly difficult journey for me. Miraculously, since November of 2009 I've gained approximately 100 pounds. In reality it is not so miraculous, as I simply return to an age-old pattern of binge eating in the evening with liberal use of alcohol. For me, this always leads to extensive and rapid weight gain, but I have never let it get quite this far. At some point I truly stop caring, and decided to just let it all go for a while. However, at this point, I'm having difficulty walking, moving, finding any clothes that fit, and being uncomfortable and just about everything I do other than lying on the couch. I'm approximately 5'11" tall, and this morning weighed in at 286.4 pounds. I once was an athlete, but have always struggled with weight. However, I do know my body, do know how to lose weight as I have lost thirty to seventy pounds at least five times since I was 25 years old. As I am nearing 50, and, in fact, my 50th birthday is August 28, 2011 I can no longer tolerate these type of weight swings. I've been coming to the point for the last month of putting a stop to this freefall of behavior. Luckily I do not have any medical illnesses other than hypertension, which completely goes away when I'm in shape. I have gotten into shape on many occasions, sometimes superb shape sometimes about halfway. In 2009, I spent three months training very hard and went from 257 pounds to approximately 197 pounds, and then I slowly dropped 187 pounds, give or take. As I mentioned, this was around December of 2009, and since that time it has been a deluge of food, fine wines, gin and tonic, and single barrel bourbon. I have a wife who's in shape, and a daughter who is an excellent athlete, and I can essentially do nothing with them. More interestingly, I am a physician and counsel people day in and day out regarding healthcare issues. For me, being in shape, being able to play sports, is essential to my functioning. Although I am quite successful whether I am huge or not, I am much more successful when I feel fit and in control. I have never had such a large task in front of me regarding weight loss, but know that many have done it before me. At this point I can barely walk, so my first goal is to reestablish a solid training diet, which is going to seem quite extreme to those who read this. I will start with a 1200 kcal diet, leaning towards higher protein. I will begin walking when I reach 275 pounds, and then slowly increase the intensity of the exercise. I have hired a personal trainer to come to my house in April, June, and August to assist me at different stages of my training. Today, I feel like crap, hung over, and generally somewhat despondent about the task ahead. Perhaps in a later blog post I will discuss the origins of this difficulty with weight, which really began, as I can remember, around the age of eight years old. Now the trick is to get past the first week, and get from phase 1 which is diet initiation and a 10 pound weight loss, to phase 2 where I begin walking and becoming more active.