Another Damned Diet

My weight has fluctuated quite a lot over the course of my adult life. Since the age of 17, I've been as light as 172 pounds, or as heavy as 250 pounds.

Fuck it. I like to eat.

However, I don't enjoy being fat. If you've ever been thin and also fat, you know how much more fun it is to be thin. When you have a tendency to go to fat, the problem is in weighing the difference between the constant struggle to stay thin and the pleasures of eating lots of good food. Generally, my will power is not able to overcome my need to enjoy lots of good and very fattening foods.

The last time I altered my diet, in 2006, I lost a bit over forty pounds. I had not started out the heaviest I'd ever been (but close to it) and I didn't end up the lightest I've ever been (but relatively close, especially considering my age). Now that I'm 50 years old (almost 51) I know better than to expect my body to ever snap back to the way it looked at 26. It ain't gonna happen. However, I do enjoy being lighter. There's just that problem of fighting the urge to over-indulge in the kinds of meals that I seek out when I'm not paying close attention to what is, in reality, best for me.

When I started my dieting in 2006, I went from a size "40" pants to a size "36". And the 36 waist sizes were getting loose when the Holiday season rolled around. I opted to leave the confines of my diet around November so that I could enjoy the various dinners that I knew would be coming along. I managed not to gain much weight through the beginning of 2007. However, my weight slowly began to creep north. Until last week when I had to face the fact that, while I can still wear the size "36" slacks and shorts, they're getting tight. I've managed, since October of 2006, to gain back about twenty pounds.

Ugh.

Time to go back on the diet.

2005, before a two-day backpack in the Black Mountains. Probably the heaviest I'd been in a long time. I'd guess I was around 240 pounds. One thing about me is that even when I'm fat I'm still physically active. My weight has never stopped me from hiking, backpacking, or scrambling.

Mid-2006, goofing off with my wife at Huntington Beach in South Carolina. This was about the lightest I got that year. Somewhat south of 200 pounds, but more than 180.

This was taken recently on a hike to Green Knob in the Black Mountains of North Carolina. My weight is around 215 or so. Time to go back on the diet. Ugh!