Lardass, or not Lardass? That is the question...

For most of my life since my teens my weight has fluctuated in a really disturbing manner. I've been as heavy as 240+ pounds, or as light as 173 pounds. Throughout the transitions, the weird thing is that I've always stayed relatively active. Even when I'm really fat I still do a lot of outdoor activities--mainly hiking and backpacking. When I'm as fat as I've been I would still have the energy and stamina to hike up steep mountain slopes.

But when I'm thinner I feel a hell of a lot better than when I'm a lardass. So...why would I even allow myself to become a lardass? Outside of the fact that I love food and I enjoy eating, I couldn't say. Perhaps my metabolism is such that I add pounds more easily than most people do. And when I'm fat I desperately want to get back to a lower weight. But then I realize the work and torture involved (extra exercise and bothersome dieting) and continue along as I was, eating and enjoying the good life.

I discovered over the years that I can lose a lot of weight in quick order when I put my mind to it. But if I backslide even a little, then the calories catch up with me and the lard goes back on and I find myself in the fatty section of the clothing store yet again, and must look with disappointment at the boxes of clothes that I can no longer wear stacked accusingly in the closet.

The past ten or so years have seen me repeating the same crimes of weight gain/ weight loss over and over. I would pack it on, then buckle down and get it off, only to see it return over time. My latest struggle has seen me taking the pounds off again, but this time in a much slower and more controlled manner. Over the past year I've managed to lose thirty-five pounds and get myself back below 200 for the first time since I returned from my backpacking trip to Colorado. I'm feeling pretty good and would like to knock off another ten or fifteen pounds. Will it happen? I'm not sure, but it would be nice to not have to carry that flab up the slopes in Glacier National Park.

We'll see.

The fattest I've ever been (2005). Over 240 pounds. On a backpacking trip in the Black Mountains of North Carolina.

A year later I had dropped over fifty pounds.

In 2012, after two weeks of altitude sickness in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado I was getting toward a normal weight since ballooning to about 220 during the year. By the time I got home I was down to 195.

And within six months here I was back up to almost 230 pounds again!

And now, roughly a year after that I am under 200 pounds once more. The struggle to stay healthy continues.

Weight

Right now I weigh a little more than 208 pounds. That's far less than the 240 I weighed in 2005, but far more than the 189 I weighed in 2006. With the trip to do some hiking in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons coming up in August, I really need to get some more of this lard off my ass. Hiking in these parks will be a lot different from hiking here in the east. Here, there are only a handful of peaks above 6,000 feet. Out there I'll never be under 6,000 feet! Here I don't have to worry about altitude sickness or shortness of breath from dealing with higher elevations. But out there I will need to make sure that I am fully acclimatized to those altitudes as I begin to try to bag some peaks.

2006: Backbone Rock Falls, Tennessee--about 190 pounds.

But I also need to lose some weight. I've known that for the past few months, but I dearly love to eat the very foods that make it the hardest to lose weight. Jove preserve my will power if I encounter cheesecake, beer, brioche, chocolate, beef, etc. I generally forget all about losing weight when I meet up with a slice of pecan pie or a dish of ice cream.

February 2010, Hollywood CA--210 pounds (Oink!)

So I finally decided that time is too short between now and August, so I've started by cutting out the kinds of foods that are worst for my waistline. I really want to lose at least fifteen pounds before we board the jet to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I have a bit more than four months to get the fat off, and a little more than that to finish my new novel, THE CLAN. Hopefully, I'll get both done in time.

The past few days have been okay. I've resisted all kinds of cakes an cookies. Tomorrow I've been told my mother-in-law will be serving Key lime pie. We'll see how that goes.