Week 6: Then and Now

When I retired from the Navy I weighed 240 lbs.  Sixteen years later I weighed in at 280 lbs.  That equates to 2.5 lbs gained each year.  At 2.5 lbs a year it slowly creeps up on you and before you fully realize what was happening you are huge.

I have heard of obese folks saying that even after they lost weight they still see a fat person.  I suspect this is because they still haven't addressed the reason they were obese in the first place so they still see someone that they don't think is worthy.  I may have mentioned this previously but I had the exact opposite problem.  Even at 280 lbs it was hard for to see myself as obese.  I guess I was in denial.  The bottom line is I don't have a self-image problem and have never doubted my own worth.

So when I say that 280 lbs just sort of crept up on me over the years when I wasn't "looking," I mean exactly that.  I only talk about this line of thought because I came across the below image and wondered if perhaps changes in portion sizes over the last 20 years may have contributed to my weight gain.

Investigating this image led me to the ChooseMyPlate.gov site that had these 2 quizzes Portion Distortion 1 (2003) and Portion Distortion 2 (2004) covering portion sizes and calorie differences over a 20 year period.  Take the quizzes for yourself I think you'll find them interesting.

Well with that behind us lets get down to my weekly weigh-in.  Today I weighed-in at 265.6 lbs for a running weight loss total of 14.6 pounds.  So far so good. I'll talk again in a week.  Stay Positive!