Meatsuit Reroot – May 11th, 2017

It’s been nine days since my last Reroot.  I’m going to let you in on a secret though: I knew something like this might happen.

It’s why the post is named Reroot.  Because I will need to occasionally do just that: re-root my weight loss footing.  I’ve lost significant amounts of weight three separate times in my life, and it has become obvious to me that I need to find something that I can do to hold myself accountable.  Welcome to the answer!

My journey isn’t significantly different from what I imagine a lot of men and women have had to endure.  Full of nagging self doubt, setbacks (sometimes all the way back to the starting point, or worse), and with little hope to beat the odds and find success.  I’ve gone through each and every aspect of that scenario so often it’s become a regular part of my existence.  I wish it wasn’t, but I’m not doing this (rather public) journey to hide from reality.

At the end of the day, I want to hold myself accountable to the court of public opinion.  I’m becoming a writing, have become a writer, in the midst of some awfully trying personal times.  I want to show everyone, anyone, someone that if you keep going no matter what you can make it.  Even if it’s only one person that I reach, that’s more than so many of us can say.  It matters, so I will continue to stride no matter how long it takes to reach the goal.  Eventually, two steps forward, one step backwards leads to the destination.

So, as far as my weight loss goes, today I am at 254.2.  Given that I started last week, May 2nd, at 256, I’m going in the right direction.  I’ve had to modify the diet slightly.  Ketosis was giving me some extreme barriers of entry.  Plus, the diet itself is a nightmare to follow on a regular basis, and I quite frankly wanted to give myself more ‘outs’.  The hard reality is that I’m still addicted to sugar.  My body craves sweet things.  It tells me, seductively, that I need them.  It’s not a good place to try and swagger in like I’m a young Harrison Ford and cold turkey one of the hardest drugs on the planet.

So I’m going to focus on kicking the sugar habit first.  Over the last few weeks, I’ve done rather well on that front.  I’ve slipped up once, and yesterday I got a shake.  Outside of that momentary indiscretion, the sugar content on all the food I’ve been eating has been zero.  It’s awesome to sit here and realize that simple fact.  It’s also another part of why I’m doing these posts.  You cannot see your progress if you trust only to your memory of the struggle.  This?  This will endure long after I’ve forgotten.

Yet the accomplishments are no less real, and no less worth celebrating.  Is it just a pound and some change of weight loss?  Sure.  Is it just eight days in nine of not eating sugar?  Definitely.  But those are achievements, and it would be cheating myself to dismiss them as petty and worthless.  We have to celebrate the little moments.  In the end, life is nothing more than the slow accumulation of such moments.

Achievefully,
Justin