Well, despite my strong start to this year, I have kind of strayed from my motivational high and moved into a holding pattern. My biggest issue right now is time. I have none of it. I seem to do best when I can focus on eating well and making the best choices. When I have the time to figure out the best foods to eat, plan a menu, figure out my calorie intake and write about my progress. It’s fairly obvious I haven’t had much time to write about progress or lack of it seeing as I haven’t made a post in close to a month. I just haven’t had the time lately, so I have just kind of gone into a holding pattern at around 360lb. At my last visit to the nutritionist, she suggested that I was her success story and indicated that if I never lost another pound, my weight loss to this point could still be considered a huge success. I suppose in the text book sense that is all fine and dandy.

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Today was my first visit with the nutritionist since October. The past week without a doubt has been better than the several weeks and months prior to it. I have been eating better and doing more. The weather has been a little warmer (a lot warmer yesterday. 60 degree days in January. woohoo!) and I have been taking advantage of it. Yesterday I got out and took the recycle we have been building up during the past two months to the drop off. My garage is definitely happier to have all that recycle out of it. Today after my appointment I took the dog out for a walk. It was only about 8 blocks. Not far, but still a good start. I’m hoping for more warm days and also hoping that we don’t slip back into the frigid temps. As long as it stays above freezing, I see myself getting out for daily walks. My appointment went pretty much as I expected. I am 5 pounds heavier than I was in October. Not great. But not horrible either. Last week that number would have been +10 pounds. So, I am moving in the right direction again.

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Well, the past couple months have been a real trying time. Its been a lot of ups and downs. With the end of last year and the beginning of a new one I am using that to close out the past few months and get a fresh start on my journey. I am writing off last year as the year of excess and taking it easy. I am looking to 2008 as the year of working hard and achieving my goals. Not only as far as weight loss goes but, in business as well. I have slacked in the last year or two and need to refocus my business and set some new goals to help it continue to grow as I continue to shrink. Today I found a site called 43 Things. 43 Things lets you join with others in setting your goals for doing things you want to get done. So far I am only doing 1 thing. That is losing 150 Pounds. Here is a post I made there. It kind of sums up my journey to this point which seems like a fitting way of closing off the past chapter of my journey and getting started on a new one.

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Well, here I am again. Two weeks ago I was writing about my motivation being at a new high and as quickly as it went up, it sank back down. I had an excellent week or two and basically stopped doing what made it an excellent week. I have a feeling that when I weigh in tomorrow, it isn’t going to be very excellent. I’m starting to think my motivational issues are being affected by my mood and my mood is being affected by my lack of daytime activities, among other things. The week before I had my best week, I spent 4 out of 7 days outside walking around at the fair. But the weeks following the fair, I have been swamped with work, so I haven’t really had the chance to get out much. Monday was my first real time outside in a few weeks with the exception of a few hours a week for soccer games and driving the kids around. Monday and Tuesday were better days. So, it would seem that the more time I spend outside getting fresh air and exercise, the more motivated I am to try and eat better and lose weight.
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The biggest problem I have been dealing with the past few months is staying motivated. When I started this journey. My motivation was simple. I wanted to feel better and be able to move around more so that I could spend more time with my family and do more with my son. I felt like I was cheating him out of his childhood by not doing anything with him. Not because I didn’t want to. But, because I could barely move. I always felt sick and run down. So, I set out to lose weight. I figured if I could lose just two pounds each week, I would be losing weight at a rate of 100 pounds per year and in just a few short years I would be at a healthy weight. It was pretty easy at first. My motivating factor was a good one and I was reminded of it every day when I would think about all the things I wanted to do with my son and my family. When I started eating better and counting my calories, I started dropping a good deal of weight over a short time. I started feeling better and doing more throughout the day. It was nice to be able to get around more and not feel like I needed a nap halfway through the day. I started going for walks in the woods, doing more outside and just enjoying life more.

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Well, it has certainly been awhile. I haven’t really had the time or the motivation to post here in awhile. I haven’t really had the motivation for much. I seem to have hit a point where things are standing still. I will drop a few pounds over the course of a week or two and then gain a few pounds. I seem to be sitting at a plateau. I haven’t really been trying either. I have been eating more than I should and not doing enough exercise. The good news is that I still have been staying around the same weight. I am currently at 365 pounds. I seem to have hit my 100 pound mark and hovered there.

That pretty much sums up where things are and have been as far as my weight goes. I have been getting a lot more exercise though. That is part of my reason for less time to devote to this web site. We had an above ground pool installed in early July and spent the summer enjoying that and getting out of the house a lot more. I took my son on his first camping trip and we went hiking and boating, I have walked more in the past 4 months than I probably did in the 4 years before starting to try and lose weight. All of that is part of the reason that I have not gained a ton of weight back. Now, I just need to get my eating back in check and things will be good again. I think breaks are a good thing. I have been trying to use this one to find my next level of motivation. My previous motivation came from the fact that I could barely do anything. I would eat dinner and be so tired I needed to take a nap. I barely got out of the house and I wanted to spend time with my son. I have been doing those things, so the motivational focus needs to shift to something else and I have been trying to figure out that shift.

I plan on adding a pile of posts over the next day or two to cover a lot of the things I have touched on here and some of the things that have been on my mind the past few months. Today is Friday, Sept. 28 2007 and I have carved out some time this weekend to devote to writing posts and to getting this web site to where I want it. I have spent a few hours during the past month adding in the features I have been wanting for this site. Things like a forum where you can weigh in with your thoughts and opinions on topics such as losing weight, maintaining your weight, nutrition, exercise and more.

I have added a link directory full of resources for overweight folks spanning multiple categories with more than 600 links currently in it. I plan on adding a lot more as time goes by. You can also add any relevant links you think might be helpful or simply browse through the links, rate them and leave some comments. Finally, I have added some pages packed with useful products and product information in various categories in the Shopping XL section. The product categories include: Body Fat Monitors and calipers, fitness dvd’s, diet bars and shakes, exercise equipment, Fitness books, weight loss books, vitamins, weight loss supplements and more. All of the products at this point are courtesy of Amazon.com and focus solely on diet, exercise, weight loss and nutrition. I am hoping to incorporate additional reviews of products through the weigh in section of this web site. If you would like to add your thoughts about a product, feel free to Weigh In at the forum and let us know what you think!

My initial idea behind this web site, was to create a place where people of size could easily find and share information on products and services that make life, being built big, a little bit easier. Up until this point, I have pretty much used this site as my personal journal with only the plans to add these additional features. During the next few days, I will be making these pages live and rolling out these new features. I think these new additions will help bring BuiltBig.com a little bit closer to being that resource I have been wanting it to be. I hope you find some value in the new pages and as always, If you have any questions, suggestions or simply want to say hi, stop in at the forum or contact me here.

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