Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

Many of my former obese friends will be able to relate to this post. I know a lot of people have gone through this and it can get so frustrating. What I'm talking about here is when others make remarks about your weight, as if they are concerned you'll waste away to nothing.

I'm going to have to deal with this again, as my dad and step mom visit from another state next week. I haven't seen them in a while and it seems like every time I see them, my step mom will say in concern, "you lost A LOT of weight!" And yet it's been over 6 years since I lost the weight. I'm the same weight, around 205 pounds from the previous times they saw me. But I will most likely have to argue, stating how I haven't lost anything since they last saw me, despite her insistence.

I'm one of many formerly obese people that love to run. There's a reason so many of us seem to love the feeling of running.

When I was heavy, I had difficulty moving around. I sat around a lot and did very little exercise. When I did move, it was often painful with knee problems, nerve problems in my feet, etc. After losing 150 pounds and going plant based, all of those issues went away.

I never take my health for granted. Just seven short years ago I was morbidly obese, pre-hypertensive and most likely pre-diabetic.

So when I hear lines like this is the best cholesterol readings my doctor has seen or that I'll most likely never develop diabetes (unless I were to suddenly revert to my old habits), I feel so happy.

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions because I don't think they work. Instead, I would rather set goals for things I want to accomplish. I think it's much less pressure that way and it seems doable.

Whenever I set resolutions in the past, they were always about weight loss and they never worked. I would be like others... workout for a few weeks and stop going for a while after that. I would change my diet briefly and go right back to the junk food within days.

When I started my “diet” almost seven years ago, it wasn’t about the weight but about my health. That was the difference between this weight loss attempt and all the other diets I did previously. I never made a serious attempt that stuck until the lifestyle change I made.

When I think of how bad I ate over 7 years ago, I think in amazement how far I came since them. I would think nothing of chowing down on several Egg McMuffins or several burgers at McDonald’s. Today... I have no cravings for such foods.