Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

Back in April of 2012, I was in my first Wellness Challenge at the YMCA in Torrington. I had already started to lose weight... I was 299 pounds at the start of the challenge, which was actually down from 345 pounds in November of 2011. After losing 45 pounds, my weight loss had slowed down. I decided to try the Wellness Challenge and figured it might kick start the weight loss again, as I still had a long way to go in order to get to a healthy weight.

The kickoff meeting at the first challenge changed my lifestyle completely. After that, I followed the guidelines that I learned and still follow many of the guidelines. As they say, it's about a lifestyle change more than it is about a temporary reduction in weight.

It has been so hot in Connecticut, I'm sure I don't need to remind you that you need to drink more to cool off. The heat causes us to sweat more and we lose a lot of water in this heat.

But how much of what you're drinking is actually water? Soda and beer do not count. It's best not to get your calories from your drinks. There is so much empty calories in soda, it can really pack on the pounds. Diet soda isn't much better… some research shows that diet soda drinkers might actually hurt their metabolism and increase risk of obesity and diabetes.

I must have heard it a thousand times... "You must feel a lot better!"

After losing 130 pounds, I didn't really think much about it, but yes, I do feel a lot better. I no longer have knee problems, I don't wake up with nocturnal leg pains and I don't suffer from headaches. I never realized when I was obese that being fat really does hurt physically (and of course emotionally too).

My body fat percentage has been fluctuating for a while now. A few months ago, it was 18.6, now it's about 20. According to experts, my body fat percentage should be below 18.

The strength training is working slowly, although the results are not as fast as they were with weight loss. I still like cardio more than the weights. I now have a personal trainer to go over the basics with the strength training. Hopefully I will learn enough as I only signed up for a few sessions.

I still find it hard to believe that people think of me as "slim". I know I'm not fat anymore but somehow, hearing names like "Hey Slim", or "wow, you're skinny", I think to myself, they can't be talking about me!

It's hard to get used to it. Most people were kind over the years and never really came right out and said I was fat back when I was obese. There were different things I would hear like "you're a big guy, you're gonna need a car with more room" (car salesman) or "Are you sure you're not diabetic?" (eye doctor).