And the final tally is......


175.....I almost made it.

I made 168 for a while, and was on track for 165 at the beginning of December, but the holiday festivities were just too much, and I bounced up to 175 as of this morning. Cookies and egg nog and parties and so on.

But here's the good news - all in, from my peak weight, I've dropped over 50 lbs - and more importantly, I've kept it off (within a narrow range of 170-175 for while now, and I've permanently changed my eating habits. I'll get to the 165-170 range and I'll stay there. For good.

By the numbers:

Miles I could run in March 2010: Less than 1
Mile I can run today: At least 5, maybe more, I haven't tried.

Pants size in March: 40 waist
Pants size today: 34 waist.

Number of situps I could do in March: 25
Number of situps I can do today: 250+ in sets of 50 (I don't push it)

Blood pressure, on average, in March: 145/100
Blood Pressure, on average, today: 130/90 (I love salty stuff...gotta be careful)

Key changes I made that worked for me:

- Cut the sweets out except for Saturday, and even then, I take it easy.

- Avoid soda. Of any kind. Ever. Not even Saturday. Avoid fruit juice too. It's pure sugar.

- Don't EVER eat anything with any of the following ingredients:
- Partially Hydrogenated Oils
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Mono and Di Glycerides

Just doing this is often enough to trigger good results.

- Eat a much larger breakfast, smaller lunch and smallest dinner.

- Snack on nuts and seeds and (incredible as it may seem) Spicy Kale! (Mmmm, love that spicy Kale)

- Don't eat anything after dinner unless it's a vegetable

- DRAMATICALLY lowered my caffeine intake, and method of intake. I still have some coffee now and then, but it's almost always tea now.

- Exercise. Really, this was the single most effective thing of all of them. Not much, 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic activity 4 days a week was crucial for me. If I could find more time, I would have lost more weight. Which ties into...

- Turn off the screens. My laptop/iPad combination is bad news. They suck my time and had me passively snacking. I bought a television this year - we haven't had one in the house since 1999 - but it's only hooked up to a computer, we don't have any cable/satellite or antenna service - and I can see that I watch MUCH more stuff on the screen than when I only had computer monitors or laptops to watch DVDs. I am seriously considering banishing the TV to the basement or just getting rid of it, as I don't like how it affects the appearance of my home, my waistline and my brain.

Feel great, look great and happier now.

Thanks for following along, sorry I didn't quite hit the final goal, but I have no regrets about the progress I made and the results I got.