Sometimes the journey takes a detour

When I go on a road trip, very rarely will I go straight from Point A to Point B. There is often a detour of some kind, a rare unpassable roadside attraction to go blow a couple of bucks on or even the occasional missed exit or wrong turn that becomes an adventure.

I have found that my weight loss journey has been the same way. Just as my wife and I stopped to see the World's Largest Rocking Chair (which was a bit of a disappointment) on our way home from Louisville, Ky., my weight loss took a side track for a little while. Unfortunately, my weight began to climb again and I was coming up with ways to try to combat it, or simply ignore it like it wasn't happening. I came up with "plans" to get back under control, none of which were successful.

There is no kind voice coming from a GPS navigational device to tell me that my eating habits have taken a wrong turn or that there is an alternate route for working out when barriers suddenly arise.

Nope, like a Boy Scout on a hiking trail I was left to find my own way with nothing but a map and a broken compass. Lucky for me, I'm and Eagle Scout and I was able to find my way back to the road to recovery.

Last Tuesday (July 12), I suddenly thought to myself, "I'm going to go for a jog in the morning before I go to work." I have had that thought a few times, but generally after the third trip to the snooze button, I quickly lose the motivation. However, the next day my alarm went off at 6 a.m. and I got up, got dressed, put on my running shoes and was out the door. I planned a two-mile loop earlier. Having not run since the beginning of May, I thought it was fairly conservative. I made it just past one mile and learned that two miles the first time out was a little ambitious.

The next day I went out after work, still sore from the day before. I took my dog with me and found I had more endurance than he does. Again, I only made it about a mile-and-a-half.

After copious amounts of hard physical yard work over the weekend, I went back to running Monday morning. I took the same two-mile loop, only this time I went the other direction. I didn't want to let myself get convinced that I couldn't do it when I got to the same spot where I had to stop the first time. It was tough, but I made it the whole way. I took on the challenge again Wednesday morning, along a different two-mile path, and finished again. I'm not a betting man, but I would say that by the time you read this, I will have logged my fifth and sixth mile of the week. Pretty impressive for a man who weighs over 300 pounds if I do say so myself.

With a renewed motivation for exercise, I have also been keeping better track of my eating. I am getting closer to getting back to eating 1,500 calories per day and I have nearly completely cut soda from my diet ... probably another couple weeks and I'll have that done too.

I'm doing away with all my goals for now with the exception of one. Get to 290 by Sept. 26, my 27th birthday. I think I can do it, but I'm going to need all the encouragement I can get.