Way back in June 2006, I blogged about Doing The Blogger Diet. Lots of bloggers were trying to lose weight and being public about it. I thought that would be a good motivator. For the past three days, I've been below my original goal weight of 11 1/2 stones, or 160 pounds. I finally get to declare success!

I'm actually a bit below that right now, 158 pounds. This is the lightest I've been since probably high school. Coming down from about 180 pounds, it feels great. Some thoughts on the weight loss....

• The compliments have been nice. I've often seen others after a time who I've noticed lost weight or looked healthier, and I've been very happy for them. I have to say, it's great to be on the receiving end of "Have you lost weight?"
   
• It wasn't fast. Almost two years. I suppose I could have done it sooner, but I wasn't interested in starving myself. I was looking to gradually get to where I wanted. Still, even I'm surprised it has taken so long. Having said that, I got down into the 168 pounds range some time ago. It's been the last ten pounds that's been harder.
   
• There's been a lot of saying no. No to those chips with my sandwich. much though I love them. No to the extra large meal. No to that candy bar in the airport. Travel, in particular, has been one of the hardest things to overcome. It's so easy to reach for junk food on a trip. I've just learned to say no to lots of things.
   
• There's been a lot of eating smaller. I love dessert. A nice slice of chocolate cake on Saturday from Reeves? I haven't been saying no to that. But I have been eating maybe only half.
   
• Exercise has helped. I found I lost the most weight when I consistently stuck with my rowing, 6,000 meters per day on my machine, 325 calories per session. I don't know if burning those extra calories made that much of a difference or not, and I really should have some personal trainer to be telling me what to do right. But I have felt the rowing has helped turn some fat into muscle, has burned a bit of the fat off and most important just makes me feel healthier from having done it.
   
• Avoiding chocolate in the evenings, as I wrote about initially, has been a huge help. It just instantly would make me want to eat more. I've also tried to avoid immediately looking for something chocolate after a meal. My habit is to do that, but if I could make it past the first five minutes or so, that craving for something sweet (and which I didn't need) would go away.
   
• Avoid snacking. The obvious tip, but it's important. Taking a break from the computer leads to an inevitable trip into the kitchen, where I'd want to snack. Now I take the walk, but I skip the snack.

The biggest motivator has probably been to do this post. It's amazing how much I felt I'd set myself up for peer pressure to meet my goal. I doubt any readers have been waiting for me to post my success, but having set the goal publicly, I personally felt like I wanted to conclude the story having met the goal.

I might try for a little more loss, maybe to reach 155 pounds or 11 stones (the British weight system that I explained here). But my main goal is really to stay at or slightly below where I'm at now.

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