When I started out on this journey I had pretty much two goals in mind.  The first goal was my ultimate weight loss goal – the long term and ideal weight that I would like to be when this is all said and done.  I’m on my way but I have a looooooooooooooong way to go.  The second goal was to lose 10% of my starting body weight.  Research has shown that a 10 percent loss of one’s body weight “translates to significant health benefits.”  Positive changes in such things as lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, a decreased risk of premature illness, decreased health care costs, as well as a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes.  As someone who has been in poor health for many years it was important to me to reach this goal as soon as possible.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, exactly seven weeks into this war on weight I am proud to announce that I have shed 10% of my starting weight. Take that, sedentary lifestyle!

Now that I’ve crossed that threshold, I have been thinking of what other goals I want to achieve to my ideal weight.  I’ve come up with a couple, tell me what you think.

Weigh under 300 pounds by Halloween:  Like I said, I’m a big guy.  I have been hovering over 300 pounds for years now.  At some point I guess I just accepted it and didn’t bother trying to improve my lifestyle whatsoever.  But now that I have made some decent progress on my war on weight, I want to push my success as far as I can.  And why Halloween you ask?  Well I’m hoping that my momentum will sustain itself and I will be able to break the 300 pound barrier in a relatively short time period.  It isn’t necessarily a hard and fast date, but I want to have a deadline to look at and work toward. 

Wear a shirt I purchased in 2007:  This one is inspired (read: copied) from my friend Brian’s site.  I hate that I have outgrown the majority of my closet.  Most of my clothes are too tight on me, despite already being sizeable themselves.  I’ve lost some of my favorite shirts over the years, causalities of my poor lifestyle.  This weekend I walked into my closet, and there hung a number of shirts I don’t even remember wearing since I have moved to Florida (and that was back in 2008).  I grabbed my favorite shirt, a black and blue aloha shirt from Sig Zane, hammered a nail in the wall of my kitchen and hung it up.  My favorite shirt ever will hang on my kitchen wall until I have lost enough weight to finally wear it again.  A cliché idea, for sure, but one that I hope will inspire me to continue to wage war on my weight so I can resurrect some of my fallen comrades.

I’ve fought hard to lose the first 10% and I intend to work even harder to reach these next couple of goals.