Turkeys

If I want to be successful at Ironman Canada, I simply most lose some of this weight. It will make me faster and it will make climbing those mountain passes a lot easier. But I don't need to lose just 5 or 10 pounds. Nope, not me. I don't even have to lose just 20 pounds. No sirreee. Not me. I need to lose forty pounds to get back to my former weight. To help you visualize what forty pounds means, imagine navigating up a mountain pass on your bike carrying a very LARGE bag of dog food strapped to your back. You know, the size you would buy for a Rottweiler, German Shepard, or St. Bernard. Better yet, since we are close to Thanksgiving, think turkey. I need to lose the equivalent of TWO, not just one, but TWO 20-pound turkeys. ACK!!!

I have lost weight in the past. In fact, in 2001 I joined WeightWatchers and proceeded to lose 75 pounds over the course of about a year. But even after that loss, I still wasn't at my personal goal weight of 135 pounds. That's what I weighed when I married for the second time (which was over 16 years ago).

I can't even blame having babies as the reason for my weight gain. My children were already half grown when I started gaining weight. I can blame it on quitting smoking. When all was said and done, between re-marrying and quitting smoking, I put on over 100 pounds. That's FIVE of those dumb birds.

If I don't do something to get my weight under control, I may be packing those blasted turkeys up Richter pass with me in 2006. Trust me, that is not a pleasant prospect. I look at myself in the mirror these days and I don't like what I see. Why is it so easy to pack on the weight and so hard to take it off? Something about the equation there just doesn't seem fair.

Okay, so I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. I could try following WeightWatchers again, but I'm reluctant because I don't like being hungry and WW is very restrictive in terms of calorie intake. But, let's face it, in order to lose weight, one must restrict their calories. Darn it.

Ah, well. Maybe just by putting something out here publicly, I can motivate myself to eat just a little bit less. Maybe I can start by just losing one of those turkeys.