I guess this is kind of like a “Hello, World” post since I’ve been absent from this blog for almost two years now. I really wasn’t planning on it being this long, but it’s the procastinator in me. I kept putting off and putting off getting back to it. But, here I am. Better late than never, as they say.
I decided to rename the blog. It is now called “Atherton’s Shack”, instead of “Reduction Road Odyssey”. It’s still the same URL, but whereas “Reduction Road Odyssey” was dedicated almost exclusively to weight loss, “Atherton’s Shack” is going to be about whatever I feel like writing about. If you were a “Reduction Road Odyssey” reader, I will still be doing posts on weight loss, but I’m also going to delve into other topics. If you want to know where the name “Atherton’s Shack” came from, you can read my ‘About’ page.
This first post is going to be about weight loss, so here we go. I have been struggling with weight problems for almost all of my life. About a decade ago, I really started ballooning up in weight, even though I was already overweight. I ended up weighing in excess of 400 pounds, and I haven’t been able to get back down below that mark. I’ve been a member of Weight Watchers for almost 3 years now. At first, I had some success, losing 54 pounds. But then, things started falling apart, as they tend to do, and I reverted to a lot of old and bad habits. I’ve gained back about half of the weight that I lost initially on Weight Watchers. So, weight-wise, things aren’t too good right now.
I sometimes wish that the weight was the only health issue I’m facing, but it’s not. I don’t want to get all whiney here, but I have some fairly significant back problems, as well. I have degenerative arthritis in my back, plus I have spinal stenosis. Obesity, arthritis, and spinal stenosis makes for a bad combination. Trust me on this! I get sciatica-type pain shooting down both sides, and my back creaks and pops every time I move, so I have a lot of daily pain as well.
Over the past year, the pain has gotten to the point where sometimes it’s just almost unbearable. I’ve lost a little weight, then gained a little weight, then lost a little, gained a little, and on and on. So, I need to get the weight loss going consistently in the down direction, since that’s the part of my trifecta of problems that I have the most control over. That’s one of the reasons I’m starting up the blog again, to get some cyber-support!
There have been times over the past year that the pain has been so bad that I’ve missed work because of it. More recently, I’ve been working from home quite a bit, because it’s easier, although it does get lonely, because I live alone. There have been a number of times when the pain has literally brought me to tears. Of course, I don’t cry in public. After all, I am a dude! Boys don’t cry, right?
So, what I’m going to do is go back to what was working for me when I had my initial success on Weight Watchers. Somehow, it’s gotten removed from my mindset, but I’m going to put it back in. It’s really quite simple. It’s one day at a time, one hour at a time, one moment at a time. We can learn from the past, but we can’t go back in time and change the past. And 5 seconds ago is already in the past. And we certainly can’t go forward in time and try to control the future. The only time we can control is right here, right now. So, that’s what I’m going to get back to, and I’m going to exercise some of that control over the present moment right here, right now. I feel hungry right now, but I know I’ve had enough to eat today, and I know the hunger is psychological, not physical. Plus, it’s midnight here where I am, and that’s a bad time to eat. So, when I get done with this post, I’m just going to go to bed, and that’s that.
I will be doing regular updates on my health and weight loss efforts, but probably not every day. Instead, I will write about whatever I feel like writing about in that moment. In this moment, I felt like writing about my health and weight issues, so that’s what I did.
I would love to read any comments that anyone might have, but please do me a favor and keep them positive. I will probably delete any negative comments. I already get enough negativity from the recesses of my own brain. Beliwve me, if mentally beating up on yourself was a professional sport, I’d be a multi-millionaire by now!! If you absolutely must yell at me, and can’t control yourself, then go ahead, I can’t stop you. I can press the ‘delete’ button, though.
OK, I guess that’s enough for tonight. It’s way past my bedtime, anyway, seeing as I have to work in the morning. So, once again, Hello, World, I’m back – welcome to “Atherton’s Shack”!
