The Journey: Further details on the plan

In the last 14 or 15 posts, I've brought you along a years worth of the Journey. If you've been following along, you know the Journey started with cutting out soda (I was drinking about 1600 calories a day...) and has evolved into a membership at the gym.

In the first 6 months I lost 40 pounds, but then put about 13 back on. Now that I've been doing the gym for 3 weeks, I'm closing back in on the 40 pound mark. My goal is to lose at least 2 pounds a week. That may not sound like much, but in a year I could lose 100 pounds.

Now, if I hadn't lost momentum last fall, I could be an additional 40 pounds lighter, weighing about 290. But I'm not going to cry over spilled milk. It is what it is. I'm on track now.

Let me give you some more details on how the Journey looks. Yes, I cut out soda. But, at this stage, I'm not counting calories. I'm being more aware of my general calorie intake, though. Did you know that a Big Mac Value Meal at McDonald's has over 1000 calories? That's about half of what you should have for the whole day.

And I'm not changing my diet too much... I'm a super picky eater. I don't like salads or vegetables or fruits or oatmeal or pasta or cheese or rice or seasonings. Since my menu is so limited, there's not a lot of changes to be made.

What I'm trying to do is show that anyone can lose weight with just a few modifications to their life. Now, there are some good tools out there. There's special meal plans and food and shakes. And a lot of them work. I'm not trying to bash them at all.

But I'm trying to show that even without all that stuff, there's no excuse for not losing weight. Other than just not trying. Which is what I've done for a long time. I just wasn't even bothering to try.

And yes, we did join a gym. And it wasn't cheap... (I'll talk more about that in another post...). But taking a walk around the neighborhood is cheap. Grab the bottle of laundry soap and work the arms.  Stop doing laps around the parking lot looking for a spot right near the store. Park at the far end and walk in. Take the stairs.

I'm on my Journey. What about you?