What a difference a year makes!

September 6th, 2005. It was the first day of 2nd grade for my daughter. It was the first day of change for my wife and I.

We put her on the bus and sent her off to school. Then we went to our local Weight Watchers center and joined the program for the first time ever. We were obese. That's a rough statement, but it's true. I weighed in at 295.6 lbs, which was probably not quite my "all-time" highest weight. I knew I had well over 100 lbs to lose. My wife, who had already lost about 10-15 lbs over the summer on her own, was not quite that bad, but we were both in need of serious weight loss.

My expectations were that, maybe, perhaps, within one year, I might lose about 50 lbs. My wife was a bit more modest, hoping for about 25 lbs over the course of a year. My expectations were drastically altered the very first week when I lost 13 lbs! My wife did well, losing over 4 lbs. We've never looked back since!

By Christmas, I had already lost over 50 lbs and my wife was well on her way, too. By late spring, I had lost 100 lbs, which is when I made it a goal to get to my goal weight by my "anniversary" weigh-in, which will be tomorrow night. It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride since then, with some vacation time and bad eating time cutting in to my progress, but I've still managed to lose some more over the last few months and I'm SOOOOOOO close. I would have to come in with a 2.8 lb loss to get to my 180lb goal weight, which is not likely, but I'm ok with that. It's not like it's never gonna happen...it will, and soon! If it happens tomorrow, all the better. My wife is within 7 lbs of her goal as well and has lost over 70lbs in the last year. What an amazing job she has done!

Can a year make a difference? You bet! I will NEVER return to my old self. I like the "thin and healthy" me much better! Here's hoping the next year will bring successes different in nature!