The Process of Losing Twenty Pounds
Hint: The why is more important than the how.
Over the past 47 days, I have dropped from 200 pounds to 180. For several years, I knew I needed to do it. But, for various reasons, I had not made it a top priority in my life. Those reasons aren’t important. What is important is that after years of putting it off, I finally did it. Before getting into how I lost the weight, I want to explain why. Because I believe the WHY to be as important, if not more so, than the HOW.
In 2018 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. My urologist pointed straight at my stomach and said, “Dude, you gotta do something about that.” Since I carried two hundred pounds on a 5’ 8” frame, I accepted that he had a point. He went on to explain how the Mayo “Mothership” in Rochester, Minnesota had drawn connections between excess weight and cancer growth and why it was in my best interest to be less round around the middle. I nodded in agreement but did nothing about it.
In December 2019 degenerative arthritis in my lower back caused a pinched nerve that resulted in three ER visits, two spinal injections for pain and 27 consecutive nights trying to catch a few minutes of sleep in a recliner because it was too painful to lie in a bed. When the pain lessened to the point that I could shuffle along with a walker, I went…
