New Thing 299, New Thing Every Day: Reach the Best Physical Condition of My Entire Life

Tomorrow is my official weekly weigh-in day, but I am pretty excited and don't want to wait to make this declaration.

Looking at my "Road to Healthier", tracking my weight is a central part of it, but please don't get too hung up on that. Since June -- with my MS-related diet that leads to weight loss pretty much no matter what I do -- I have put no extra effort into weight loss, basically allowing that to just happen naturally. It has been exciting, though, to see the weight loss, and the success I have seen there is certainly the most visible evidence of what really is the best physical condition of my life.

Here is why I say "best":

• I grew up an overweight kid, with absolutely no athletic ability and only occasional efforts to improve my physical condition.
• Over the course of my life, there have been points where I have been in better or worse condition -- including a while where I could run 5-6 miles, until my knees got bad -- but getting in shape and healthy has never been the long-term effort it is now.
• As of this morning, with a weigh-in about an hour ago, I have lost 4.0 pounds this week. Yes, this is weird, especially since I have been pretty consistently losing weight for months, but I have been heading in this direction all week. This puts me at a total loss of 40.0 pounds this year.
• With weekly weight lifting, looking at all of the exercises I can do -- all of the usual upper body stuff, keeping in mind that I can't do anything related to my lower body anymore -- I can lift more with every muscle group than ever in my life.
• I can do more push-ups and sit-ups than at any point in my entire life.
• I am pretty consistently doing my regular five miles with my wheelchair at Cosmo park. 
• Remember my improved sleeping? It has been weeks now and I am sleeping MUCH better than I have in over 20 years.

Now that I have reached this point, I will share my actual weight and where I am going. As of this morning, I weigh 199.0 pounds (the least I have weighed in over 10 years, a weight Leigh has never seen me reach). My goal is to get to 167 pounds (which is still 20 pounds heavier than the lowest weight that is considered healthy for my 5'10" height). At that point, I will have to figure out how to eat a lot more calories so I stop losing weight (probably while still eating the way I do, just more). I'll also keep up the exercise, which should continue to accelerate weight loss, as well.

Moving forward, my hope continues to be that there will be improvements to my actual MS symptoms (myelin damage, etc.), keeping in mind that it should take 6-18 months to see any signs of that, if at all. But whether that happens or not, I have already seen a definite improvement to my quality of life and that should only continue to improve. I am grateful and the results make it very easy to stay committed.

Thanks for everybody's support!