CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES …

I’m back. It’s me…me but not me. Maybe the real me at last. Most definitely a lighter version – lost 60 lbs. Certainly leaner – dropped four waist sizes. Meaner? Probably. See, I liked eating…still do. Liked eating all that bad stuff – from Chicken Fried Steak to Meatball Subs to Cheeseburgers (In-n-Out a particular favorite) to Chocolate Shakes to Key Lime Pie and Peach Melba. I liked mayonnaise, salad dressing, bread, pasta, red meat, cheese and grease in all it’s many wonderful incarnations. I mean I really liked them.

But so far, there are things I like more. I like being on the plus side of all those lab test printouts you start accumulating after the age of 50. The ones that list all the three letter acronyms for doom: LDL, BMI, BP/HR, LF, BFR, et. al.. You know the drill…or you soon will. I like wearing clothes that I thought I would never wear again. I like not huffing and puffing up the stairs and not limping because my sheer girth is weighing on my horribly arthritic knee (college trampoline accident). Admittedly, I like the attention, and looking in the mirror, and looking good in a bathing suit. Speedos, no less. I like pulling 60 less pounds through the water when I work out. Old swimmers never die – they just lose buoyancy.

And in the newly buoyant spirit brought on by dramatic weight loss I can optimistically say there’s another way to look at this. I’m not giving up the things I liked to eat as much as I’m discovering new things I like to eat.

OK. That was a little slick… erase, erase, erase.

Truth is, change is hard. It’s really hard. But it’s worth it…so far. ‘Nuff said. Oh, if you’re interested, the plan that finally worked is called Smart For Life (www.smartforlife.com) AKA “The Cookie Diet.” Don’t be mislead. It ain’t Pepperidge Farm. But it ain’t really a diet either. It’s a force for Ch-ch-ch-change. No hard sell. Take a look – or don’t.

Thing about this whole thing is that every time I brought up the subject of losing weight and choosing this plan or this regimen or this – OK, I’m going to use the “D” word – diet, I was seemingly barraged with negativity.

“It’ll never work – diets don’t work.”

“You’ll just gain it back and then you’ll be twice as miserable”

“It’s not natural – too much stress on your body”

“Ease up…you deserve to eat what you want — why deny yourself and make yourself miserable just to add a few more years onto your life.”

I heard it all. And the distressing news here is that no matter how true any of those responses ring…they are the wrong responses. The surest way not to accomplish anything is to not try anything.

I did it. I did it. I did it.

And I’m willing to take a stab at the “keeping it off” part now – even though, you know, “Everybody gains the weight back.”

Whatever it is that you’ve been talking about for ages and sharing with friends and hanging on their response to…stop talking, stop waiting, stop looking and listening and living for approval. Do it. Do it yourself.

And if it doesn’t work. Try something else. And if that doesn’t work try something else.

Turn and face the strange chayn-ge–ez…

Scot.