The 50 lb Milestone and Things That Weigh Fifty Pounds

There it is ladies a gentleman, a number that I have been anticipating for a long time.  I have officially lost a total of 50 lbs from my heaviest weight of 308 lbs in March 2012. This means that I have burned or saved a grand total of 175,000 excess calories in the last 13 months.

 As a way of celebrating the accomplishment, and because I am not ready to start posting any "before" or "current" pictures, here are a few common things that weigh as many pounds as I have lost.

A large bag of dog food.

$200 in quarters (for those of you that aren't mathemagicians like myself,
that means 800 quarters.) 

A bale of hay.

The average male bulldog.

Two of this kid.

But it took picking up one of these
bad boys in the gym to realize the magnitude
of what I have accomplished...

While standing in the gym with my eyes locked on the dumbbell in my hand, the realization hit me. It's one thing to look at 50 lbs, or to talk about it, but it's a whole other thing to hold it in your hand.

Holding that weight in my palm reminded me that, in order to reach my final goal, I am going to have to lose that much weight all over again AND an additional 8 lbs.  It was, perhaps, the first time I truly understood the magnitude of what I have set out to accomplish.  Almost as if I was attempting to scale Mt Everest and paused half way through to look towards the peak and say...

"Screw that shit."

But I quickly decided that this was not the time to look up. On the contrary, it was precisely the time I needed to look down.  This was the time to take a look at what I have already managed to accomplish and use it as motivation to keep climbing.

As I stood there, I couldn't remember what it felt like to be 50 lbs heavier.  I couldn't quite recall the extra strain it placed on my joints.  I couldn't dredge up the memory of how hard it was to breath after walking up a flight of stairs.  All I could really think about was the fact that I used to weigh THIS MUCH more than I do now, and that I never wanted to weigh that much again.

Armed with a new found appreciation for what I have set out to do I hope that in a few short months I will be composing an entry similar to this one entitled "Things That Weigh 75 lbs."  Even more momentous, and the blog post I look forward to the most, will be the post entitled...

"How I Lost 100 lbs and Kept It Off For Good."

Yes, that sounds just fine.  Perhaps I'll start drafting it now.  After all, 2027 is just around the corner. I wouldn't want all that weight loss to sneak up on me.