A beginning is a delicate thing

That was Dune. Maybe some Babylon 5, too: "And so it begins..."?

Neither one's really that accurate, I guess, since I've been on this particular leg of my journey since 2005, but it is the first post in a blog, and you kind of have to do that sort of thing. I'm Eric, and in October, 2005, which was two months after the birth of my son, I weighed 249 pounds, a new high(low?) for me. With a good friend extolling the benefits of Weight Watchers to me and my lovely wife, we joined up.

I was unlike most of my meeting-mates. I had not previously attempted dozens of diets (just shakes and "metabolism" pills) and... I'm a guy. But between great results those first few weeks and liking my Leader, I stuck to the program. As happens, things went really well for a while. My wife hit Goal and earned Lifetime Membership within about a year and a half, having about 60 some-odd pounds to remove. My goal was a lot further off, since I'd be basically trying to shed a whole extra me that I'd started carrying around since fourth grade.

The first 50 pounds dropped in about a year. Since then, I've been stuck at a plateau. In September 2007, I recorded my best showing and since then have been hovering right around 200.

So, I'm hoping to do what I can to shake things up and rejuvenate my motivation. In this blog, I'll keep track of how I'm doing and what I'm doing about it, my thoughts on food and weight loss as well as health and exercise... and other things that might sneak into my posts. I want this to work.

Now for the traditional stats.

Height: 5'7"
Starting weight: 249.0 pounds (October 7, 2005)
Low weight: 188.4 pounds (September 28, 2007)
Current weight: 202.6 pounds (April 10, 2009)
Goal weight: 145.0 pounds (yup, trust me-- that's right in the middle of pretty much every range I could find)

And the traditional pictures. Oooh, this won't be fun.

"Before"

"During"

So there's the introduction. Wish me luck, world.