Murray Missile 

#1 I got back on my bike! After that I cut out almost all carbonated beverages, potato chips, etc. I still have an occasional beer or ale but a six pack usually lasts me a month or longer. I try to be more active, I use the bike for errands instead of the car. I use the push mower more instead of the riding mower. My wife and I have cut way back on eating out and she has been making us fruit and vegetable smoothies and fixing more fresh vegetable dishes, with that change in diet junk foods don't even taste good any more so we've stopped eating those and I don't snack in the evenings like I used to.

I realized yesterday looking in the mirror that I'm only 4 Lbs. from my low weight of a few years ago. At that time I lost the weight very quickly and the appearance change was very noticeable to me and to everyone else. people were constantly commenting on it and I may have become self-conscious. I thought I looked too thin, the first 40 years of my life I had always been skinny, too thin really. I was kind of enjoying being a "big guy" for the first time in my life, even if I wasn't in good shape. I didn't want to be that thin again and maybe that's why I wasn't able to stay with it and ended up putting the weight back on. This time it's very different, since the weight loss has been gradual I have had time to adjust to my appearance and do not feel too thin. I realize I still have weight to lose and what seemed like a ridiculously low weight back then seems perfectly reasonable now. Does that make any sense? I also had a life altering experience shortly before joining here and came very near death very suddenly. If it hadn't been my wife's day off I wouldn't be here today! I survived with no long term affects and accepted the wake up call that I couldn't continue living the way I had been. I had already decided it was time to dust off the bike but that gave it a new found urgency.