I Have Returned

... and it is good to be back. I actually returned late Monday, but gave myself a full 2 days of relaxation before I started diving into my to do list, which, aside from a take-home test and some more progress on my thesis, also includes a much needed update to this blog. First off, before I left I promised some illustrative fun. Well, here it is. One year of change:

I've enjoyed looking at some side-by-side progress photos since I started really seeing changes in myself, but this is one of the most telling. Yep, that is the exact same suit in both pics. I wore it 3 times: once to my dad's wedding a week after I bought it from Casual Male XL and had it altered at a local tailor in October 2007, once for my birthday dinner last year and once for my friend's wedding (you may know it as my official before picture). Now it is far too big to get taken in. I didn't get much money out of it considering the original investment, but you know what? That's ok with me. What I've gotten out of this journey is worth so much more than a $300 suit. I've gained years on my life and improved the quality of the life I'm living right now.

Case in point: my trip to Dallas. This was one of the best birthdays I've ever had. 3 of us from up here in KC drove down Friday afternoon and arrived 9 hours later (we hit OKC rush hour/Big 12 tournament traffic on the way). Normally, that would have been excruciatingly tiring, but I still had a couple hours of socializing in me after that. We hung out at a bar and had dinner, a few shots and some fun people watching.

Saturday was the city's parade celebrating my birthday St. Patrick's day. I drank a lot, I ate nothing but restaurant fare for 3 days (including family style comfort food at this awesome BYOB restaurant) and I didn't step foot in a gym or WW meeting for the whole weekend. What I did do, though, was eat reasonable portions, walk 7 miles while helping carry a cooler with 2 cases of beer and 5 pounds of ice, play a couple hours of lacrosse and, overall, enjoyed myself thoroughly. At one point, a friend pointed out just how much walking we did on Saturday and asked me frankly "would you have been able to do that a year ago?" to which I said I honestly don't think so. "That must be pretty satisfying." Indeed.

When I got home Monday night, I had one last indulgence: some grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, asparagus and an ice cream sundae. Since then, I've been completely on program. I'm looking forward to my meeting this Saturday. I'm going to share some of my progress photos with the meeting and while I'm hoping I register a loss, I don't care how it turns out. I definitely earned that weekend of indulgence and I think I did it very much within reason.