Unabated progress

Hmmm...just when you were beginning to think I had bailed out...took the easy way out...slipped up... relapsed , you name it! After all , everyone falls.If you ever watched The Matrix(the first one) , you'd remember even the great Neo didn't get the jump right the first time around. Well , I could not write on Sunday.The heat in Cape Town was just excruciating and the thought of sitting in front of the monitor and let my fingers do their dance on the keyboard was totally off putting.I'm sure you understand.
After my first blog entry last week , I began to have second thoughts about this whole thing.This whole thing of "exposing" myself this way :) . I mean , one of my close buddies remarked that he always thought "WeighLess is like that place where my granny would go for weight management".It sounds funny now , but he couldn't have said it at a worse time. That day my resolve was hanging by a very thin string.I forgive him , because many people do have similar or totally weird misconceptions about the WeighLess program.Ok, let me say this...I'm not a paid WeighLess shill :)...just in case the seeds of that idea are beginning to germinate in your mind.
Seriously , I really thought hard about what he said .You know when you begin to be visited by those "what was I thinking" or "who am fooling" thoughts.Yes, I went through that.
There's a famous quote that says ,

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."

famously attributed to Charles Dubois (some claim it was another guy by the name Charles Du Bos) .Just like me , I'm sure you've heard that quote many times before.I heard it before... many many times .However , each time I heard it , I was like "yeah ...it's all easy to talk like that when you're not down in the doldrums and you have really hit rock bottom" .This weight loss thingy has really been a test of character for me.It's really not easy.Not in the sense of the food being different .Different here means less fatty :) . It's not easy in the sense that it touches on the core of one's personality...the depth of one's resolve, issues of self respect , dignity,strength of character ,motivation ,faith ,etc.Hey , the next time you see a CEO of a major cooperate company shedding tears on Oprah because they lost 10 kilos , DON'T LAUGH! It's really a big deal :)...Of course we all want to pack out laughing because it seems totally ridiculous to make sense of it...that such a powerful person who has the power to decide on other humans' fate would cry over such a "minor" achievement!!! I kid you not , it's a big deal.It really is.

Thursday , the 26th of Feb , was just an awesome day.I woke up much earlier than usual and it felt like my body was preparing me for something great.After doing the routine tasks (you know bathing , dressing ,etc) I put on my belt last (I always do that) , and guess what...I suddenly could use the one but last hole on it.People , prior to this ,I had maxed all the holes on belt! I had no "hole credit" anymore.Now suddenly I could fit and actually leave out an extra hole unused. If you think this is not a biggie , think of that time when you were so broke you were considering doing a night vigil at the ATM on the eve of payday ...and then you unexpectedly found a R50 in some pocket of your jacket .Wasn't it an awesome feeling?
I kind of expected it though , because I had been very strict with my eating and never "cheated" :). By the way, who do you really cheat when you slip up ?I really wonder.Even bodybuilders talk of a "cheat day" , which means the day you break off from eating clean and just munch on anything and everything.Well , maybe not everything...I mean , if you completely let loose on that "cheat day" , it could easily end up being equivalent to eating badly the whole week :) . I must say on Friday the conditions at work were just conducive for anyone to easily let go and fall off the wagon.We had an all day workshop and lunch was a variety of toasted sandwiches ...the usually suspects ;ham and cheese , cheese and bacon,etc.I remember I took a couple of seconds staring at these temptation sandwiches.Yes, they were temptation sandwiches..How else would YOU have thought of them?Eat me ...they all said.I'm serious.You know , this is the kind of stuff that brings one's willpower to its knees! I still suspect it was a setup by dark forces :).If you have a political inclination , you probably would prefer me calling them "counter-revolutionary" forces , bend on derailing my weight-loss revolution...

My weigh-in was on Saturday the 28.This was my 3rd weigh-in and I somehow expected the losing trend to continue , but did not expect dramatic results as in the first 2 weeks when my body went through the rapid changes.When I got to the meeting place there was no one else except for the 2 lady group leaders.It's always like this at this group.A lot of the people don't stick around ...they just weigh and leave.I think I'm the only male in the group though.I was told the other guy who used to be a member there lost 56 kgs! That's like losing "another human".That guy apparently now runs ultra-marathons.
I had a quick chit chat with the 2 group leaders...almost playing an act to delay "finding out the truth" :).Eventually I climbed on the scale and once more...I had lost some more..I was again a loser!A drop of 1.2kg , bringing my total in 3 weeks to 5.2kgs .Wow.That's just how I felt....and I still am on that high.This is the concert of celebrating "losing" :) .
So the journey continues, and as promised I shall post some pictures as I progress ..So, until next time....you shall hear from less of me!