Out of the closet.. and Damn Proud!

...ok, we all know that I'm gay (and if you didn't, it's true), but this is not what I'm talking about tonight.

I mentioned in a blog earlier on that it was finally time that we came out of the diet closet. For years and years, I yo-yo-dieted, going down a little, up a lot, down a little more, up a lot more.. and the cycle continued until a man who was 235 pounds 10 years ago, ended up at 465 pounds in March 2009.

Well, that's all over.. I have bounded out of the closet. I speak about what I'm doing and how I'm doing it to anyone who is interested. More and more now, people are stopping me and asking me about my weight loss, and I am PROUD to speak of my accomplishments (and OUR accomplishments, Sunny, because I always include I am doing this with a great partner who is experiencing the same success I am), my methods, my philosophy, my epiphany which changed my entire outlook on life.

I had the opportunity to share with a coworker at lunch today and she sat there amazed. Three of us were all eating around a table (I had my pre-made cobb salad), and the guy came in and said.. is he talking about his weight loss ..... again.... And I just laughed and said, she asked.. so I'm sharing. Ultimately he got involved in the conversation. He was approaching me from a very 'analytical' perspective.. the one question that really got me going was.. 'if you are so dedicated now, so driven to succeed, why couldn't you have been 'at this point' years ago, and maybe never gotten this way to begin with....

BOY OH BOY.. at first I was almost offended, but I didn't let that show, and I said, 'you'll have to give me a minute to formulate an answer for that'... (this skinny man sitting across from me who never had to worry a day in his life about being FAT...), I wanted to be sure that I told him how I truly felt about my transition.

Finally, I said:

'Well, you know, there are about as many reasons why someone lives with 'destructive' behavior, as there are people in this world. I lived for years not having to worry about what I ate, or why I ate it, then suddenly, my metabolism just changed. Unfortunately, at that point I was like an alcoholic, the more food I could get, the better I felt. I got to the point where I was so hampered by the weight that I wanted to die, literally. That was when I had the knew I had to change my life forever, and I have. I don't try to analyze why it took so long, I just give thanks that I finally 'saw the light' and have changed. I'll never go back to my old behaviors, NEVER'.

It was an interesting conversation, and I couldn't wait until I got a chance to blog about it tonight. Night all!