Losing Weight and Loving It

I’m finally making weight-loss progress!

I started tracking my food intake and hitting the gym on my days off, and I’ve lost 10 pounds in 10 days. I'm sure that a good piece of it was bloat and sludge, but now I can feel a difference in how my clothes fit. Plus, one of my chins has packed up and moved out.

At my wife's behest, I started a regimen of a probiotic to keep my intestinal tract cleaner and a gram of cinnamon to help regulate my blood sugar. Because I’ve had a borderline prediabetic blood glucose level for the past few years, this was a tremendous idea.

The goal is to get to a healthy weight and maintain it for the rest of my life. To do that, I'll save eating an entire blueberry cheesecake and a half-gallon of Moose Tracks ice cream for my deathbed.

About a month ago, a patient came up to me after reading one of my columns and said, “Jay, you are the reason I run the way I do. You inspired me to get started.” Then, he embraced me and said, “Don't worry. You’ll get it back.”

I want to believe it.

The Sunday after the Steelers/Bengals Wild Card game, I was doing some speed walking at the YMCA. I didn't feel much like running, thanks to a stressful game and the need to calm down with fermented grain and hops, so I listened to my body and decided not to. I impressed myself just by getting in the car and driving down there.

While I was going as fast as my legs could carry me in a walking stride, the same patient saw me, embraced me again, and said, “You're getting it back.” It didn't make me break into a run, but it sure put a smile on my face.

I'm back on the road that I've been down 3 times before: losing 10 pounds over and over, only to gain it back, and more. I need to continue the journey, and this time, I believe I will.

This time, I say, “Enough!” I feel...empowered.

As I wrap up this column, I am excited to finish it because I am eager to get to the gym and work out. I'm saying to myself, “I get to run a little today!”

I pick things up and put them down with my upper body for 25 minutes, and then I run while a George Harrison song plays through my ear buds. I walk through his next song and repeat for an hour.

There's nothing wrong with the engine; the body just had a few flaws. This car likes to be in the body shop, but it also likes to be on the road.

I was never a '68 Corvette kind of fast. I always was more of a powerful muscle car. I could be the Griswold’s Family Truckster for the rest of my life—just as long as I stay on the road.

Jay Sochoka, RPh, has started his engine.