100 Pounds Ago...I Started Learning How to Love Myself More Than the Pleasure of Food by Charles A. Postma - HTML preview

Chapter 5

Goal Reached

In July 2019, at 170 pounds, ten pounds above my goal, I began an extended fast to go at least 7 days as usual. All my fasts are open-ended just adding a day with each successful day passed until I reached 7

days. I never set goals for a number of days for an extended fast. Powering through what could be a serious issue requiring immediate medical intervention is not a place I ever wanted to find myself.

Fasting length should never be a goal-oriented activity. On day seven I thought about taking it a few more days if possible. On the morning of the ninth day, I woke up with palpitations, scary ones, and an elevated heart rate and high blood pressure. I decided to end my fast after weighing myself. I weighed in that morning at 159.5 pounds. I could not believe I’d made it. Finally, on July 17th, 2019, I reached my goal weight. Then I went to the refrigerator and ate a few grapes. I felt my body go back to normal within a few moments, seconds really. I briefly considered continuing after everything was okay but thought better of it and grazed with a nibble here and a nibble there for the rest of the day. Within a week or so I was back up to 170 pounds where I hoped to stay at or under for the rest of my life. I’ve danced around my maintenance goal weight of 170 ever since. Thanks to my simple fasting protocol, that dance has been more of a waltz than a twerk.

The day of reaching my goal weight I put on my military uniform fitted to me in 1969 and took some pictures for Facebook and made a big deal of it for a couple of days. Then I settled into maintenance. It was no different than when I was trying to lose weight. I weighed myself every day just as I had before. I made food selections and adjusted portion sizes just as I had done before. It was all quite anti-climactic just like how the whole thing started in January two years earlier.

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The holidays proved to be a bit more challenging. There have been three holiday seasons since reaching goal weight and I went above my desired maximum maintenance weight for each one of them. I did not panic or sink into a pity party. Blowing past my goal weight by ten pounds left me with a permanent confidence that I will never be obese again. This past holiday season 2021-22 will be the last season that I will allow myself to indulge in a few sugar-added treats. I just do not enjoy them anymore anyway.

Each season I get up to the low 180’s, but with warm weather coming I just start doing one meal a day and I will be back to 170 by July 19th for my reaching goal weight anniversary.

I used to get excited planning extended fasts and noting the rapid healing results, but five years into this lifestyle and the honeymoon is over. I am glad I picked a simple easy to follow weekly fasting protocol to maintain what I have gained in benefits. Without diseases to heal nor weight to lose it is hard to work up the interest in an extended fast. I did find a reason for longer fasts and I will share that later in the book.