Week 41 Progress Report: Giving Thanks On Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted for three weeks. I recently went back to work as a health insurance agent, so getting my business off the ground has eaten more and more of my available time. During that period, I got seriously off-track for my 90-Day Challenge Goal; I may fall short by a pound or two. First, the week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	216.0
Original Target*:	228.8
Adjusted Target:	213.7
Actual Weight:	214.6
Loss/Gain:	– 1.4
Total Loss:	88.0
% of Goal:	63.5%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.1
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Next, the month-ending numbers for November 11:

Starting Weight:	224.8
Target Weight:	215.3
Actual Weight:	217.6
Loss/Gain:	– 7.2
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 1.6

Now, as of this morning, I weigh 212.4. That’s about 1.5 lbs. over the 90-Day Challenge target line, which (all things considered) isn’t bad. The fact remains that the general trend is still downward. Even if I miss the 90-Day Challenge goal, I can still make the goal of being at or under 196 by my 56th birthday.

I’m grateful.

I’m not just grateful for the weight loss, though I give thanks to God for having given me the strength and determination to pursue it this far. I’m also grateful for the support of my friends and family, not just in my weight loss but throughout the last year and throughout my whole life.

I haven’t counted the number of times when the people who are close to me have picked me up when I was down, corrected me when I was wrong, forgiven me when I’ve hurt them, cheered my victories, sympathized with me in defeat, celebrated my good fortune, and made me realize how blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life. I don’t have much money to call my own, but I’m wealthy where it really matters.

How do you repay such kindnesses? I don’t know how much I’ve really given of myself in return to all these people. Perhaps it’s isn’t good or wise to bring a utilitarian bookkeeper’s eye and balance sheet to such exchanges. Moreover, looking too deeply, too self-critically, and too often into one’s past can become a trap and an obstruction to doing better. “Don’t look back,” Satchel Paige once said. “Something may be gaining on you.”

But what I can do is resolve to give more of myself in the future.

This Sunday is the First Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the liturgical year for the Catholic, Orthodox, and the older Protestant Christian churches. (In fact, I think Thanksgiving is always the Thursday before Advent begins, and not by coincidence.) So it’s appropriate that I make a “New Year’s resolution” today to be a better brother, nephew, uncle, cousin, and friend — to give more of myself to the people who have given so much of themselves to me.

And with that, my dear readers, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving and many blessings in the year to come.