The Long Way Back: Week 4 Recap

I started this journey on January 7, 2026, and so far it has been smooth sailing. Today I woke up at 249.6 pounds, which puts me a little over 20 pounds lost in a month. When you start at essentially morbid obesity, even small changes can result in dramatic drops on the scale. This past week I made adjustments to my strength training — specifically my leg routine. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, which keeps my left knee in constant pain. It’s very difficult to do isolated single-leg exercises without aggravating it. So for now, I’m sticking with manageable-weight trap bar deadlifts and cable leg extensions. When the knee feels warmed up and cooperative, I’ll add in some goblet squats with kettlebells. Three weeks in, I think I’ve normalized most of the bloating and water retention from when I began. This week had days where the scale wouldn’t budge — and then, woosh… two pounds gone overnight. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Extra carbs, sodium, or lack of sleep can all drive water retention. The key is staying consistent and riding it out. My daily calories fluctuate between 1100 and 1700. I raise carbs and calories slightly on lifting days. I try not to stay too low for obvious reasons, but sometimes life gets busy and the priority becomes hitting protein with a shake and moving on. Those are areas I’ll tighten up when I get closer to 220 pounds. One thing I’ve been more consistent with is steps. I’m reliably hitting 10,000, often landing between 11,000–13,000. My goal is to build that back toward 20,000 steps per day over the next couple of weeks. When you’ve been overweight your entire life, nothing feels more important than getting that number on the scale as low as possible. But the wiser approach is building habits that are sustainable long-term — sticking to principles that reinforce lasting change. So for the rest of this year, the focus is on building muscle and building habits that keep the weight off. It’s a work in progress.