The Long Way Back - Week 1

 A personal journal on health, discipline, and starting again at 47.

Not another “New Year, New Me” fitness post.

But it actually is… sort of.

This is going to be more of a journal than a declaration. A record of how getting in shape, then getting out of shape, is — well — cyclical.

I’m 47 years old now. This isn’t about aesthetics.

Sure, we all want to look good at any age. But at this stage of life, the margin for error when it comes to taking care of ourselves is much narrower than it was in our 20s and 30s. You don’t get to ignore things for as long anymore.

I’ve tried almost everything under the sun to lose weight. And to be fair, plenty of those paths worked. I lost the weight. But I could never keep it off.

So at this point, it feels less like finding the perfect plan and more like choosing a modality I can realistically stick with — for as long as I can — this time.

I’m also starting to understand why the cycle doesn’t end. The traps. The shortcuts. The mental loopholes. The way motivation fades once the initial progress slows. Yo-yo dieting isn’t just physical — it’s psychological.

So the first order of business for me is honesty and accountability.

That means looking directly at the excuses for why I fall off the wagon and the motivations for why I keep getting back on the horse.

For now, I’ll boil everything down to one number.

Yesterday, I weighed 270 pounds.

I haven’t even started counting calories yet. At this weight, you can make one or two small changes and the scale will move quickly — mostly from water weight. And that’s okay.

Case in point: yesterday I decided to cut back on carbs slightly. I didn’t eat steamed rice with my meal. That’s it. Nothing dramatic.

This morning I woke up at 268.9 pounds.

That’s about a pound of water weight. But you know what it really is? A small step forward — and momentum matters.

For this first week, that’s all I’m focusing on.

Two simple things:

• Being mindful of protein intake — aiming for 130 grams per day  

• Getting 10,000 steps wherever I can  

It’s cold, the days are short, and Joshua Tree isn’t exactly begging you to go for long walks right now — so a lot of those steps will happen on the treadmill indoors. That’s fine.

That’s it. No grand promises. No overhaul.

Slow and steady worked for me before.  

So that’s what I’m leaning on this time.