Today is the first day in what feels like a year that my pants sit below my hips, rather than snugly around my waist. It was casual Friday in the office today, so I didn’t wear a belt. I was able to stick my thumb between my pant’s waistband and my belly.

It has only been a week since I dropped the bulk of sugar from my diet. Well, most of the sugar was dropped. At the moment, there is a monster drink on my desk and I had coffee with sugar once. I’ve eaten bread and stuff too. I just have stopped the crazy amounts of Little Debbies that have been my habit as of late.

I am aware of the fact that this isn’t so much fat-loss, but loss of bloat. However, it is still a wonderful feeling. And the extra energy that I have is noticeable. I shadowboxed, a bit, in my truck on the way to and fro work the last couple days. Bending over in the shop at work to do the slight amount of manual labor that I occasionally have need to do doesn’t pain me. I’m always amazed at the drastic improvement that a single week of ‘clean’ eating can provide.

In the weekly all-hands meeting today, the bossman pushed our forty or so employees to join him in the Rock ‘n Roll marathon that is coming up in a few weeks. I attended the event a couple years ago with my sister and her friend, yet I refused to attempt the race. At the time I was in great shape. My weight was down to an amazingly fit (almost skinny) 200 pounds, whereas my normal size floats near a fairly healthy 235 mark. I could have easily trained to finish a half marathon. No way to be a competitor, but just enough to do it without dying. I wonder if I could manage to train up to the half marathon that my employer is recommending. It is only 6 weeks away.

Like was said above, my typical weight since high school has been 235. That is with a slight gut on a six foot tall frame with short legs and neck. I’m mostly torso but it’s not like I’m wide like a dwarf. Now, though, my weight is pushing 260 and I have not exactly exercised during this whole year.

The year that my sister did the marathon was the last time that I lost a considerable amount of weight. I had gotten in a bad rut of eating lots of Krispy Kreme donuts. An average of 5 dozen a week for over a year (that compares to this year’s 2 boxes of Lil Debs per day, 5 days a week) was my downfall. I managed to get to a max of 282 pounds before I hit the bottom of that vortex and decided to shape up. It took only 14 months to drop an amount of weight equal to an average 12 year old boy, while gaining strength and flexibility in the process.

So is this doable?

I could even legitimately celebrate with my sister and her friend after the race.