Lately I decided to lose some weight, my ultimate goal is to not find it again. Although this, at times, is harder than it seems. Especially since I have a love for food. So I started my journey as my wife and I were preparing for an upcoming trip. I just came from the doctors and my annual physical. The good news is I weighed 5 pounds less than last year. Bad news, I was 20 pounds away from my ideal weight for the trip. Lucky for me time was on my side. I had about 3 months before our trip took place for me to lose the weight. That would be 20 pounds over roughly 90 days, a comfortable quarter pound a day. I am no physician but I believe that is a healthy rate of loss.

The work began. I did two things to change my habits. First I counted everything I ate, everything. If the calories were not posted on the label I would look it up. After a while I got tired of looking things up so I just kept with the same foods, and foods with labels.

The second thing I did was walk more. I was already walking a mile or so a day. But I wanted to increase this. Not only for the weight loss, but I knew we would be walking a lot on this trip and I did not want to get winded. So I would walk in the morning and in the evening.

After the first week I noticed a huge drop in weight, almost 10 pounds. This was close to 2 pounds a day. I was excited. I was going to hit my goal weight by next week. I just had to keep doing what I was doing.

Wrong. The next week I only lost 1 pound. This is what I have heard in the past as being the diet wall. You do all the same stuff but you get different results. I have been told it is your body adjusting to the new food intake and exercise habits. So I told myself the next week I will do more. I will cut my calories and I will walk more.

Simple math, more calories out then calories in would equal weight loss.

Well my hypothesis was proven right for the first week of the new intense diet and training. In fact the weight continued to drop on a consistent basis for two weeks. Then the wall was hit again.

I could not eat less, I felt as if I was already starving myself. I could walk more, but then I would not have time for anything else.

So I reached out to some of my friends who were medical professionals. In a nut shell they basically said, do not give up. Your body is making adjustments. If you quit or make more adjustments things will be roller coasting again. Stay the course. Keep the calories with in the same range that you are eating at the moment and keep the same walking schedule. In time you will see the drop.

I did not know what to do. I wanted the fast results like before, but I also trusted them. So, I did what they said. I stayed the course. I stayed focus and sure enough I started to lose weight again. It was not as rapid as when I first started but I was dropping. And I was able to not only hit my goal for the trip but come under it so I had more space to eat and not feel so guilty.

The short lesson I learned during all of this, when you are going down a path and it appears as it is no longer the right path, stop, get some guidance from those that have a wider perspective, possible form those that have walked the path before. They may give you the encouragement and motivation to let you know you are on the right path you just have to keep on going and not give up.