Almost a year ago I wrapped up the first ever ColdFusion Biggest Losers Club. This was a simple contest amongst my readers to see who could lose the most weight over a 10 week period. I thought I'd share my own progress a year later, and invite anyone who participated last year to chime in as well.

So during the contest, I went from around 230 pounds to 211. A pretty darn good weight loss for 10 weeks. After the end of the contest I continued to lose weight until I hit around 180. I have been skinner. One summer in college I had no job, no money, and essentially lived on one pack of Ramen a day. I weighed around 172 and looked like Death. (And not the hot Neil Gaiman Death.) 180 is probably as low as I need to go. I've adjusted my diet so that while I try to eat well, I'm not so worried about my calories anymore. I've found that with my increased exercise, I can almost eat anything I want, but a lot of foods I used to enjoy simply make me feel like crap. Especially certain fried foods. My wife cooks pretty healthy though and is a darn good cook at that, so I'm not missing anything. The biggest issue I have with the weight number is obsessing. I used to check every day. I'm now down to checking Monday and Friday. But if I find myself getting too close to 185 I tend to freak out a bit. I know that I shouldn't, and I don't starve myself, but I haven't yet gotten "casual" about my weight yet. Part of me still wishes I was 172. Shoot, part of me wishes I was less. But I know that isn't healthy and not even really reasonable.

After the end of the CFBL I also kicked up my exercise a bit. I do the treadmill 5 days a week for 30 minutes. I'm slowly increasing my jogging portion of the walk. I originally jogged for 5 minutes. I'm now up to 9 minutes. My goal is to be able to jog for the entire 30 minutes. My stamina has always sucked. I can remember dreading the mile run test in grade school. The day I can jog for one full mile (even at a piddly 6.4MPH) will be a great day.

I also started using a Bow Flex. I enjoy it - even though it can be a bit cranky. I've got one piece I need to get replaced, and the weights on one side are slightly harder than the other, but outside of that, I love the full body workout I get. I'm slowly increasing my weights now. My eventual goal is to be about 1/4th Nadel size (got a ways to go ;) but in general, I'm just happy giving my body a workout. It's something I wish I had started a long time ago. I always new exercise was good of course, but until you make it a part of your life you don't really appreciate it. On days I have to miss my exercise I feel 'off' all day.

Anyway, all in all, I'm extremely happy with the changes to my body and my life in general. I'd love to hear how other participants are doing.