I lost a hundred pounds.

It began on a commercial airplane about two years ago.

I couldn’t get the seat belt to reach all the way around my lap. “Lap” is airline code for “gut.” I breathed heavily and yanked desperately on that seat belt like our vacation depended on it. A flight attendant was close by and silently handed me an extension strap. I clipped it into place and mouthed a silent “Thank you.”

I had encouraged myself for the last several years: “You can get this back. You can do it.” I usually said this in the shower, out of sight of the bathroom mirror.

I had become large and didn’t like it. I had favorite donuts with special titles. But after my preflight palates on that plane, I finally made some decisions and got started.

Beginning in January 2023, and continuing through September 2023, I lost 100 pounds. I weighed 344 pounds on 1/4/23, and on 9/1/23 I weighed 244. It’s been a year of maintaining, and I’ve settled in at 254. The title “I gained back 10 pounds” didn’t quite click, but the math is spot on.

We’re all eaters in my tribe. Our favorite dinner conversation is dinner; what we had for dinner last night, or last year. There is usually a lot of food, and while we’re eating all we talk about is different food.

I’ve lost weight before, here and there. Thankfully this weight loss wasn’t under a dark cloud of medical necessity. That profession has tried to be encouraging at times in my past.

Actual nurse during an office appointment: “Have you ever exercised, ever?”

Actual physician conversation: “You know, Mike, all you need to do is take out 500 calories a day, for seven days, and that’s 3,500 calories. One pound is 3,500 calories. Maybe skip one beer a day ... or two?”

Lots of us are walking around with weight loss on our minds. We’re in what I call Storage Mode. We’re hanging onto our weight like we’ll need it later, not ready to let it go just yet. We haven’t........

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