Super, Svelte Sixty....

For the first time since I started writing this blog, a cute intro is escaping me. I'm having trouble coming up with a witty one-liner to hook you in, and for someone who writes for a living, being short on words is not something very familiar.



But then again, neither is successful weight loss, at least not a goal that at one time seemed so far away and so difficult.



And now, exactly six months after I first stepped on a Weight Watchers scale and four and a half months before I hoped to approach this mark, perhaps I should leave it to three little words to tell the story.



I did it.



I did it, the guy who has struggled with his weight for so much of his life that the idea of diet and exercise seemed so frightening.



I did it, the guy nicknamed "Griff" in the college marching band due to his resemblance to the Family Guy.



I did it, the guy who still gets upset when he remembers being punched in the stomach by "friends" on the basketball court.



I did it, they guy who regularly hides from cameras, is afraid to remove his shirt at the beach, and who used to wonder whether XXL shirts were too small.



Holy crap, Matthew Engelhardt has officially lost more than 60 pounds.



Indeed, my One Shining Moment is here. And I must say, it feels pretty darn good.



I don't know if I've ever followed through with anything like I did on this little challenge of mine. Then again, I've never had this level of support in my life, nor such a reason to want to lose weight. You can scare people all you want with threats of diabetes, heart disease, and all the other scary terms doctors lob at overweight patients.



I needed some more motivation, and I found it in pending marriage. Then I found even more motivation by keeping this blog and worrying about making a fool of myself. Whatever the motivation was, it worked, and if it can happen to me, it can literally can happen to anyone (sorry for the moment of hokiness).



I'll never forget the feeling from Thursday. Megan and I had some wedding stuff to take care of in the afternoon which made attending the regular Weight Watchers meeting impossible. I found a meeting nearby to work, and after one last gym excursion, I found myself wandering into an unfamiliar building filled with faces who had never seen me before.





Six months ago, it took all sorts of coddling to get me into a Weight Watchers meeting. On Thursday, I went by myself, wearing a pair of nylon shorts in front of a group of total strangers.





There was no fanfare, no buildup, just me waiting in line. I stepped on the scale, the woman wrote down my weight, informed me I'd lost three pounds this week (thanks, food poisoning!), congratulated me, and gave me my twelfth five-pound star. With a smug grin on my face, I headed back to work, stopping to buy a baked good for the first time in months, and felt great.





Fittingly for a movie geek like me, it happened just before the Oscars. Aside from cutting down the nets at the Final Four, I've always thought winning an Academy Award would be the greatest thing imaginable. But while I'll never be able to dunk any basketball made by Nerf, and they don't give out Oscars for most Lord of the Rings references in a single conversation, I do have weight loss bling to show off.





So like an Oscar recipient, here are a few thank yous. To Megan, of course, for the motivation and all that comes next. To my parents for getting behind me and Megan's parents for joining in. To Katie, the group leader, and the trainers at the gym, and my coworkers who gave me a supportive ear.





But the most enjoyable part of it all has been this blog. As much as the exercise has done me well, so has writing, and I've been delighted to hear that some people have taken a bit of inspiration.





And I'm not done yet. Sixty pounds feels super and svelte, but there's much more Matt that needs to disappear. So I'll be back at the game come Monday, on the arc trainer burning away the calories and diligently counting my points. There's no reason to stop, so for now, we'll just push up the bar a little higher. Eighty pounds is the new goal, and we're off to one helluva head start...





And with that, here are the most satisfying STATS I've ever posted:

Weeks until wedding: 22.

Pounds lost in Week 27: 3.0

Total weight lost: 62.2 lbs

Percentage toward 60-pound goal: 104 percent

Percentage toward new 80-pound goal: 78 percent

Weight left to lose before hitting (initial) goal: none

Weight left to lose before hitting new goal: 17.8 pounds. Time for one last piece of carrot cake.

Blog Subscribers: 46. Approaching the half century mark!

UConn's bubble status: not looking so hot.

Matt in a plain white T-shirt: looking much hotter than 6 months ago.