[caption id="attachment_1663" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Not an endless highway, but ..."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120331_11.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1663" title="20120331_11" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120331_11-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

And the road goes on and on ... and on.

Two years ago, first in Texas and then in California, I thought I had successfully managed to get my life straightened out. I lost 112 pounds and got into an exercise routine that had me walking for at least two hours every day.

I weighed 168 pounds, the first time in more than 20 years that I made it under 170, and I swore to myself I would never let things get out of hand to the point where I had to diet for six months just to get healthy. I didn't need to starve myself or spend hours doing grueling exercises to maintain my healthy weight; all I needed was to eat sensibly and walk every day.

As it turned out, I couldn't do either. A foot injury got me out of the habit of walking, and by then I was already getting back into the habit of eating too many things that were bad for me.

By summer I was back to 230 pounds and by late fall I had gained back all the weight I had worked for six months to lose.

Yikes.

I learned an important lesson, but it wasn't one that made me happy. I learned that no matter how hard I work to lose weight and get into shape, no matter how I promise myself I will never be overweight again, I cannot trust myself.

I get thin, I get fat, I get thin again ...

Pretty depressing, huh?

But for every negative, there is a positive. And if I can't manage to keep the weight off, what matters is at least I keep trying. So as I wrote earlier, when the calendar showed March 1st, I began the Great Diet and Exercise of 2012. I weighed 284 pounds, four pounds heavier than I had ever been in my life and 116 pounds more than I had weighed at the end of October 2010.

One day at a time, and now 31 days -- the month of March -- is in my rear-view mirror. I walked more than half of the days and I got more conscientious about it as the month wore on. I ate on average a little less than 1,100 calories per day and I had the best weight loss month I've ever had on any diet in my life.

I dropped 34 pounds, and while 250 is still pretty horrible, it's a lot better than 284 and it's one helluva good start.

One month down.

Five to go.

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