I don't know if this will be the last time I write about my change in lifestyle, but I do feel like it's time for a sort of summing up.

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/DSC_0029.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-623" title="DSC_0029" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/DSC_0029-300x199.jpg" alt="Not my heaviest, but pretty heavy in June 2009" width="300" height="199" /></a>For the last two days, I have weighed 179 pounds, which is 101 pounds lighter than I was a little less than five months ago. I didn't weigh 280 in the picture on the right, which was taken in Nice, France, a little less than a year and a half ago, but I was clearly pretty heavy.

I had never weighed as much as I did earlier this year, and quite frankly, I didn't know what I could do about it. The last time I had anything resembling a successful diet was nine years ago, when I had gotten my weight down to 199.

The last time I had been as low as 179 was 1989, when I had dieted down from 240 to 159 before I started gaining weight again.

I had weighed about 230 when I got fired in January 2008, and I didn't handle it well. Over the next two years or so, I put on 50 pounds and couldn't seem to motivate myself to take it off.

Anyone who reads this blog knows the story of my trip to Texas, but I don't know if I mentioned that my realistic hope was to get my weight down to 220 or so. I never imagined that Rancho Cortez would enable me to make such significant changes that I could lose <em>all</em> my excess weight before the end of the summer.

The biggest hurdle I had to overcome was the idea of giving up a couple of hours a day -- <em>every day</em> -- to exercise. Just to show you how successful I have been, I returned home from Texas on July 18th and I have only had two days since then that I didn't get out and walk.

That has made all the difference in the world, along with the fact that I have stayed under 1,500 calories without fail, even on days when I ate my meals in restaurants.

[caption id="attachment_624" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="179 pounds"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/End-of-diet-004.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-624" title="End of diet 004" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/End-of-diet-004-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>[/caption]

I weighed 216 when I left Texas, which was already a pretty amazing success, but I have lost another 37 pounds in the two months or so that I've been home.

As of today, my diet is over.

I'm not really going to try to lose any more weight.

But that doesn't mean I'm loading up on Milky Way bars or heading out to eat barbecue. I still plan to eat sensibly in the 1,500 calorie range, and I am absolutely going to keep exercising every day.

You see, the mistake I made before was I looked at my diet as a destination.

Now I know it's a journey, and it will have to continue as a lifestyle.

A hundred and one pounds.

Damn.