I’ve done it — I’ve lost 25% of my original starting weight. 1/4th of me has gone missing. 93 pounds GONE!

Think of it. One FOURTH of my body is no longer here. I still have all of my body parts; nothing has suddenly gone missing. There’s just less of me.  A lot less.

One fourth of a cake, GONE.

I’ve lost mostly fat and some muscle along the way. After all, it takes a fair amount of muscle to move someone of my weight, even presently; as that fat goes away, so does a little bit of muscle. Some of the changes I’ve experienced follow — and I expect these to be amplified as I continue.

The effort to pick up that weight and move it is much less, and that alone has made me healthier. I walk farther. I stand longer. I have more energy and stamina. My knees thank me every day because they don’t scream at me the way they used to. I don’t wobble (quite as much) when I walk. I don’t have as much pain from arthritis — both because the weight my body has to bear is less, and my body isn’t as wildly out of proportion as it was.

All the good doctor’s reports go along with it; my blood tests are stellar, my doctor seems pleased. There’s still a bit of room for improvement, but as you’d expect, the effects of losing weight increase proportionally to the amount lost.

As for my size, I’m starting to see the more pronounced effects of large-scale weight loss. Sure, there’s the changes in clothing size, but my rings and my shoes are looser. I expect that my shoe size will decrease as I continue to lose; not in width, but in length. (This has happened before.) Morbid obesity presses the foot flat, and I normally have a high arch; as the weight decreases, the arch increases and my shoe size changes.

It’s easier to drive our vehicles. There’s a lot more room between my gut and the steering wheel. I’m also finding I have to adjust the rear view mirror a bit because having a substantial posterior not only made me taller in the seat, but pushed me out from the seat so I’ve had to move the seat position up slightly.

Theater seats? Comfy, now. Airplane seats? I don’t know about those — it’ll be a while before I fly, again, but by the time I do, I’m sure I won’t have to live through the embarrassment of having to ask for a seatbelt extender.

It’s nice to see my feet, again. There are fewer body parts blocking the view! (Well… a couple of them, but they’re deflating.)

To be totally honest, there are a few downsides; I have excess skin and I expect this to be even more of an issue as I continue to lose weight. When I lost a great deal of weight years ago, I had a great amount of excess skin; I expect to have even more. These does mess with your brain; the state of my excess skin really bothered me after 140 pounds of loss. This time, I’m a bit more mentally prepared to deal with it.

Just to be clear — that’s what I’d call a “quality issue”; it’s a problem, yes, but a good problem to have. I’d much rather lose the excess weight and free my body than worry about sagging excess skin; it’s a battle scar of sorts, and I will learn to live with it as my body continues to change.

This is also my preliminary halfway point in losing weight, so it’s a major goal to accomplish. I hope, at a minimum, to lose 50% of my total starting weight.

I’ll be half of who I used to be, but I’m saving the good parts.