Weight Loss in 2026

 I hate new year's resolutions as a matter of principle, but I am overweight and unhealthy. That needs to change. If that coincides with the beginning of a new calendar year, so be it.

I've expressed a lot of pessimism before about new year's resolutions. It seems pointless to wait for a new year to begin if you're making a resolution to do something good, especially when most people who make resolutions over-promise and under-deliver. I *know* how flaky we are as human beings, so I *know* there isn't much point in making a resolution at all.

Validity of new year's resolutions aside, I need to lose weight. I've struggled to maintain a healthy weight for most of my life. I was big as a kid. When my blood pressure tested high at the beginning of 10th grade when I was 315 lbs, I spent basically a full year drinking tons of water, eating healthy, walking about 4 miles every day, and playing an absurd amount of Dance Dance Revolution. By my junior year, I was down to 225 lbs.

In the years since, I climbed slowly back up. Around 240 lbs, my family said that I looked healthier than I did at 225. I knew it was a problem when I got around 275-280. At different points, I would try a little harder and either lose some weight or stay steady for a time, but those were all pretty short-lived. Eventually, I got to 290 and hovered in that range for a while.

During my time at QS/1, I participated in yearly biggest loser competitions. In short, a group of people would each pay $20 for the goal of losing 10 lbs across a few months. Those who did not meet the goal forfeit their money; those who did lose at least 10 lbs split the remaining pot. It worked well for several years, since it started in January as we were coming off the holidays. I would typically start in the mid 290s and drop to the mid 270s, winning my share of the contest money.

Since I left QS/1, I haven't had the opportunity to participate in any competitions like that. It's a shame, because I am extremely motivated by money, and that yearly cycle at least kept me from gaining weight perpetually. I always started the year by dropping 15 or 20 lbs that I would inevitably gain back through the year. There exist independent programs like that, I realize, but I'm less inclined to seek those out. Biggest loser was just... there.

In the couple of years since then, that default weight has hovered closer and closer to 300 lbs. I will occasionally hit 300, panic, and aggressively diet and exercise back down to the low 290s. The problem is sustainability. I eventually get slack with the dieting, I start snacking more between meals, and I skip exercising more and more until I stop entirely.

This past year, I started the wondr program, sponsored by my wife's medical insurance. It was available for free, and the cyclical weekly routine seemed like it could keep me engaged for a longer duration. In turn, that might help me build good habits, rather than the short term crash diets that I had tried occasionally for a few years.

In the beginning, wondr was actually really helpful. The first few weeks expect less from you. They start with just monitoring: weighing yourself, paying attention to what you eat and when, just being more cognizant of your lifestyle. Then, you only change *when* you eat. Instead of aggressively changing your diet or starving yourself, they recommend that you only eat when you're at a "hunger level 3," or hungry enough to eat a full meal.

I actually saw some decent progress during those weeks and got down to the high 280s for the first time in quite a while. However, this is when I started to hit a disconnect with the wondr program. They suggested that before you eat, you should engage with the food in other ways. Look at the food, smell the food, think about the way eating the food will make you feel. I understand that my relationship with food probably isn't exactly healthy, but that seemed like an even *less* healthy relationship if I'm sniffing my plate and fantasizing about my food every time I'm going to eat.

The straw that broke the camel's back with wondr was when they started about disassociating food from celebration. You shouldn't celebrate with food, so don't reward yourself with things like sweet treats. As much as I philosophically understand that, it felt very sterile and unnatural. When they recommended that at parties or celebration events, you should just... *not* participate with the food? I checked out. I'm not going to refuse to have cake at a birthday party, sorry.

Unfortunately, after I dipped out from the weekly wondr activities, I also started neglecting the valuable skills that I had picked up from the program. Instead of drinking water before every meal and waiting until a hunger level 3 to eat, I started snacking more, drinking less water, and overeating. That weight loss I had achieved quickly dissolved.

After winter break, with my wife and kids back in school, I really wanted to tackle sustainable weight loss that could eventually transition into maintenance rather than a traditional diet just to hit a number. Beyond that, I wanted to add strength training for a more whole body wellness.

I have some adjustable dumbbells that a friend gave me when he upgraded, plus a treadmill and bike that is hooked to a stationary base for cardio. My youngest wanted a punching bag for Christmas last year, so Santa brought him one of the inflatable ones that uses sand in the base for stability. That was a mess and frequently deflates, so this year we bought him a 100 lb bag and stand.

With the proper tools, I just need to be more incentived to use them. I love data and tracking, and I've been using Google Forms to track my weight. For the next few weeks, I want to envision a good exercise schedule, as well as proper metrics to track. This should help me with accountability, as well as providing visibility on progress. I understand that wellness improvement is often difficult to see at the day-to-day scale, so I want to make sure I'm creating data points that will allow me to monitor over weeks and months.

As for goal, I hate to put an explicit number on it, but I do want to use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable (or Attainable), Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals. I don't want something that I'll see as a finish line and then abandon the habits once I get there, but I also don't want something so aggressive that I couldn't possibly reach it.

The biggest loser program typically used a 10 lbs in 10 weeks model, and that worked really well. It wasn't punishing, it allowed plenty of grace for bad weeks, and I was able to meet my goal every time I tried it. Expanding that pace to a full year is a little more optimistic, but I think it fits if we're going for a new year's resolution. One pound per week for 52 weeks.

On Monday, January 5th, I weighed 302.5 lbs. If I stick with it for a full year, that should leave me at precisely 250 lbs by this time next year. I haven't been that weight in literal years, since probably 2010 or so. It sounds crazy, but one pound each week seems simple and achievable.

I also don't want it to be a simple pass or fail. If I start January 2027 at 251 lbs, I would technically have failed my goal, but it would be better progress than I've seen since high school. I'm calling 250 the optimistic goal, if I lose an average of one pound per week for a full year. For a much more pessimistic goal, we'll cut that 52 lbs in half to 26; one pound every other week, or half a pound per week. That would leave me at 276 lbs, still lower than I've been since 2020 during that last biggest loser competition.

The biggest problem I'm anticipating is summer vacation. It's much easier to stick with an established diet or exercise when I'm home alone during the day. With the rest of the family here, I find it so much harder to avoid snacks, and sitting on the couch just seems so much more fun. I haven't yet determined a solution there, but I'm thinking of some sort of time-based answer. During certain times, I can veg out with the family. However, if I have designated workout times, I have to make a conscious decision to neglect the exercise. It may or may not work, but I have plenty of time to come up with other theories.

To make sure that I don't get to Thanksgiving and realize I didn't lose a single pound, I want to have periodic check-ins with my goal. March 16th is that 10-week point that would normally be the end of biggest loser, so I think that's the next logical check-in. Ideally, I've done remarkably well and I've already lost MORE than 10 lbs at that point. At worst, I haven't lost enough and I need to be more aggressive with the diet and exercise.

I want to come up with a good incentive for myself. If I DO meet my goals, what's the reward? I haven't figured that out yet, and in the long term, I would like the health improvement to be its own reward. Until then, I know I need a carrot on a stick to motivate myself. Maybe it's some new piece of exercise equipment, possibly new cookware to make healthy meals, or it might just be a new video game to get more fun out of my leisure time.

I'm certainly not naive enough to believe a blog post will make or break my fitness goals, but it's a mark in the sand. It's an explicit declaration of intent. I want to be at a healthier weight for myself, but I want total wellness to make sure I'm around for my family into the future. It's easy to lose sight of that on the shorter term, but I want to make myself take stock of that goal periodically to ensure I'm doing everything I can. Here's to a healthier 2026.