It was a hot first week of September, and spending plenty of time moving around and working in the heat probably didn’t hurt my weight-loss efforts.
When I stepped on the scale for my Sunday morning weigh-in on September 6, 2026, I came in at:
265.7 pounds.
Another move in the right direction!
That’s down from 268.3 pounds last Sunday, a loss of 2.6 pounds for the week. Even better, four weeks ago I weighed 272 pounds. That’s 6.3 pounds gone in four weeks.
After spending much of August writing about struggling with workouts, eating habits, fall camp, long hours, and finding excuses, maybe I need to stop for a moment and recognize something:
I’m making progress.
It hasn’t been perfect. Far from it.
I haven’t followed a perfectly planned diet. My gym routine basically disappeared during fall camp. I’ve eaten fast food. I’ve had sweets. I’ve had weeks when work took priority over just about everything else.
But I kept going.
Maybe that’s one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far. Losing weight doesn’t require every day to be perfect. It requires enough good decisions over a long enough period of time to keep moving in the right direction.
And right now, I’m moving in the right direction.
Now It’s Time to Add the Gym Back In
I think I’ve finally figured out my school-year routine well enough that I can get back into the gym tomorrow morning.
I’m actually looking forward to it.
August was about surviving a hectic schedule. September can be about building a routine.
I want to get back to lifting weights consistently. I want to get some cardio work in. Most importantly, I want exercise to become part of my normal morning again instead of something I have to convince myself to do.
I don’t need to walk into the gym tomorrow and make up for everything I missed in August.
I just need to walk through the door.
Do the workout.
Come back the next time.
And then do it again.
That’s how consistency gets built.
Don’t Waste the Momentum
There’s something motivating about seeing 265.7 on the scale.
Not too long ago, I was fighting to get below 270. Now I’m more than four pounds below it.
The next milestone?
260.
Instead of constantly staring at 240 and thinking about how far I still have to go, maybe I need to appreciate the smaller victories along the way.
Get below 265.
Then 260.
Then 255.
Keep stacking small victories until one morning I step on the scale and realize that 240 isn’t some distant goal anymore.
That’s how I’m choosing to look at it.
I can’t control exactly what the scale will say next Sunday. I can control whether I get up tomorrow morning and go to the gym. I can control what I choose for dinner. I can control whether I keep moving when it would be easier to sit down.
Those decisions are where my attention needs to be.
265.7 pounds.
There’s still plenty of work ahead.
But for the first time in a while, it feels like I’m building some momentum.
Now the challenge is simple:
Don’t stop.