Walking with my eyes shut (aka Blogging as therapy part deux)

Yes, I'm still here bumbling along the highway of life ( as the buddhist saying goes - Do not speak- unless it improves on silence!) .

My weight this morning was 246.6lbs ...so better but not exactly great.

When I was a kid I used to try and walk as far as I could with my eyes shut - only opening them when I sensed impending doom (pot holes, trees and main roads etc!). The journey was exhilarating and adrenaline producing (bear with me, I'm not one for premeditated risk taking!). I tried it again recently for no known reason and it transported me back instantly to my child hood. Spooky and exciting all at the same time - just like Scooby Doo.

But what you may ask has this to do with lardy Buddhists? Not a great deal as usual, but I have struggled to blog about my journey for a while now and it occured to me that like my 'blind walking', I need to rediscover the pure thrill of the journey rather than worrying about my lack of progress - does that make any sense?

I used to be acutely embarrased about my lack of success (weight-wise or spirituality-wise wise), to such an extent that I felt emotionally paralised and totally unable to communicate to those of you who clearly care (I am still V E R Y touched and humbled by your interest and support). I am sorry for this but now I think I finally get it - the journey is the thing, not the destination nor indeed where I am on the map at any given time.

I am not going to promote this blog as I have neither the time nor the ego but I will try and keep you updated about my journey as often as I can.

If I am meant to be thin, I will be. Every day is some small way I try to follow the Buddhist way of life - through thoughts and deeds. I fail often, the overwhelming noise of moden life sometimes intrudes so harshly that I explode but on the whole, I am happy with my progress - a good sign is that my cirmumstances haven't changed but my general feeling of wellbeing is greatly improved.

Just writing this makes me feel my journey is worthwhile. It is clearly a journey that will last for the rest of my life and it's my journey, no-one elses.

Anyone fancy a fatblogger race then?

Can you hear that....?? That's the sound of a gauntlet being thrown down by Spunk over at 100 Pounds to go!

I have been looking for a while for a way to link us all together and create a motivational network to keep us all focused on the job in hand - this could be it!

I have accepted the weight loss challenge from Spunk and proposed we race DOWN to 200 pounds (we are both at @240lbs so we have 40 to go).

How about I open this out to anyone who is on the weight loss journey and wants to get involved? If you are interested, simply comment on this post or e-mail me and also spread the word far and wide throughout blog-land, tell everyone that we are having a race - the more the merrier!

How about we have a weekly and monthly 'how much did I lose competition' all the way to the end of the year. To be as fair as possible, I think we should judge success by %age of weight lost rather than straight poundage - this should make it fair for people of all weights. What do you think, this is all about motivation, right?

If there is enough interest, I'll knock up some snazzy graphics etc and post weekly with everyones updates - every month there will be a small but amusing prize for the 'biggest loser' (please don't sue me CBS, or whoever makes the damn show, I am NOT a threat to 'da man', I'm just a Fat Bloke!).

Once I have the names of everyone that is interested, I will post the rules and regs and off we go!

Come on, everyone fancies a race, don't they?