I love this bit from his most recent blog entry:

After changing my insurance and paying the copay, I waited for the doctor, and eventually went into the exam room.  When the doctor arrived, I told him about everything I have been doing, including the fact I had lost nearly 15 lbs in 3 weeks, despite still posting a gain since my last visit 6 months ago.  I told him about my lifestyle changes, and he in turn told me my blood pressure was the lowest and most normal it had ever been on one of my visits:  115 over something.

After weighing both my history, and me promising I would continue my healthy ways, he agreed to let me discontinue the use of one of the blood pressure medicine’s aI had been taking since 2007 – Metroprolol.  This was great news for two reasons:  first, hey, I’m off one drug finally!  Second, a couple of months ago Metroprolol went from a tier 1 to a tier 3 medication, increasing my part of the payment from about $10 to $60.

Focusing on his health for just three weeks allowed him to come off of his medication. If that isn’t inspiration I don’t know what is. Troy, I’m with you buddy. My first goal? To run 10 miles this week.

What really matters is the long term goal. Having a week setback can really mess with people’s heads. I’ve seen it tons of times. Someone gains weight during their diets, even only a few pounds, and they panic. There is no need to panic. You will have a bad week here and there during what should be a long process of losing weight and maintaining your goal weight. The way to dig out of it is to focus on the long term goal and on your successes. Here’s how.

I gained 2lbs. this week and so now I weigh 202lbs. However, I’m down a total of 18 pounds since I started (6 of those pounds were lost in January alone). I’m feeling great. And I’m back on track to be down 3 pounds this week and could weigh under 200 pounds for the first time since May 2009 next Tuesday. I’m really excited about that.

See, focus on the long term goal and the successes you’ve had. Then, when things are in perspective, you can truly evaluate your progress. Overall I’m doing really, really well and this 2 pound weight gain for the week is almost meaningless in the scheme of things.

Today I weigh 200lbs. for a loss this week of 4 pounds. The second best week on this second-round of The Diet since the first! I couldn’t be more happy with this result. I’ve been very good on my diet this week and – due to a little snow – got a few extra “workouts” in the form of shoveling. Hey, I count everything and every little bit helps.

I feel great. Dropping 20 pounds in 35 days makes me feel like I have actually put a 20 pound weight down and simply continued on with my day. Especially on the basketball court. I play basketball for about 4 hours every Monday night. Even when I was at my heaviest I did this. However, when I was over 220 pounds I would be able to give “OK” energy for the first 2 hours and then it went downhill from there. But now, even only half way to my goal, I am able to be at high-energy nearly the entire time. Last night I think only my last two games my legs felt like they were finished for the evening.

I do not expect the next 20 pounds to come off as “easily” as these first 20 pounds have. So I’m going to be doing three P90X routines per week to help increase my cardio and my calorie burn. Oh, and I secretly hope for a bit of snow so that I can shovel and burn even more.

Don’t forget to check in to see how the other dieters did.

I did well with beginning my exercise routine again though. I ran on Tuesday, Friday, and played football on Sunday. I ran two 5Ks, or 6.2 miles, and had “ok” times for both runs. I have no idea how much exercise I got playing football but I’d be willing to guess it was a much better workout than simply jogging. It was a lot more fun too.

My current weight is, as my goal was, 205 pounds for a loss of two pounds this week. Next week I’d like to be 203 or below. My goal, per week, will continue to be 2 pounds or more (but not much more).

My goals for this week, besides being under 203 pounds, are that I eat much better, drink only 1 night, jog at least 10 miles total for the week, and doing one other active thing this week.

Made Fit TV‘s Jennifer DiDonato is an expert in the field of fitness. She recently a no-brainer video and blog post about losing a single pound in a week, rather than promising to lose 10 pounds or something ridiculous. I love seeing level-headed people that are willing to give out some of the best advice you will ever see, for free.