I lose weight, then gain some back, then work on losing it again.

Throughout my life I’ve been lucky where weight is concerned.

First of all, I was always thin. I was the kind of kid who could eat a ton and still stay relatively slim. And back when I was in college, I had my metabolism up so high that I couldn’t help but lose weight. For a while, I was almost skeletal. Without being anorexic or (heaven forbid) bulimic.

Second, at 5’8″ tall, I can weigh a lot and carry it very well. The long legs help that a lot. Heck, put me in a pair of black jeans and a black shirt and no one even has to know I’m overweight.

As I got older, things changed. Unfortunately, they changed very slowly and I came to accept it. 5 pounds here, a larger pants size there. Over a period of 10 years, my weight crept up and up and I accepted every pound and inch. I won’t say I was happy about it, but I certainly didn’t think about dieting. After all, I’d never needed a diet before.

I reached my high of 180 lbs after a cruise two and a half years ago. I felt terrible. I looked terrible. And it didn’t help that the woman from the other couple we cruised with was a “stringbean” — a name my grandfather used to apply to me.

I tried one of those starvation diets with special foods and supplements. It was called Fit for Life. Jeez. How can people do that? I remember eating a 3-ounce serving of meat one night for dinner. It was so tiny, I could barely find it on my plate. Actually, that’s a lie. There was so little food on my plate that night, the 3 ounces of meat stood out like an olive on an empty plate. And frankly, the supplements and special foods cost a fortune and tasted like garbage. Sure, you can lose weight if you stick to it. But you’ll soon be out of money and wondering what real food tastes like.

Results? I lost 8 pounds in two weeks, then couldn’t lose another ounce. I lost interest when the food ran out and I needed to make a trip down to Phoenix to get more.

Next, I tried Atkins. I don’t care what anyone says: Atkins works. At least for the first 10-15 pounds. That’s what I lost and it stayed off for quite a while — a few months, at least. But I couldn’t lose more. And then I started working at the Grand Canyon and noshing an awful lot between flights. The guys would buy these jello puddings in tiny cups. I had to get some, too. And frozen dinner entrees like pot pies you could nuke and then pick up and eat like a sandwich became a lot easier than making salad for lunch every morning before work. So although I lost 15 pounds, I gained almost 10 of them back in two months, just working at the GC.

The other day, I weighed myself. 169 lbs. I’d been down to 159 at one time. My “I’ll be happy with it” goal was 150. My “I’d love to be there” goal was 140. I wasn’t going to get there eating pot pies and pudding.

So I’m back on Atkins and drinking a TON of water. In fact, my primary exercise is walking from my desk to the bathroom about 12 times a day. And filling my water glass. I lost 5 lbs in 3 days. I know I won’t keep up that pace. But I do want to get back down to 160 before I go back to the GC. And start eating salad with lots of meat and cheese again.

I just wonder how I’m going to handle all those bathroom breaks when I’m flying.