By Rich Fisher

This is day 112 of my diet adventure and it is a journey that has been helped along with a little help from my friends.

One of the things that I have learned (by paying closer attention) is that sometimes the best-laid plans …

Take for example my visit to the doctor, my first follow-up since my initial pre-diet checkup. It turns out that docs, on occasion, get vacations just like the rest of us. In fact, they allow their staffs to take vacations from time to time. Which is a "round about way" of saying that my scheduled appointment was changed and so although I promised all kinds of number comparisons, you’ll have to hold your breath for a couple more weeks.

Actually, I was sort of looking forward to stepping on the scales and hearing Dr. Miguel Topalov exclaim, "Wow, you’ve lost a lot of weight!"

The best thing with making progress in this weight-loss adventure is the increasing level of support, testimonials and assistance.

I have heard from a number of people, many on the Dr. Atkins diet, with outstanding stories of success. Since they didn’t say I could identify them, I’ll use only first names. Take for example Gary. Gary has lost over 65 pounds since last August and is now on the maintenance portion of the Dr. Atkins diet plan. That’s where he can resume eating a more standard diet but by measuring his weight carefully and consistently he is able to determine the amount of carbohydrate grams (and sugar grams) he can consume and not gain weight. If he adds a pound or two, he knows to back off the carbohydrates.

Then there is Mary Ellen. She has lost 63 pounds on Weight Watchers and looks and feels great. Her husband thinks so, too!

I also heard from Bob. Bob, too, is on the Atkins diet. He started on it about two months after I started on it. He is down 14 or 15 pounds. I wanted to ask if reading about my experiences inspired him, but I didn’t.

And then there is Amanda. Amanda read about my losing 60 pounds in 60 days on a previous diet when I was much younger and exercised a couple of hours a day. She said she didn’t care how boring that diet might be, she wants her pounds "to fly away!" She noted that she likes this diet that I’m now following but she needs "fast results for a two-piece."

But losing weight too fast is generally not a good thing. That’s why I’m allowing a full year to get to my target weight. One of the reasons is that I want to be able to tone as I go. The other is to establish some new, long-lasting lifestyles and eating habits so that the weight stays off.

I’ve said it before but here it is again: Losing weight is like falling off a log, all you have to do is become committed to your task. It takes a specific amount of time. You start a diet. You stick to it. You lose the desired weight, a beginning and an end. Keeping the weight off is a task that has a beginning but not an end. Keeping excess weight off, by its very nature, is for the rest of your life. That takes changing your lifestyle and habits. Establishing a new lifestyle that you can stay with will generally take longer than any quick weight-loss approach allows.

And then there are community endeavors and organizations that I am involved with that are increasingly sensitive to the needs of dieters. Take for instance Leadership Sidney, a nine-month program through the Sidney-Shelby County Chamber of Commerce designed to foster community leadership through training and education. We meet in a variety of business, industry and government locations during our programs each month. A variety of lunches have been served, some of which I could enjoy parts of but rarely much of the whole meal. That is except when we met at Wilson Memorial Hospital. It was as though they had planned a lunch especially for me, except I skipped the dessert.

I’ve gotten increasing support at Kiwanis meetings, too. Just last week, I sat a table with my co-worker and friend Mark Kaufman along with our pianist Paul Sarver, song-leader Tom Faulkner, and fellow members Phil Freytag and Tom Judy. Much of the conversation was about dieting.

I also got suspenders from our president, Ralph Bornhorst, a candy bar from Dave Bemus (a Snickers bar since my column had made him snicker). All of which generated a lot of 25-cent fines that our treasurer, Ray Weber, gets to count.