All of this, for a drop of blood.
I have recently dropped below 200 pounds. This is my lowest weight since my university days, the early ones after I shed even more weight in my first post-breakup depression.
In 2018 when I ran 10km for a race, the one and only time I've done so (so far), I briefly weighed 199, but that didn't last more than a couple days. 200 was the uncrossable line my journey ended at.
Time chipped away at it and I eventually returned to 275ish, my original weight. I was happier than I've ever been though. High self esteem, lots of sexual partners and unknowingly diabetic.
It's been less than a year now since I started working to fix that. I dragged myself to the gym three times a week, cooked like a madman on death row and learned EVERYTHING there was to know about my condition.
The medication sure helped, the support of my partners was indispensable and my love of cooking came in handy, but boy did I work fucking hard at it. Still to this day there are days where I find myself stuck in bed with incurable nausea and praying to any listening god to help me understand the point of this.
I bled for this. Literally, every morning. A single drop serving as a reminder of all I must sacrifice to keep on living.
Last week it was my third body composition test, about 40 pounds down from my first one. About 20 pounds in and I did not see the needle move at all. I lost weight but my body contained just as much fat. This time though, I made it bleed back.
2.3% body fat down. 0.6% lean mass up. All of that, for a drop of blood. But it is blood nonetheless, and drop by drop it will become a river.
I promise myself. I will beat this. I will do better.