small steps

According to the scale at home, my weight very briefly dropped under a milestone figure just before Christmas struck. By the time I returned to work, I was slightly over the mark again, but just for a little while, I weighed less than 260 lbs.
This is a good thing.

Without going into too many boring details, my recent diagnosis of borderline hypertension has been less of a millstone around my neck than I'd thought. When I got married, I weighed 295. I'm built like a cinderblock, so I just look dumpy, as opposed to obese, I guess. Anyhow, when I wasn't crash-dieting, the last time I consistently weighed 260 was about 10 years ago, so I'm moving in the right direction.
My doctor is awesome. Her advice was for me to try to cut out junk and fried food, and see what that did. Since I don't have a sweet tooth and fried food isn't really my favorite, this didn't do much. Increasing just slightly how much exercise I get, plus avoiding the aformentioned junk and fried food (and fast food, too), seems to be working well. In the past year, I dropped 35 lbs.
As I said, my doctor is awesome. She's a realist. She told me to get serious about my blood pressure before it became an issue that the Coast Guard would be interested in, and she told me to lose 25 lbs a year for three years or so.
And shit on me if it ain't working. The Mrs. had to cut a new notch in my belt before I went to work. While this isn't hugely significant (I had a 40-inch waist when I weighed 200lbs, and I had a 44" waist at 295), it still felt great. Anyhow, I'm hoping to be at 235 at this time next year.
I'm not trying to diet; I'm trying to eat well, enjoy what I cook and eat, drink beer, Scotch and Cachaca when I'm home, and not make that awful 'gruhhhhhh' noise when I get up from tying my bootlaces. So far, so good- in the last 90 days my blood pressure has gone from 'alarming' to borderline' according to my doc. Being a closet Type A doesn't help. I stress about everything, but feel the need to present myself as laid-back, which is stressful in itself.
Anyhow, work in progress.