It's Hip To Do DB?

Waiting in the room designated for that as my mother-in-law is getting x-rays ahead of a surgery a few weeks from today, while back near their home, my father-in-law is recovering from surgery to bolt back together his shattered femur after a fall from a ladder. They are both very active 70+ year olds but both have had surgery to reconstruct their hips from falls.

I don't know exactly what his has to do with DietBets, but since that seems to be the gist of my writing prompt, I will just go with it. 

I do know that since starting this latest round of DB's on November 30th, I have started to feel better. I shattered my ankle (fibula, really) slipping on the ice and have been hampered in my desire to exercise and stay active. With a quick "low-hanging fruit" loss of some fifteen pound since then, I have gone from regularly wearing an ankle brace to not having to wear it at all. 

What are the lessons here? I have definitely had trouble keeping up with healthy lifestyle choices since the ankle incident changed my habits. But a little progress has perhaps opened the door a crack to make me wonder whether this time I can sustain weight loss and health goals beyond the New Year's Resolutions season. 

My strategy may not be well reasoned. I am maxing out my DB's with the easy weight I know I can lose. Since Transformers last 6 months, these are the real deal. Sustaining that effort for half a year makes it harder, in a way. The length of the KickStarter and goal of 4% gives me a short time push. I have started 3 (the max) in hopes of kick-starting the year, but then will plan to renew these each month to try to lock in a 4% loss per month, or 1% per week, sustained over the course of a few months. I am reasonably confident that I can stick to smoothies and 15K steps/day as my Fitbit goal. If I can use the KickStarters to reach for the 4%/mo. goals, then I am pretty sure the Transformers will be successful.

Is 4% per month sustainable? I have heard of people doing this in more dire circumstances. E.g. Phil the truck driver from the film Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead had a lot more weight to lose. On a smoothie reset diet, his body was able to make remarkable improvements towards a healthy future. I seem to be able to sustain a 1%/week loss, but I know that I will soon be working against biology and will have to start to vary my workouts and diet to achieve the same improvements. 

My wife made a comment: losing weight and taking care of ourselves may be our best defense against hip replacements and surgeries that will come of older ages. My father-in-law is in incredible shape and recovered more quickly than anyone his age has a right to from a major surgery. That, and not going up on aluminum ladders in the dead of winter to clean gutters.