Halfway To Bringing Sexy Back

I did it! As of the 24th of this month, I’ve made it to my first goal of loosing 30lbs and a month ahead of schedule no less! I can’t tell you how happy I am to have made it this far. I am the lightest I’ve been in 12-15 years! Ironically enough, I met my goal on the anniversary of my fathers passing, who was the inspiration for me to finally do it. Thanks Dad!

I’m half way to my goal of loosing 60lbs, and while the first 30lbs seemed relatively “easy”, I know the next leg of my journey will be much tougher. But unlike many times in the past, I am up for the challenge this time. I’m in a good state of mind and I am determined more then ever to finally be at a healthy weight, if for no other reason then to hopefully live a long life with my kids, family and friends.

I have lost several inches too, which really is the true measuring stick on how you look and feel in your clothes. I really need to get new clothes. As it is if I don’t have my belt cinched up good, my pants will just fall to the floor (I know… good visual…). But that’s a good problem to have.

I’m putting off buying new clothes for a few more weeks. Since I met my goal a month early, I’ve increased it to loose another 5 lbs before my trip to California. This will give me even more incentive to stay on track, and keep me from having to buy new clothes more often. That gives me ~5 weeks to loose 5 lbs. Very doable.

[UPDATE: I’ve increased my goal yet again to get to 220 by the end of Oct, as I’ve already hit the 227 mark with 4 weeks left.]

Same shirt... same person... different body 6 months apart.

A lot of people have been asking me what I did to loose the weight, so I decided to post it here in hopes that it might help/inspire others to do what I did. The bottom line with any diet/exercise routine is to do what works for you. There’s no magic to loosing weight. What worked for me may not work for you. The hard part is finding what DOES work for you. That’s more then half the battle. It really is. Having said that, here is what I’ve done and hopefully it will work for you too.

Cut Down Portions: It’s a fact that the majority of American’s eat much more then we need to at each meal. This was tough for me, because I really enjoying eating. To help me with this I started buying Lean Cuisine meals at the store to eat for dinner and sometimes lunches. They are lower in calories (less then 300 per meal) and portions are just right. Any meals like this will work (NutriSystem, Weight Watchers, Smart Ones, Healthy Choice, etc…) The key here is finding stuff that you enjoy eating so that you will stick with it.

No Fast Food: Another really tough one for me. I lived on fast food for far too long. When I get hungry I like instant satisfaction, and fast food delivers that promise. The Lean Cuisine meals are a good compromise for me. 6 minutes from the time my stomach says, “Hey! Feed me!” I can have a meal prepared that tastes pretty good and fills me up. I will on occasion have a 6” sub from Subway. Where in the past I could easily down a 12” sandwich and still be hungry for more.

No Fried Foods: This kind of goes hand and hand with fast food. It’s a lot easier to avoid fatty fried foods when you don’t frequent the fast food joints. And don’t be suckered into the trend of manufacturers putting “No Trans Fat” all over their products. Yes, I know it’s a shocker, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.

No Eating After 7pm: Another big one for me. I was a perpetual late night snacker. Worse is that usually when I did snack late at night, you can bet your bottom dollar that it wasn’t a healthy snack either. A double whammy! Adjust this time for your sleep schedule. Obviously if you go to bed at 8pm, you should cut yourself off at around 5pm instead. If and when I do get that sweet tooth craving after my 7pm cutoff time, I reach in the fridge and have me an ice cold can of Pibb Zero. It satisfies my sweet tooth and fills me up without adding any calories.

Drink Lots of Water: If you’re not taking in enough water throughout the day, your body will store it up for you. Aren’t you lucky? Our bodies are biological machines that are built for survival. If you don’t feed it what it needs on a regular basis it will go into conservation mode, which for us means more weight in the form of water storage. To combat this I started buying 20oz bottles of water in bulk and started drinking 3 a day.

Monitor Salt Intake: Again, goes along with water intake. Salt helps your body retain water, so you need to watch/control your sodium intake as well. I don’t know the exact number it should be, but just reduce whatever you are doing by 50%, that’s a good starting point. Also, potassium is very good in helping the body maintain a good water/sodium balance and most people don’t intake near enough potassium. Good sources are fresh uncooked fruit (bananas, raisins, apricots, cantaloupe, and nectarines) and fresh uncooked veggies (carrots, celery, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and squash).

Eat 3-5 Meals A Day: Another bad habit of mine was skipping breakfast, then by the time lunch time rolled around I was starving (at least my stomach told my head that) and then in turn I would overeat. I know, it’s hard to make time to eat that often, but when I say meals, I don’t necessarily mean full meals. Eat your normal 3 meals a day with a good snack in between. This serves two purposes. It keeps fuel in your body to keep the “fire” going, forcing you to burn calories instead of going into conservation mode in between meals. Secondly, it keeps you from having those “starving” fits which cause you to overeat. I buy cups of yogurt, cups of applesauce, fruit and veggies to fill this need for me.

Exercise: I know, it’s a dirty word, but its an important part of the equation for loosing weight and keeping it off. No one likes to do it, certainly not me, but it’s a necessary evil. Sure you can loose weight without it, but for every person who has a diet success story, I’ll show you ten that put the weight back on eventually, or just failed altogether. You don’t have to go crazy and be a workout fiend to have success. In fact I would encourage you to start small and work your way into, especially if you have gone a long time without exercising. You actually can do your body more harm then good with exercise if your not careful when you first start out. And I do mean serious harm, as in deadly harm. You see over time your body builds up plaque in your arteries and if go too hard too fast, this plaque and break up and cause blood clots, stokes, and heart attacks. So please be careful. The key here is to get your heart rate up 20 minutes a day, whether is by walking, jogging, riding a bike, dancing, roller blading, or whatever. Doesn’t matter. Just get your heart rate up to a reasonable level for 20 minutes each day. If I can do it, I know you can too.

Eventually, if anyone is interested, I’ll post my actually workout routine so you can see what I’m doing. But the bottom here is find some form of exercise that you enjoy doing, or better yet, hate the least, and do it.

Set Goals, Chart Progress: Its important to set goals, but even more important is to set realistic goals. If your goal is to look like Brad Pit or Angelina Jolie, then you are doomed from the start. Set your ultimate target weight, and then go back and set milestone or short term goals in between. That way you can feel like you are making progress and feel good about yourself until you do reach your final goal. “Experts” will tell you to not weigh yourself everyday. I do. It works for me. It keeps me motivated and honest. Then I keep a running chart of my progress. This gives me a visual confirmation that even though I may have bad days or slow weeks, I can look at my long term progression and see that I am making progress. Again, may not work for you, but it works for me.

Mental Attitude: This is by far the most import ingredient for loosing weight. If you don’t have a positive state of mind going in, you will fail. I’ve started down this path many, many times. The difference this time for me was not giving myself an excuse to quit. Before I used to try to work my diet/exercise program around my lifestyle. Now I work my lifestyle around it. I look at working out like I do for work. When you have a job you just get up and go do it. Same with working out. If I have to run errands, I come home, workout, and then go do my errands. Not the other way around.

That’s it! That’s how I’m doing it. It seems like a lot when you put it down on paper, but really it isn’t. And even if you just did a handful of these, and only did that, over time you will see and feel a difference. You didn’t get fat overnight. It happened over time of bad eating habits and lack of exercise. You can reverse this process by just changing a few things that you do each day.

For what its worth, I hope this inspires others to finally get their mind in a good place, and go do it. Do it for yourself. Do it for your health. Do it so you can stick around in this crazy world so you can enjoy more time with your friends and family. I know that if I can do it, anyone can!

~Michael