My story is pretty simple. I spent a bunch of years traveling around the country doing consulting, eating in nice restaurants and sitting on my rump. I was a great big guy for the better part of a decade and a half. My max weight was 390+ pounds, frankly at 35 my weight was affecting all aspects of my life even though I didn't realize it at the time. When we are dramatically outside of our healthy weight range how we feel daily even our attitude toward life and how we deal with our loved ones is effected by our weight. The weight effects our sleep, our energy level and our ability to do things. Weight is insidious because it creeps on slowly, stealing small bits of our life at a time so we don't even realize what is happening.
I had been on diets a bunch of times over that decade and a half period. I told myself all the lies about why I was overweight and that just around the corner was a magic pill that would help me to lose this weight and be healthy. I wanted to be a healthy weight, I just didn't want it badly enough to make the changes required to make it happen.
Until we had our daughter I was never honest with myself about what I was doing. She was my personal angel that woke me up out of the food induced coma I had been in. That wakeup call came when my daughter was about 3 years old. I realized I was stealing part of her childhood by being overweight and out of shape. I did not have the energy or could not physically do the things she wanted to do with me. I also had concerns about my ability to help her in the event of an emergency. Once my mind started drifting down this path, I realized that if I did not make some major changes, it was likely I would not see her graduate high school or get married nor would I see my grandchildren. At this point the most mortifying thought of all hit: That I may actually let my daughter down! Letting my little girl down was simply not an option.
Weight loss really is all about taking in less calories than you burn. Honestly if controlling there intake is all a person does they will lose weight. I didn't do any exercise at all until I had lost 100 pounds (If I had it to do over again I would have started exercising much earlier in the journey). My "plan" involved eating 1500'ish calories a day 6 days a week. One day a week (After the first 3 months and I could trust myself) I would go out to eat with my wife and daughter. I allowed myself order off the menu getting whatever I wanted. I think this kept me from craving things I always knew I was one week from being able to have whatever. I would skip desert and the bread basket and wouldn't eat insane portion sizes. I think the difference between this time and all the others was the way I looked at this journey, always before I felt I was giving something up, this time I really looked at the diet as "getting something" I was getting my life back. I never once the whole time felt deprived, which was so different from any previous attempt.
The biggest part of weight loss is what goes in your mouth. Exercise is great for your health but it is a rough way to burn off any substantial amount of weight. Once I got down to a "reasonable" size (300 pounds :) )I started walking five miles a day. I used walking to build my fitness level. After 9 months or so I kicked up the activity level. My weight loss rate didn't change much once I added exercise with the exception of not losing a pound the first month I was walking (this was VERY unusual for me).
At least for me, consistency is king, only eating the amount of calories that match my plan and exercising on a daily basis has been very effective for me. This is not to say I don't have days where I eat what I want and throw caution to the wind, even those days are "planned" in that they aren't spur of the moment. At this point I allow myself to eat pretty much whatever I want (within reason) but if it is going to be dramatically outside my normal eating patterns plan for it. I sort of have a 24 hour rule, if I have some sort of evil craving I allow myself to eat it but not until tomorrow and by then the insane urge has generally passed. For me that seems to cut down on the mindless munching.
I have been at my goal weight now for a little over 16 months. So far my weight has been quite steady. I find I can eat quite a bit, if anything I have to be careful not to drift lower due to my activity level and overall better food choices. I workout for at least an hour of cardio a day and usually life weights 3 or 4 times a week for between 30 and 40 minutes.
I feel truly blessed to have been given this gift of a second chance at life. I am active on weight loss forums on the internet. I hope that I can encourage others that are struggling with weight as I did. I know how difficult weight loss can be and hope I can possibly provide the spark that starts someone on their journey. I don't have any magical answers to what will work for weight loss for anyone, but I want to be the cheering section for those that are trying.
If a sedentary 390+ pound middle aged man can drop 58.97% of his body weight and go from a BMI of 52.9 to 160 pounds with a BMI of 21.7 anything is possible! I am including a few before and after pictures in this post people often ask to see them and I have been told they provide some encouragement, it is in that vein I share them with you.
This picture is a montage of me before I started losing weight. Pictures from this era are fairly difficult to come by as you can imagine I was not a huge fan of the camera.
This picture was a fun shot we took as I got close to my goal weight. If you look closely it is my whole family in an old pair of my pants. My wife and I are each in a leg and my daughter is between us. The pants are zipped and buttoned.
This is just a before and after comparison shot. The after is a picture of me running in my first triathlon.
Another before and after comparison shot. The after here is just of me before a training ride for the race I mentioned above.
May God be between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk.
Mike
