|
|
|
|
How I Lost the Weight Have you seen the
before and after pictures? Here is where you get the answer to what seems to be the question of the day... "how did you manage to lose 120+ pounds!?!" Well.. there are many answers to that question, but I will try and address it all right here! First and foremost.. I had a "life moment". It was a day in early April, 1996. Opening Day of the baseball season, and I was watching the evening news when a report showed an umpire who was working the Cincinnati game, simply drop dead while going over the lineups before the game. I took one look at that and thought... no more. That, my friends, was the beginning. You need a moment like that to put the whole thing into perspective. Where your life is going, where it has been. I realized I had wasted away my whole life up until then being WAY overweight. I wasn't getting anything out of life I wanted. The most onerous of all things that raced thru my head was that I completely pissed away the best years of my life. I was overweight from 8 years old until well into my thirties. To say that I have a pocket full of life tokens is an understatement. So there is the dilemma... now what? It was a matter of putting priorities first. The driving force of this weight reduction was not health, not to feel better, nothing more than the desire to get more out of life than I was... and that is something I could not do at 347 pounds! I decided that no matter what how bad the diet I went on was, it could not possibly be more unhealthy than weighing 347 pounds! I went on the "feed your cravings with 6oz a day is better than weighing 347lb diet!". I ate LITTLE, TEENY portions of stuff that was absolutely horrible for you. I lived on chocolate, fat free fig newtons, WOW Fat Free (Olean) Potato Chips, Fat Free bakery products and so on. Went threw bags of healthy choice low fat cheddar popcorn! The thing to remember here is that the bulk needed to be removed. I had to learn to live on less food... regardless of what the food was. The I started to exercise. NOT THAT MUCH! I was on the exercise bike for 20 minutes, and then took a 1 hour walk. That's all! I tried doing more strenuous stuff... but I just got more hungry and ate more! My weight always went up when I worked out harder! I just kept the bottom line in sight! As the pants sizes started dropping (started at a 60... am now a 38). I started to transition money that used to go to food... to new clothes! How nice it was to buy stuff from a real store and not a fat shop! Not only that, but I actually started to look somewhat human in the clothes I wore! Once I got to about 240, everything ground to a screeching halt! 3 Years have gone by and as I sit here typing this, I am back at 240!!! Which really sucks as I actually got it down to 215. Its time to hit the plan again and get the extra 40 pounds off. I have to admit I tried the Atkins plan...which I really like. I can eat a lot more food...even though I don't lose, I don't gain either. I suppose that's at least a tie! If I go onto a diet which is heavier in carbs, I gain weight like crazy. I think my metabolism is set to zero! ADDED SEPTEMBER 4, 1999 I have just joined 24 Hour Fitness in order to continue the process. During the month of August, I went from 246 to 230. (This week is a bad week, and I probably jumped up to 240!! I'm afraid to get on the scale!) I will let you know if I can do this, or if I stay at 230-240 forever! I suppose the bottom line is that the mission by and large was accomplished, but I have to be sure not to let it all come back.... and it will very quickly if I don't control it. ADDED JULY 6, 2000 Here we are 10 months past the last post, and I am still at almost at the same weight! HOWEVER...much as happened! I had the motorcycle accident and basically sat on my ass for 2 months gaining weight! If you are going to sit and become soft, it might as well be during Christmas time so that you can gain weight RIGHT!!! I went from being 230 to 254 in the 2 month period, and then began the process again of getting it off. I am currently on a 1000 calorie per day diet, which to date has seen me lose 12 pounds in 14 days. Not a bad deal. As long as I stay psyched, I will continue to drop the weight. I am really trying to get at LEAST to 200, and hopefully 180. Lets see what happens with this new push! I will keep you informed. ADDED NOVEMBER 28, 2002 Two years has gone by... still in that 230 range! Looks like its the place Ill be for the rest of my life! The good news is that I'm staying here and not going up. The bad news is that I'm still not where I want to be. I've been on the Atkins plan for over one year now. Like I said above, Atkins is great at maintaining my weight. I can eat a decent size portion of food, and at worst case stay the same weight. Trying to get my daily intake down to 2 meals a day, because if I eat more, I just gain and gain! I lose weight in 'fits', and just hope I can get into a 'fit' which will knock about 15 pounds off. Today is Thanksgiving, so don't think today is the day!!!! ADDED SEPTEMBER 26, 2004 Finally back on track! Have joined weight watchers in July... and in 2 months have lost 45 pounds! Its very exciting! The good news is that I'm no longer excited by the incremental wins on the way to my goal weight. Before, I'd be so excited even getting 1/2 way, that Id just become complacent and never finish the task at hand. I believe this time is different. At least I hope so. Things are starting to go in a positive direction, and I'm not going to give up on the WW program!
|
