My Personal Weight Loss Journey

Good evening,

Hope you are all well – not long until college football starts.

I will be blogging tonight about a non-ACC or non-sports topic.  I once clocked in at 249 pounds. I’m dead serious (there are NFL linebackers and collegiate linebackers that weight that amount).  Extraordinarily unhealthy.  People always asked me – what was the breaking point? Why did you decide to lose weight? Because that’s what it really is – no one can make you lose weight – you have to want to do it yourself.  The breaking point for me came when my knees hurt as I was walking up and down the stairs – that’s when I knew I had to do something (my doctor yelling at me was also a factor).  The fact is, too, that if you are morbidly obese, obese, or overweight, you are treated differently in society (this is an unfortunate reality).  I weigh now what I did when I was a junior in high school (generally between 178 and 183).   I’m going to give you some bullet points (I could talk about this for hours) for what I did to lose weight (and no I’m not a doctor – so you can’t sue me – this is just the approach that I took – it’s not a one size all approach – what works for one person might not work for another):

• Try eating what your ancestors ate when they first roamed the earth – I’m referring to the cavemen.  Try living like a 21st Century Gatherer:  “In truth, the ideal diet is neither of these extremes nor what many medical professionals now promote. In a recently published large review of approximately 150 studies on the link between diet and cardiovascular health,15 the authors concluded that 3 major dietary approaches have emerged as the most effective in preventing cardiovascular events: (1) replacing saturated and trans-fats with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats; (2) increasing consumption of omega-3 (ω-3) fats from either fish or plant sources such as nuts; and (3) eating a diet high in various fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains and avoiding foods with a high glycemic load (a large amount of quickly digestible carbohydrates). Despite common misperceptions, this report found no strong evidence for a link between risk of cardiovascular disease and intake of meat, cholesterol, or total fat.”  The short of it here is that meat can be cardio-protective – it can protect your heart.
• Good nuggets from the article in that first bullet point:  Get plenty of protein in your diet – but healthy protein. Turkey, chicken, greek yogurt, beef jerky, a limited amount of almonds, whole wheat popcorn, etc.
• Take the time to prepare your meals – do it for a week straight – that means you need to go grocery shopping, eh?
• Limit your synthetic (e.g. processed) food intake – if you don’t know what synthetic food is, I can tell you:  eating every single meal at McDonalds.  I am not saying that you can avoid eating processed food (we are in the 21st century after all) – but you can certainly limit your synthetic food intake.
• Drink water – heavily – everyday – like at least 64 ounces.  Our ancestors didn’t drink coffee – they didn’t drink soda (I’m guilty of drinking both these products – if you do, limit your intake) – I drink too much soda, FWIW.
• Exercise everyday of the week.  At least 30 minutes of some form of aerobic exercise.  When humans were first on the earth, they walked miles and miles every day (they pulled carts that weighed a lot).  Do strength training at least 3-4 times per week.
• Limit your alcohol intake – there are a lot of empty calories in alcohol – and I’m not saying quit drinking because people will never do that in today’s society – but when you have beer or wine, make sure it’s really good and worth your calorie intake.
• Limit the sugar in take – I’m not saying you ever are going to quit having sugar, eh?  But don’t eat 5 doughnuts a day.
• Quit your tobacco use – like entirely.
• Don’t screw around at night – get sleep – like 7 to 8 hours per day.  Put your electronic devices away!!
• If you have a craving for something, feed that craving – don’t be miserable – but don’t be in that position where you are telling yourself that you are feeding that craving every hour.
• Don’t skip breakfast!!!
• Have two healthy snacks per day – maybe one mid-morning – and one mid-afternoon.
• Join Weight Watchers – it’s kind of an accountability system.

See how this all works out for you.  It has worked well for me – and I’ve maintained the weight loss for almost four years now.

If you have any questions, hit me up – I’ll answer the questions for you.

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