Month: April 2017

No. Not even close. The only person I’m trying to be better than is the person I was yesterday. Plain and simple.

Someone said to me that they believe that I think I’m better than everyone else. This is patently untrue. So crazy untrue, it’s laughable. Yet it gave me pause. Why would anyone think this?

I talk about my success with weight loss. This is true. I do talk about it. A lot. But that’s why I have this blog. I am hoping to motivate others. I hope to give inspiration to those who may think that losing weight is impossible.

I talk about my success in fitness. Also true. Same as my talking about weight loss, this is something I’ve tackled in my life that I want to inspire and motivate others with.

I discuss the positive changes in my life. These positive changes are the result of a lot of hard work, dedication, perseverance, and discipline. Losing weight and getting fit is based on a simple formula, but it’s not easy. The rewards, however, are definitely worth it, and again, I hope to inspire others to attain good health and better fitness by showing my example.

I post lots of selfies. I sure do. I aim to inspire and motivate. The best way to do that is to show before and after pictures of myself. They are my resume. I could have a page dedicated to my qualifications, what I’ve read, the sites I use as my source of information, etc. None of it matters. What matters is that I was fat and I’m not anymore. I used a healthy diet to lose weight and exercise to get fit. The pictures speak a thousand words.

I don’t, however, talk about my success with weight loss, fitness, the positive changes in my life, or post selfies to condescend or to make anyone feel inadequate. If someone infers it that way, they need to look inward and discover why they feel that way. If I remind you of someone you don’t like, that’s your problem and not mine. I can only be who I am, and as I strive to be better, there is only one person I can ever hope to be better than: the person I was yesterday.

In the photo above on the left, I was a Marine Staff Sergeant in March, 1997. I was pretty heavy, at my max weight of 175 lbs. I worked hard to maintain even that weight as I had no idea that my diet was so horrible, and that I was fighting a losing battle. I ended up leaving the Marines six months later to pursue civilian job prospects and to move my kids closer to their extended family.

On the right, that is the photo taken for my Army National Guard ID card this past Friday. I weigh 173 lbs in the photo on the right, but I’m in much better shape. I’m far more fit today than I was when I was a SSgt in the Marines. I run more often and exercise regularly without being told to do so. The difference is amazing. Considering both pictures are within 2 lbs of each other, the appearance of my face is very different. I used Photoshop to create the image above, and I matched my eyes and mouth perfectly; those two photos are exactly the same size. Yes, I’m 20 years older (of course), but I am visibly thinner today than I was 20 years ago.

If weight were the only measure I cared about, I’d probably look more like I did on the left than I do on the right. Although I weigh nearly the same, I wear pants 4″ smaller than I did on the left, and I wear smaller shirts as well (M instead of L). My legs are very muscular as are my arms. My abs are trying to pop out from the excess skin I still carry from when I weighed over 300 lbs.

The point I’m trying to make is that there are two Staff Sergeants above. They weigh about the same. Only one of them is really fit, though. Don’t put all your eggs in the scale basket. There’s far more to your health and fitness than what the number on the scale is.

This is something that someone pointed out to me today, and it was a real, “A-ha!” moment. The entire time I was losing weight, it felt like it was taking forever. As I look back through photos of myself throughout my journey, I remember thinking, “Wow, I’ve lost so much weight, but it’s taking forever to lose more.” Then, with each successive month, I’d notice I was in a new decade of digits as my weight continued to spiral downward. It felt slow, but in actuality, I was losing weight at a good, healthy clip.

We all want weight loss to happen immediately. Regardless of whether we have 10 lbs or 150 lbs to lose: we’d like for it to get done in a week. Even for a person who only needs to lose 10 lbs, that’s rather ambitious. The best I’ve done was 20 lbs in one month, and it’s likely that half of that was water weight. 10 lbs a month is about the best I’ve ever accomplished, and from what I’ve read, that’s about the fastest you can lose weight while still being considered healthy. Any faster, and there’s likely something wrong going on (either systemically or in the diet used).

Nothing worthwhile is accomplished immediately and without effort. Think of the accomplishments in life you are proudest of. Those likely took some serious time and effort to attain. Losing a large chunk of weight is no different. It will take some time and effort to accomplish, but when you’re done, you will feel great, have more mobility, and you will feel proud to have done it. I know, because I feel all those things and more. Don’t expect immediate huge numbers, but the huge numbers add up over time before you even know it.

I still can’t believe I’ve lost 140 lbs. It feels like I started this journey just a few months ago, yet while I was losing weight, I felt like I’d never be here. Be patient. If you stick to the plan, you will be met with success. Just don’t expect it next month; it may take longer than that.

People assume that my weight loss came from hard work at the gym. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hated the idea of doing any form of exercise to lose weight. I knew that the math was against it being an efficient way to lose the fat. A four mile run for me burns about 400 calories. That’s nothing. It’s a tiny dent in my daily calorie intake. It’s super beneficial for my heart and my muscles, but not for weight loss. There’s only one way to lose weight: through diet.

When I say the word diet, I don’t mean temporarily restricting certain foods to lose weight. I mean that you need to change what you eat from this point forward for the rest of your life. You need to analyze and change your relationship with food. That is the only way you can succeed. If you’re not willing to do that, go back to the Tasty videos on Facebook and make a peach cobbler because this information isn’t for you. You can’t have it both ways, and anyone who says they can is lying and they are doing something behind the scenes they are not telling you about or not sharing.

I lost 110 lbs in a year without doing any exercise at all. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. The weird part? I did it all while eating until I was full, and the food was delicious. The food kept me from having cravings between meals, and it fueled my body sufficiently enough to allow me to eat three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I meet people all the time who tell me, “I’ve started a program to lose weight. I work out at the gym for an hour or two every day!” I always tell them, “That’s great. Make sure you’re eating right, too.” They tell me, “I am. I am eating whole wheat bagels, whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta and brown rice with all my meals.” sigh. Months later, when I ask how their program is going, without exception, every person has said, “Oh, I stopped that weeks ago. I just wasn’t losing any weight. I guess my body is just not compatible with being skinny.” This is so sad to me, because EVERYONE can be thin and healthy. The food you eat is the culprit!

By changing my diet alone, I was successful. I cut out sugar, grains, soy, dairy, beans, alcohol, and artificial sweeteners. I did a Whole30 followed by adopting the Paleo diet. It worked for me because I didn’t allow myself a single “Cheat day.” I call them Sabotage Days because cheat days don’t help you gain any unfair advantage; they destroy progress and can completely derail any work you’ve done to get you to that point.

I’m not implying that it’s easy. I know that it is not, because I had to go through it myself. I’ve been morbidly obese, and I remember how hard it was to give up certain foods. When I focused on all the things I could still eat that I enjoyed, it got easier. Once I got past the sugar cravings, it got easier still. After finding a dozen or so recipes that my wife found to be easy to make and inexpensive to cook, life got better. When I started seeing the numbers on the scale drop, or the sizes of my clothes drop, life got amazing. It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen without perseverance. It took a lot of willpower to stick to Paleo in the beginning, but now that it’s my lifestyle, it’s easy. Actually, I prefer it. I’ve had to eat meals here and there that were not Paleo, and I actually don’t like them much anymore. I can feel the unhealthy additives and taste the sugar added to everything.

The Paleo Diet is simple. It doesn’t involve counting points, calories, or portions. Just check out the Paleo Diet website and follow along. I recommend starting with a Whole30, but that’s completely up to you and not absolutely necessary to succeed at losing weight and getting healthy.

 

I feel amazing. I feel younger, more energetic, and more alive than I have in a very long time (even, perhaps, before I turned 30!). I attribute this feeling not to the exercise I get (which helps, but it alone didn’t get me here) but to the change in my diet. I went Paleo, and everything changed for the better. And I mean everything.

The first real change has been that I feel more energetic. I am able to wake up after a good night’s rest feeling ready to go and with a clear mind. I am ready to tackle the day’s tasks, and I remain awake and don’t have trouble focusing on tasks. I feel as if a fog had been lifted from my brain.

The second real change has been a loss in weight. As you know, I’ve lost a pretty substantial amount of weight since adopting the Paleo lifestyle. 140 lbs so far. I have 10 more to go, and I’m working on that, but I’m already at what is considered a healthy weight for my height and age, and I run 3-4 miles every other day. I do 70+ push ups and 60+ sit ups every time I run. I’m no picture of perfection, but I’m pretty fit. This is all because of the Paleo diet.

The third change has been a lack of cravings between meals. I no longer want to eat snacks just for the sake of eating. I can see donuts, cookies, crackers, and hors d’ouvres without feeling that I must eat some. I do get hungry, but that’s typically before a regular meal time for me. If I don’t eat enough at a meal, I get hungry earlier, but it’s a different feeling than a craving. It’s liberating not being a slave to the cravings!

The fourth change has been that I can taste natural sweetness better. Now that I no longer eat foods with added or artificial sweeteners, fruit tastes so much better now. I remember for years thinking that cantaloupe and strawberries were no longer as sweet as they were when I was a kid. I thought it was the result of modern agriculture. What I have now found is that they are sweet again naturally. Other fruits like apples, pears, oranges, plums, nectarines, and others are all so sweet and flavorful now. And this increase in taste isn’t limited to sugar. Even savory foods have so much more flavor. I can taste delicate layers in foods that I never knew existed. Sugar has really ruined our ability to taste the subtle naturally occurring flavor in foods.

The fifth change in my life as a result of adopting the Paleo diet is that I was able to get fit again. When I was at my heaviest (312 lbs), the doctor told me that I need to lose about 100 lbs before I could even consider serious exercise due to potential damage to my joints and the basic fact that I was so overweight, he was concerned I would have a stroke or a heart attack. I was diabetic and I was starting to experience nerve damage in my legs. The Paleo Diet reversed all that for me, and once I got to 185 lbs, I was able to start exercising. I started slowly with walking, then jogging, and eventually I got into running. I’m now comfortably running 3-4 miles every other day. It’s an amazing feeling being fit and healthy.

I had resigned myself to thinking that my life was nearing its end, and that I would never feel energetic, youthful, or fit ever again. Life was feeling overwhelming with lackluster food, constant hunger, and discomfort. I never imagined that I would feel this good ever again.

The Paleo Diet is not a fad or a gimmick. It doesn’t cost any money to do. There are no membership fees or clubs to attend. No vitamins, pills, patches, powders, or products. Just good, whole foods. It changed my life completely; I’m pretty sure it can change yours as well!

I’ve been having a heck of a time losing the last 7-10 lbs to my final goal. My initial goal was 175, and I’m there (and then some depending on the day), but 165 is eluding me, and it’s driving me crazy. I don’t eat anything non-Paleo, and I eat normal portions. However, I think I’m back to a problem I’ve faced in the past; not eating enough.

Last week, I started increasing my portions a bit. It’s hard to do psychologically when eating more equals more calories. However, it very well may be that I need more calories to keep my body from going into starvation mode. After some thought, I’m pretty certain my body is in starvation mode.

So, as of Monday last week, I added a cashew bread that Sherry made this weekend to my breakfasts, and my lunch portions are slightly bigger. Dinner portions are also slightly increased. So far, I’ve dropped my average weight by 2 lbs. That’s pretty incredible. If this trend holds, I should be able to be in my goal weight within another month or two. I’m excited about my results and progress so far after increasing my portion sizes slightly and I’m heartened about being able to reach my final goal again!

I’m very proud of the 140 lbs I’ve lost. I just want to lose that last 10. Dang it.

I’ve seen people discussing their weight loss and the process through which they went to get there. Now, mind you, these are people who have successfully lost weight, so I won’t say that their way is wrong. How can it be: it worked! But, one of the problems I see with overly complicated weight loss and fitness plans is that not all of us want to deal with administrative work and complex fitness regimens to lose weight. I know I surely didn’t!

Some of the things I’ve seen: extreme exercise. This sort of works, but much more slowly and requires a lot of exercise and dedication. When you’re really bit (100+ lbs overweight), it’s even dangerous. Most of these people eat better and whole foods while exercising not knowing that their weight loss is actually from their diet and not the exercise. But, it makes them feel good, so okay.

Then there are the extreme loggers who weigh and log everything they eat and analyze the calories in and calories expended. This is troublesome at best. First, it’s impossible to know the exact caloric content of all foods, and second, it’s impossible to properly calculate actual calorie use. We can be close, sure, but not to the level of accuracy a lot of people claim. Also, this is a huge task for the average person to undertake after every meal. I know I don’t want to do this (and I don’t).

There are the fad dieters who jump from fad to fad because it’s the latest thing guaranteed to give you amazing results. They are always on-board for 6-8 weeks and then fall off when they realize that the diet is untenable for the long-term, bland, or just plain bad.

Diet drinks, shakes, pills, patches, powders, pre-packaged foods, etc are all another area where people fail. These things, by themselves, will not make you lose weight. Notice that every one of these products says on its label somewhere, “Coupled with a healthy diet with reasonable portions and exercise…” That’s because the weight loss comes from the healthy diet with reasonable portions and exercise.

The truth is that losing weight is simple. Not easy, but simple. Here are my rules:

• Eat meat
• Eat vegetables
• Eat fruit (in moderation)
• No sugar or artificial sweeteners
• No grains
• No legumes
• No dairy

Yes, it really is that simple. Now, it’s much easier said than done. My Whole30 went well, but the first week was hell. After the first few days, the rest of the Whole30 went much better, and by the time the 30 days were up, I felt great, had a lot more energy, and had lost 20 lbs!

Don’t over-complicate things. Stick to what’s simple. They say that the easiest explanation for something is typically the truth. In this case, the simplest method is the best. Just eat good food and don’t eat foods with sugar, grains, legumes, or dairy. Done.