Category: Scoop

After a certain point, it’s either “Put up or shut up,” so to speak. There are lots of us who continue our quest for the holy grail of weight loss: fast, effortless, and cheap. The bad news is that it’s really not that easy. However, based on your perception and how you frame it in your head, it’s quite possible to have all three. Here’s the good news.

Fast: this depends on your definition of fast. I lost over 100 lbs in a year. Is that fast? I think it was. A year later, I still can’t believe that I am as small as I am now. It feels like just yesterday I was 312 lbs and unable to tie my own shoes. Now, I run every other day.

Effortless: again, this depends on your definition. My weight loss was without exercise. Some would define that as effortless. All I had to do was eat the right foods. The best news about this is that I ate good foods that kept me satisfied and full so I never felt like I was starving. Since the food is delicious, I never feel like I’m missing out on flavor. I would characterize my weight loss as relatively effortless.

Cheap: it can be. I posted here about going Paleo on the cheap. While Sherry and I have invested in the more esoteric ingredients to make as many analogues as we like, it’s very easy to go Paleo without spending a lot of money. The best part: there are no supplements, vitamins, powders, shakes, patches, pills, or surgeries to undergo. That all equates into not spending a lot of money.

The only thing you have to spend is the time to plan meals, the time to make the meals, and the willpower to stick to eating right. As far as I’m concerned, that’s pretty darned easy when considering the alternatives (most of which cost a LOT of money and don’t work as well).

It’s all up to you to do the work.

One of the things I’m often asked by people after they learn that I lost over 100 lbs in a year is, “Wasn’t it hard to give up x?” (where x=pasta, bread, grains, beans, dairy, sugar). My answer to them is always the same: It’s only as hard as you make it.

The first key is mindset. As long as I mourned giving up foods, it was hard to be around them. Seeing people eat donuts in the morning or chips at dinner was initially difficult for me. Not impossible, but the temptation was always there. Once I changed my mindset and considered those foods as sabotage to my overall plan, it got a lot easier.

The second key was changing my relationship with food. Not just the bad food, but with all food. I needed to get past eating out of boredom, sadness, stress, or entertainment and only eat when I needed the fuel to continue living. I needed to learn to enjoy the things that happen during the times I was not eating instead of making eating the center of my universe. This has helped immensely.

We make obstacles where they don’t need to be. All those foods you think you can’t live without? I have news for you: you can. It’s all in your head. I have to admit that I’m surprised at how easy it is now for me to walk through the deli section of the grocery store, or the soda or snacks sections. There’s not even the slightest bit of temptation left. But when I see some plums or grapes? Man, it’s on like Donkey Kong!

Giving up those bad foods is only as hard as you make it. Whole30’s aren’t easy, but they get easy after three weeks. Changing your life eventually gets easy when you go all-in and adopt the healthier lifestyle and you realize how many amazing, flavorful, and healthy foods there are that you can eat without missing all the bad stuff. It’s only as hard you make it on yourself. Give the healthy life a chance.

You know those advertisements where they show you someone who lost 30 lbs in two months and they say, “Weight loss not typical; your results will vary?” They say that because they know that the results are not dependent on the product they are selling, but on the person who is using the product to eat properly.

There are many people who I’ve spoken with about weight loss, and at some point, they say, “Well, you’re just lucky. Your weight loss can’t be typical for someone who just eats Paleo.” Well, that’s not so true.

For those who stick to Paleo like Sherry and I have, the weight loss we’ve experienced is very typical for people who are as overweight as we were. If you don’t have that much excess weight, obviously your weight loss will be less.

I gained a lot of motivation before starting by looking at a subreddit on Reddit.com called Progress Pictures. These pictures intrigued me, because it showed so many people of all ages and walks of life using diet and exercise to lose weight. Before and after pictures went a long way toward proving to me that what I wanted to do was possible. If a guy over 60 could do the same thing as an 18 year old and get the same results, then maybe I could.

I can’t say how much that site motivated me. I would read the stories of those who posted their photos, and I was convinced that I could do it, too. The vast majority of them talked about how they used diet first and foremost to lose the weight and exercise for toning.

I posted my pictures there, too, once I lost a big bunch of weight. The people there were thankful, and I received a lot of messages from people who were just like I was back before I began to lose weight. They were getting motivation from my pictures. In a sense, I’d come full circle.

My results are typical. If you do the work, eat good food, and eliminate sugar, you will lose the weight.

I’m not the face of a company, diet plan, vitamin company, supplement vendor, or medical procedure. I am not some anonymous marketing tool. I’m just a former Marine who got fat and then lost a bunch of weight using Whole30 and the Paleo diet. Now, a year after starting, I’ve added exercise to my daily routine.

I recently had a nice conversation with a gentleman who noted that it’s inspiring to meet someone who has lost as much weight as I have, as seeing someone in the flesh makes it seem more attainable. This is the very reason I post so many photos. It’s not that I love posting selfies; it’s because through my photos, you get to see me as a real person, and hopefully that translates into the message of, “I’m a real person. I did this. You can do it, too!”

Many of you who visit this site know me. For those who don’t, email or message me and I will answer you! Leave a comment, even if it’s just to say hi, and I’ll say hi back! I’m not some distant made-up person. I’m a real-life former Marine who felt the say way you do. I’ve made the transition from unhealthy to healthy, and I’m now in the process of working my way up to being fit.

I’m a person who doesn’t like exercise, and I’m learning to enjoy it. The key for me was taking it slowly and easing into it in such a way that didn’t leave me aching, sore, or injured.

You can do this. Take it from me, a real person who, just like you, was looking for a way to lose weight that was sustainable and easy to adopt for the rest of my life. Check out the links to the right and start your own journey today.

This is an interesting article about a study recently done that show people who wear fitness trackers don’t lose more weight than those who don’t wear them. They actually lose up to 5 lbs less over the course of a year than their non-fitness tracker wearing peers.

I think this is a case of people looking for something other than hard work, discipline, and taking responsibility to make weight loss happen. Relying on external forces like vitamins, pills, powders, patches, shakes, and programs that cost money are only complementary (at best) to actually using discipline, sticking to a good eating plan, and doing the work on physical activity. Fitness trackers fall into this same category, as far as I’m concerned.

I use a Fitbit Surge. I love it. It allows me to track my daily step activity, but more importantly for me, it alerts me to text messages, phone calls, alarms that I set, and it uses GPS without my phone to track my runs. It also tracks the efficacy of my sleep, which I use to gauge how alert I feel as well as to correlate my weight loss with. It’s a good tool to help me lose weight, but in and of itself did not make me lose weight. Heck, everything I’ve done so far could be done without a tracker. I just like data points and being able to quantify my physical activities.

Don’t think there’s anything out there that will make you lose weight without doing the work. It’s just not possible. There are aids that will help you, but not do it for you.

I’m now stuck in what has been my longest plateau. I’ve been hovering between 180 and 183 lbs for the past month or so. I’m not eating more, but admittedly, I’m not eating less. I eat as much as my hunger dictates, and I don’t drink alcohol or have unnecessary snacks. I have even begun running in the past week, although I don’t expect this to help me lose weight for another week or two, at best.

It’s annoying.

I liked when I was losing 10 lbs/month. When that dipped to 5 lbs/month, it was still okay. Now, being in a plateau when I’m doing everything right without losing weight, is tough. I’m not going to go off the rails and give up, nor am I going to allow myself to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. The opposite is true. I’m now being even more careful and mindful of what I eat.

I have to come to terms with the fact that it’s possible that I’ve reached my body’s food and exercise equilibrium. That’s why I started running; to add some more physical activity and another calorie sink. My thinking is that if I continue to eat the same but add physical activity that uses up 250-300 calories a day, that negates a meal’s worth of intake which should translate into lost weight. We’ll see how well it works.

This weight loss stuff is supposed to be a science, but sometimes if feels like an art. A dark art. If only I could cast a spell or drink a potion to make it work for me. Oh yeah, people sell that stuff in the form of pills, powders, patches, and programs, but only doing the work really yields results. So, do the work I will. When in a plateau, you just have to get tough and power through. That’s what I’m doing.

This is a more personal post than I usually write, but it’s something I feel needs to be acknowledged: my wife, Sherry, has been an amazing supporter and partner in this journey to better health. I’ve said before that I could not have ever made it this far without her, but that is sort of an over simplification of how large a part she has played in my success.

Early on, her support was necessary for me to even get started. Without her in on the plan with me, I would never have begun. Once she signed on, my determination to see the Whole30 through without faltering was based on my desire to never let her down and to be her rock. I wanted to be strong for both of us, but mostly for her. She made me want to do better.

When we transitioned into Paleo, she did all the research, and then all the cooking. She made sure we had the right ingredients, she searched for new and delicious recipes, and she spent the time in the kitchen to make it all a reality. From that first week all the way up to this last weekend, she dedicates her Sundays to making our meals. She likens it to, “Cooking a Thanksgiving meal every Sunday” with the amount of cooking and coordination needed. That’s just amazing to me. I try to help by being her sous chef and by cleaning dishes and cooking utensils while she cooks, as does her mom. We try to support her as best as we can, but ultimately, she’s doing the lion’s share in the kitchen.

Now, she’s my exercise buddy. She’s helping me push myself past my disdain for exercise and supporting my desire to get into great shape through exercise. She runs with me, matching my slow pace, and motivating me throughout. She checks up on me when she notices a change in my breathing, and makes sure I’m not feeling any bad pains.

The level of support I have received from her in all aspects of this journey has been exceptional. I can’t express enough how much I appreciate all her work and her support, and although I try through actions and words, I will always come short of letting her know just how amazing and special she is to me. She’s my hero, and the pillar upon which my successes rest.

Thank you, sweet girl. You have made my life better, and life with you improves all the time. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us!