How I've lost over 70 pounds.

This post is to tell my weight loss story. I want to start by giving a disclaimer. I do not recommend that anyone try to replicate my methods as some of them have not been the healthiest practices. They have worked for me but they will not work for everyone. Please keep that in mind as you read this.

I guess, to start with, my motivation was like most other peoples'. I wasn't comfortable in my body. I had lots of pain physical and emotional I felt was caused by the extra weight. Examples of these would by my back pain which was at an all time high and my knees would regularly swell making movement difficult. Emotionally speaking I was in a weird place. I didn't look like the beautiful “fat models” or the thin ones. I was just never going to look the way I wanted fat or thin so I was becoming very apathetic and that was leading to depression. Then there were the side effects I didn't even realize were connected to my weight. I was making the wrong amounts of hormones and it was throwing everything off. My periods were super painful and unpredictable. My anxiety issues were being aggravated causing almost monthly panic attacks. Plus the migraines were a constant threat. So after weighing all of this, and myself, I decided to do something about it.

My starting weight was 233 and the first 6 months were really hard with very little progress. I worked out for about 30 minutes every weekday. I altered my diet very little to watch the amount of carbs I was eating. I had success with that in the past. I lost roughly 12 pounds. During this we were able to get health insurance for the first time in many years. I decided it was time to go to the doctor. I made the mistake of going to a Doctor's Care. I met the worst doctor ever there. They did a blood test and my blood sugar was a little over 200. This man came back in the room and said “congratulations you are a diabetic” and they basically couldn't do anything for me and sent me away. I am a pretty laid back person most of the time but because of family history the diagnosis of diabetes was terrifying to me. I eventually found a great doctor and she has been amazing.

This is when the real weight loss starts. I get medication. So step one in my plan would be to go the doctor, get diagnosed with diabetes, and get meds. I told my new doctor about my activity levels and eating habits and she was impressed but told me that it was pretty much all for nothing because of my out of control blood sugar. Getting my blood sugar levels put me back on a level playing field with everyone else. I know this will not be a step everyone will take, but I would recommend going to your doctor, your family doctor, for a physical and talk with them about your personal weight loss desires. There are lots of little things that could be done to help you on your way. I lost 7 pounds in the first week of being on my meds and it has been nothing but success since then.

Now for the nitty gritty and my recommendation. It is no secret that I am a gamer and a huge part of this process has been “gamifying” the process. Mary Poppins was right if you can make something fun it doesn't feel like work. First things first, get a fitness tracker and set goals for yourself. I recommend the Gear Fit or the Gear Fit 2. These are a little on the expensive side so to start off with look into a Mi band. They are cheap and do all the cool stuff you may need. They just don't have a screen and when I started they didn't link up with the app I wanted to use, I think they do now. The app I am speaking of, and I cannot more highly recommend is the Samsung S Health app. It lets you track pretty much everything; calories, workouts, steps, water, caffeine, sleep, blood sugar, blood pressure, weight loss, and a lot more. I use it because it feels like keeping up with my stats and the gamer in my loves that. Another good start to your stat keeping is this site, https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/index.html, it lets you put in your height and weight and it will tell you how many calories per day you should shoot for to meet your weight loss goal. This was very important to me to set realistic goals and stick to them. However, here comes one of the possibly not so healthy parts. This site said I should eat around 1350 calories a day if I wanted to lose weight fast. My problem is that fast wasn't fast enough for me because of my fear of diabetes related death so I set my goal for 1200 and I regularly eat less than 1000. I don't go to bed hungry and I do keep track of my daily values of vitamins and make sure I get all the stuff I need. Part of this has been taking some daily supplements. I know the research on supplements is a little sketchy so again proceed with caution.

Specifics on my diet. It's a more restricted version of a diabetic diet. I try to keep my snacks under 20g of carbs, we are talking about total carbs including fiber, not just sugar, and my meals around 30g. I like to keep my over all grams of carbs around 100 per day. Most other diabetics eat a little more than that, but again my fear of death is hard at work here. I eat 3 larger meals and 1 to 2 smaller snacks a day. I do tend to eat more at night after dinner than my other snacks throughout the day. I eat a lot of fish and veggies. The key is lean meats. Salads are great but you have to be careful they can easily be as calorie heavy as burger. For personal reasons I have decided not to eat mammals. Which works out doubly because beef and pork and more calorie heavy than fish and chicken. I do limit even my chicken intake and do as much seafood as possible. Snack wise I enjoy eating whole sliced tomatoes, green snap peas, broccoli, and some snack bars. My go to snack bar is FiberOne fudge brownie. It has low carbs, high fiber, and I feel like I'm getting a treat. Other treats include dipps garnola bars, Halo Top ice cream and sometimes a Ghirardelli square. All of them fill me up and stick in my carb restrictions. I will say you have to be careful, carb wise, even with some veggies. I don't eat carrots, potatoes, and very little corn. I think it goes without saying I don't drink anything that isn't diet, but just in case no soda and very I mean very little fruit juice. The only fruit I eat is apples and only from time to time. There is just too much sugar in fruit for me to feel good about eating it. I'm not going to go into all of the specifics here or I would be going on all day. So, if you have any questions please feel free to ask me.

On to the workouts. They are pretty simple really as of now I do 35 on the treadmill in the morning alternating walking and jogging for 5 mins at a time. Sometimes I do pushups and some sort of ab workout after I'm done on the treadmill. The ab workout normally includes situps, crunches, leg raises, and planks. In the evening Gavin and I go on a 2 mile walk around our neighborhood which takes us about 40 mins. When I first started I would have told you that you were crazy if you said I would be jogging. My knees were so bad I didn't think it would ever be possible for me. I started with a seated bike and worked my way up to elliptical and now to treadmill. I also did a lot of weight lifting for awhile, but now my strength training is mostly body weight stuff it just works better for me. Sometimes I feel like losing weight is a full time job and in a way it is so I try to keep in the mind set that I am investing in my future.

Tips to make it all a little easier. Aside from making it a game the next best piece of advice I would give is to get a buddy. I know that I couldn't have done any of this without Gavin and he has told me he feels the same about my support for him. He helps me stay on track when I'm down on myself about slow progress times and I'm good at keeping us on track with our walks. When it comes to any major change in lifestyle it is a tremendous help to have a partner that will eat the same food as you and put in the same amount of work as you. It doesn't need to be a significant other either friends and family can be a great support. I'm not going to lie it does help if you live together and eat meals together. Another good motivator especially for those times in the middle of a workout when you just want to lay down and quit is music. Find music that motivates you to keep moving. For me it isn't the typical super fast loud music most people listen to at the gym. I like music that is calming and has a good driving beat. My band of choice for my workouts is Of Monsters and Men. If music isn't distracting enough try watching music videos especially the ones with the lyrics so you have something to focus on. However, even watching TV shows can work especially if the show is the same length of time you want your workout to be.

This journey has been a lot of work I couldn't have done alone. I own my success to my friends and family, especially Gavin. It wouldn't have even started if I didn't get to the doctor and get the right medication. I see this as a fight not for my waistline, but for my life and that is the greatest motivation of all. So please take care of yourselves.