A little about me

About two years ago, when I was 40 years old my doctor told me that it was time to start losing some weight. I was 6'2 and about 255 pounds. My blood pressure was way too high and so was my cholesterol. Every time I went to see him, they were higher and he finally put his foot down and told me that it was time to make some changes. He showed me my chart and every visit indicated that I was going in the wrong direction. Blood pressure up. Cholesterol up. Weight up. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't getting ready to keel over just yet, but that 255 pounds wasn't muscle and I certainly wasn't headed down the right path. I wasn't exercising and I ate all of the wrong foods. In my younger days I did a pretty good job of keeping myself in shape, so I knew what I had to do. I also knew what my two biggest hangups would be.....I loved food and I loved beer! Oh yea, my doc wanted to see me back in three months! This is what I did.

Getting started

This was the hardest part. What to do first. I didn't just rush into anything, I gave it some thought and came up with a plan. Setting goals. I decided to set goals that were attainable. My plan was to reach one goal at a time and then set another goal. I made sure the goals that I set were attainable in order to build self confidence. If goals are impossible to reach, people tend to give up and no progress is made. One method I used to help me reach my goals was to write them down. That's right, I wrote my goals on a piece of paper and I carried it around with me! It works. It's kind of how kids learn spelling words by writing them down. When one goal was reached, I wrote down another one and so on. Now that I had a plan, I had to come up with some goals. I decided that it really didn't matter what I did first as long as I did something. My first goal was a small one. I loved chocolate chip muffins. Every morning for breakfast I would have a chocolate chip muffin. Now, I am not a dietitian or health food nut but I knew enough to know that a chocolate chip muffin and coffee was not a healthy breakfast. If I wasn't having a muffin, I would be having a bagel and cream cheese and this had to change. My first goal was to give up the muffins and bagels for breakfast and for one week I would eat a healthy breakfast before I set another goal. I decided to have a breakfast high in fiber and protein. I chose Fiber One cereal and cottage cheese. I also wanted to stick to the serving size. One serving of the cereal was a half cup and one serving of the cottage cheese was a half cup. Yea, I know, cottage cheese is gross! Well, I knew that blueberries were healthy, so I loaded the cereal and cottage cheese with blueberries. You could use strawberries, slice up a peach and use that, whatever you like. I happen to like blueberries and they are good for you too. I would finish off breakfast with a quarter or so of a cantaloupe. Well, I did it and at the end of the first week, I reached my first goal! I was on my way!

Making progress

Now that I reached my first goal, it was time to set another one. Beer. I was going to give it up. I don't want you to think I was some kind of drunk, but I did enjoy a beer or two with dinner or while watching a football game. It was during the college bowl season and I figured if I could get through bowl week without beer, that would be great. That was my second goal. While working on reaching this goal, I kept on eating the healthy breakfast. You see where I'm going with this? Just because I started a second goal, I didn't give up what I accomplished with the first goal. I stuck to it. So I made it through the week without a beer and then the real test came. A co-worker of my wife's was having a party. I decided prior to the party to let my wife have a good time and I would be the designated driver. I didn't drink any alcoholic beverages, but I did get a kick out of all of the drinkers in their various states of intoxication! So by this time I had adjusted my breakfast and given up alcohol. At about this point, I thought I was onto something with this goal setting thing. I reached my two initial goals, and decided that I would make some big changes.

The next step for me was lunch. I loved great big grinders loaded with mayo and grease. Switched to salad and fruit. Eliminated the bread. To really make the salad exciting, I would grill some chicken, cut it up and add it to the salad. Instead of bbq sauce, I would use dry rub or just use some dry seasoning. I don't know if that is better than bbq sauce or not, but it seemed to work for me. When I got tired of chicken, I used tuna. Very light on the mayonnaise, because I can't eat tuna without it! I tried using fat free salad dressing, but no it wasn't working for me. I continued to use real dressing with one big change. I stuck to the serving size. If the bottle said one tablespoon, I measured it out and that's what I used. Sometimes I just cut up an orange and put that in my salad. There are a bunch of ways to spice up a boring salad and keep it healthy at the same time. I always loved cantaloupe, so I did some research and found out that it is really healthy and good for you, so it became a regular part of breakfast and lunch. No, I didn't put sugar on it! I had this type of lunch for about four or five days out of seven initially. On the other days, I would have a sandwich on wheat bread, but instead of using that processed sandwich meat, I would cook a chicken, slice the breast meat thin and use that, lettuce and tomato. I left out the cheese and went very light on the mayo. I tried that low fat mayo, but I thought it was gross, so I figured if I cut the amount of mayo I regularly used in half, that would be great. This was my new way of eating lunch.

Next was dinner. This was going to be tough. I always thought we ate pretty healthy dinners, so instead of changing the entire menu, I would start by cutting down on portions. For instance, if I cooked six chicken breasts and the three of us ate one each, that left three as leftovers. Well, usually I would finish all of the leftovers in a single sitting! I decided that after I ate my first one, I would only have a half of another and save the rest for the next day. If I cooked dinner rolls, I would only eat two instead of four or six. I would still bake a potato, but I would not eat the inside. I would only eat the skin. I also incorporated more green vegetables. This proved difficult at first because I was so used to eating a very large dinner. I did make a serious effort to cut way back on red meat and carbohydrates. The only things I can say that I totally eliminated at first were hot dogs an hamburgers and anything fried. I increased the amount of fish, mainly salmon and cod,chicken, turkey and vegetables. To keep things interesting, I would add pork to the menu every now and then. I cut way back on the cabs, but didn't eliminated them. One thing I never ate much of was pasta, so that wasn't an issue for me. If you are a pasta eater, you may need to adjust you pasta intake!

Snacks and dessert. Oh boy, how we all love these! My weaknesses in this area are chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, potato chips, ice cream, ice cream and ice cream! I decided I would make this part simple.....they all had to go! That's right, cold turkey! No way you say? Well, your right. Sort of. I gave myself one day a week to snack. On that day, if I wanted, I could have any of the above or even chocolate cake! And I did. What did I do for snacks on the rest of those days? When I felt the urge for a snack i would grab an apple or other fruit. I tried to mix it up so I wouldn't get bored. Apples, pears, peaches. They really calm down your urge for snacks and they are good for you. Or I would have some apple sauce. Or a glass of ice water. I drank lots of water. I drank water with every meal and snack. I drank water when I used to drink beer. I got used to it.

Exercise

Check with you doctor before starting any exercise program! This is going to be different for everyone and I am going to say it again...Check with your doctor before starting any exercise program!

I am not a fitness trainer or professional, but lets face it, most of us live sedentary life styles. It was time for me to get up and get moving! I went down to our local community center and joined the gym. My doctor gave me the o.k. to get started on a cardio program and that's what I did. I chose the elliptical machine and started off going three times per week. I went for 45 minutes and made sure that when I was done, I felt like I worked out. I used it pretty hard. Then I went to the treadmill. I went for 15 minutes on the treadmill. Eventually, I increased resistance and worked out for a longer time frame. After a couple weeks of just cardio, I incorporated some weight training. Before I knew it, I was at the gym five times a week! I guess I became addicted. That's o.k., there are worse things to be addicted to! Even if I knew I didn't have time to do a complete workout, I did what I could. My attitude was that something was better than nothing. I developed a program that in addition to cardio, worked most of my major muscle groups. This is something that I believe is specific to each individual, so what I did exactly doesn't matter. The point is that I was getting a lot more exercise into my lifestyle and I was feeling great. I would suggest anyone wanting to develop a personalized exercise program consult with a trainer after getting the ok from your doctor! If you don't want to join a gym, you can search the internet and find loads of products you can buy to help you exercise at home. Exercise is important and when your done with your workout, you feel good.

Motivation

We all have a hard time getting motivated at times. Find something that gets you motivated to work out. I bought an ipod and loaded it with music that makes my want to move. I use it every time I go to the gym. It works for me. the biggest motivator of all was what I am going to talk about next. Results.

Results

Up to this point, I haven't mentioned anything about how much weight I actually lost. Remember when I talked about setting goals? Did you notice that I never set a goal to lose a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of time? I figured, why should I? If I did what I set out to do and reached the goals I set, the weight would come off and the blood pressure and cholesterol would go down. Why create added pressure by throwing numbers into the mix. Besides, I knew that if I said I wanted to lose X amount of pounds in X amount of time and I didn't, I would get too frustrated. Well, when I left my doctors office that day, I knew I weighed 255lbs. The next time I got on a scale was when I notice that the pants that were too tight, were now starting to loosen up. The scale revealed that I lost 12 pounds! You wanna talk about motivation! A result like that is motivation! The next time I got on a the scale was when that same pair of pants needed a belt to help them stay up. I was down a total of 18 pounds at this point! I was feeling good! When I went back to the doctor three months later, I had lost a total of 33 pounds in three months! He was shocked. He wanted to know how I did it! As a result of the weight loss, my blood pressure and cholesterol were now in check and I just wanted to keep up the good work.

I kept up the eating habits that I developed over the first three months, added some more exercises to the workout routine and ended up losing a total of 54 pounds. I never felt better. I had more energy than I ever remember having. It was a change of lifestyle that I still live by today. It took me about 15 months to lose the 54 pounds. After the initial 33, they came off slower, but now I am at a point that I just try to maintain. I feel great, and enjoy the new lifestyle.

Summary and quick tips

1. Develop a plan of action
2. Set goals that are not impossible to reach
3. Eliminate or cut back on alcohol
4. Cut back on fatty foods, carbohydrates, sweets, dairy and baked goods
5. Increase fiber, protein, fruits and vegetables
6. Read the nutrition labels on your food packaging and stick to the serving size
7. Talk to your doctor and make a list of foods that help speed up your metabolism and incorporate some of them into your diet
8. Give yourself one day a week to snack
9. Ask your doctor for help developing an exercise program and stick to it
10. Find a way to motivate yourself through your workouts
11. Get a workout buddy...you can motivate each other
12. Stick to your plan