The journey to a healthier me – 42 lbs and counting after 10 weeks

Several people over the last few weeks have been noticing my weight loss and have asked me why, how, when, etc… I thought it would be a good idea to sum up my journey to a healthier me during the last 10 weeks.

Over the last 10+ years I have ridden the weight loss roller coaster. I went from about 220 lbs in high school to 195 lbs during the beginning of my two year mission in Brazil to 180 lbs in the middle of my mission when I was working out with my companion to around 200 lbs when I finished my mission. Within the first year back from my mission I jumped up to around 230 lbs. I was adapting back to the American/college lifestyle of living on a tight budget and trying to squeeze every dime out of my food purchases. Eating junk food from the bag and being a couch potato didn’t help either.

Just in the last few years I started going to the YMCA and working out in the mornings and I lost 20 lbs, but could not sustain the rigorous routine and relied on my buddy to keep me motivated. A year of so later I watched a five episode mini-series on TLC with Paul McKenna called “I Can Make You Thin” which taught me how to control my portion sizes and I lost 10 lbs, but again it was easy to fall back into my old habits.

Throughout the past year I had finally started bouncing around in the 240’s. It was at an extended family Christmas gathering and we were seated for dinner and I overheard my sister talking about a ‘Biggest Looser’ competition being hosted by her office starting the first Monday in January. I knew that I thrived in this kind of environment and that this competition was for me. I wanted to loose weight to look and feel better, have more energy for my family and because the word of wisdom said too.

While visiting other family out of town for the holidays I had an opportunity to meet up with the same companion I used to work out with on the mission. He said the most important thing I could do to keep the weight off this time was to focus on continually educating myself. This has turned out to be a very important part of keeping myself motivated. Since I had a week or so before the competition was to start, I began searching the internet for health tips and asking others who I knew had had some form of success.

After doing a ton of research about what I should be doing better, I knew I could do it. I had finally decided to make a life change. I knew that meant I had to make changes that to me were not extreme and I could sustain forever. I also knew I had to be 100% disciplined with no grey areas or I would falter again and not be able to define my approach with absolutes. That meant not eating my favorite junk foods just a little bit.

It was also important for me to have a strong sphere of influence. This started with my immediate family. My wife, Amy, was critical to my success. She’s the one who planned the meals around my needs and desires, shopped constantly for fresh fruits and vegetables and allowed me to bounce my thoughts and ideas off of her.

To ultimately be successful I knew there were two areas I personally needed to change to be successful; food and exercise. For me, changing my diet was going to be the hardest, but understandably the most important. It wasn’t like I purposely ate unhealthy, but now looking back I realize I had several bad eating habits beyond junk food. I did a lot of research and I decided the biggest way to change my eating habits was to start counting my calorie intake.

Counting calories was an eye opener. That helped me to start measuring how bad certain foods really were. I learned that to maintain my ideal weight around 200 lbs that I should only be eating about 2,400-2,500 calories a day because that is how many calories my body natural burns to keep me alive. Until I reached my ideal weight, I decided to cut my calories to less than 12-1400 calories a day. This is easy to do when all you are eating is healthy, natural foods.

I spoke with a friend of mine who is a Doctor and he helped me confirm that eating is just a debit and credit thing. You need to burn more calories than you are receiving. He said Michael Phelps, the multi-gold medal winner, eats about 8,000 calories a day but burns that much as well.

After my first week with success cutting back my calories, my sister-in-law shared a book with me called “The Fat Smash Diet” by Ian Smith. It had a detoxification phase that was all about only eating fruits, vegetables and a few other foods like egg whites, brown rice and low fat yogurt for nine days. This definitely helped me to eliminate some of the cravings I was having for sweets.

After the detoxification phase, I focused on eating a lot more fruits and vegetables regularly, drinking more water, avoiding the center aisles of the grocery store and removing sweets from my diet. Working off of my previous experience with the “I Can Make You Thin” mini-series, I began to eat slower by taking time to chew my food and allow my body time to let me know it was full. It was amazing to me how full I could get off of smaller portions. I learned it was ok to leave some food on my plate. Because I was not eating as much at each meal, I would get hungrier more often. When I was hungry I would eat and the cycle repeats.

As I mentioned before, increasing my exercise was also vital to my success. I’ve never really learned to enjoy running so I decided to start out walking around 3-4 miles per hour. I bought an old-school treadmill from another old mission companion of mine who lived in town. I gave the treadmill the nickname “Miracle Machine” because we’ve both lost 110+ lbs using it. I also invested in a heart rate monitor with a chest strap. I did a lot of research and determined to maximize my fat burn I needed to maintain a heart rate between 130-150 beats per minute when walking.

I put the treadmill in my movie room because I knew from my experience on the treadmills at the YMCA in the past that I enjoyed my workouts better when I was keeping my mind entertained. So 2-3 nights a week instead of just sitting down to watch my favorites shows on my DVR, I jump on the treadmill and watch them instead. Initially, watching this seasons “The Biggest Looser: Couples” on NBC while I worked out helped me to continue to feel like I could continue to be successful. I haven’t really touched on the emotional side of things, but that show acts as a psychologist as well as a trainer.

I’ve also tried to participate in other activities I enjoy that get my heart rate up like football or basketball. I’ve been actively engaged in a game of basketball at least 1-2 times a week throughout this process, along with a couple games of flag football. It’s nice to get off the treadmill and out doing other activities I enjoy as a replacement. Plus the anaerobic workouts where your heart rate is bouncing up and down rather than steady on the tread mill are said to be more beneficial.

In summary, to be healthier I had to eat better and exercise consistently. No matter where I’ve gone during the last 10 weeks, whether it was a party, event, restaurant, business trip, friends for dinner, fast food, etc… I always found it possible to make good food choices. If you’re interested in becoming healthier, all I can say is get moving, stay positive and continually educate yourself on how to be healthier.