New Goals

Well, since hitting and exceeding my goal of losing 20 pounds that I had set back in January, I have come to the conclusion that I need to make another goal to work towards. I want to be able to run a 5k in under 23 minutes AND be able to do 100 sit ups. Hopefully I will have the time to blog about the progress and not just fall off.

To begin though: I ran 5K in just under 25 minutes. It looks like I will need to try and shave off 2 minutes. I hope that it is possible. Let the journey begin. I will begin to log the sit ups also. Let the punishment begin.

The Beginnings

It all started when I stepped off a plane in December of 2004. Yes, that is when I returned from a two year mission to Brazil. I had watched my eating during the last 6 months and lost a decent amount of weight before coming home. I guess that you guys will have to make that decision with the pictures:

As I didn’t think about what I was eating for each meal I now see that I had let loose on American Food. I slowly began my weight gain journey and saw the weight loss efforts go completely to waste. Not good.

As I fast forward a bit, I began the biggest transformation ever (and I don’t mean good). This phase began when I started an internship at an Accounting Firm called KPMG in January 2007. It was a perfect duo for weight gain but not for maintaining my current weight. I was 1-a poor college student and 2-being Wined and Dined for the first time of my life. It was awesome. I seemed to think to myself that I had to take full advantage of every meal that was purchased on someone else's dollar. Now don't get me wrong, the Market Street Grill, The Tiberon (inside joke/story on this place-and you know who you are), Cheesecake Factory, Melting Pot, etc. were all excellent choices. The food was amazing but it didn't help when I got a drink, appetizer, entree, and dessert every time I went out to eat. When I went to Intern Training I even thought that a week’s worth of hotel food (usually 3 meals a day) was heaven and so I ate a lot at every meal. I have recently come to find out that this food makes one sick. In the span of 3 months I gained some weight but didn't think much about it because it tasted good and I still had cloths that I fit into. I returned to college and began eating a lot better since I had to bring my lunch (usually a turkey sandwich, chips and string cheese) to the University and eat it after class and before studying.

July 2008

Let's fast forward again to when I started working full time at KPMG in January 2009. I do not remember weighing myself during this time, probably in fear that I would not believe the numbers that the scale would tell me so I do not know exactly where I was at in when I started. If I had to try to throw out a number I would say that I had probably gained about 20-30 pounds since I stepped off the plane back in 2004. Embarrassing and ridiculous, I know. Once back at the Accounting firm I soon found myself in the sudden routine of being taken out to restaurants on a regular basis. The only difference is that the restaurant choices had changed a bit to a little more affordable type restaurants. Still good food though. I tried to be a little bit more careful on the food choices but soon found out that I was not careful enough. As I went through 2009 I gained more weight (shocking, I know). It does not help that the job consists of sitting all day, eating unhealthy food at meals and having snacks during the day.

I was in a cycle of buying new cloths instead of just changing my lifestyle. Each time my pants got tight on me I seemed to come across a great sale at the store and so I bought 2-4 more pants that I could fit into. At one point I inherited my Dad’s old pants because he lost weight and so I didn’t even need to buy new cloths and I moved up a pant size. Not a good way to go about gaining weight. I had used excuses on why not to begin a lifestyle change. Such as at work I wouldn’t be able to make healthy choices, it’s expensive (which is true), and I didn’t want to feel hungry all the time (I absolutely HATED the type of food I was eating and I would just end of trying to starve myself.). I finally decided that I needed to make a lifestyle change and work was going to make it a little easier. I try not to call it a diet because it is more of a long term lifestyle change. A diet to me means that I will stop eating healthy once I get to the desired weight and return to the way I was eating before. A lifestyle change means that I will continue to eat healthy and keep the weight off. I had tried the diet mentality and just gained the weight back and more. Anyways, by the end of 2009 I had gained a total of 45 pounds since December of 2004. The only way I knew that I had gained that much weight was because I finally weighed myself on January 2, 2010.

October 2009

November 2009-Me saying peace to the weight!

To begin, I had made the decision to try a new style of eating with some exercise for 3 months. I said that work made it a little easier to start out because as an audit team we made goals to lose weight and we were going to make healthy choices at meals to help get to that weight loss. I set a goal of 20 pounds in the 3 months which I was nervous because I didn’t think it was possible. When I say exercise I mean 20-30 minutes but most of the time it was 20 minutes because I absolutely HATE to run. I probably fit into about 95% of the population when I say that, but I thought to myself that I could do it for at least 20 minutes a day and if I was feeling extra motivational I would do a little more. Let’s talk about the details of the plan. A breakdown of the plan is the following:

Main Rules for healthy eating
1-Try to eat items high in protein (protein keeps you feeling full longer).2-Eat wheat instead of white.
3-Really limit the sugars (If you eat something that has a little sugar, make sure it is with a meal, NOT on it's own).

My Daily Routine for healthy eating
Wake up and have breakfast: Have a cereal that has a decent amount of protein (Kashi Brand is a great tasting cereal)

2-3 hours later: Eat a snack. Try to have a snack that has about 6-8 grams of protein with only about 150 calories (South Beach bars are great tasting for this).
Lunch: Try to have lunch with some protein (Subway: 6 inch oven roasted chicken breast with baked lays-southwestern ranch is a great choice, Cafe Rio salad: wheat tortilla, only eat half and use dressing sparingly is another great choice)

2-3 hours later: Eat a snack. Try to have a snack that has about 6-8 grams of protein with only about 150 calories (South Beach bars are great tasting for this)

Dinner:Try to have lunch with some protein (Subway: 6 inch oven roasted chicken breast with baked lays-southwestern ranch is a great choice, Cafe Rio salad: wheat tortilla, only eat half and use dressing sparingly is another great choice)

2-3 hours later: Eat a snack. Try to have a snack that has about 6-8 grams of protein with only about 150 calories (South Beach bars are great tasting for this)

Even if the snack is right before you go to bed it is ok. This was my kind of plan because it felt like I was eating all of the time, which I was, but it was smaller portions. I very rarely thought to myself that I was starving and needed to eat, which was great. At times I thought I didn’t want to eat but did anyways to keep my metabolism high.

I followed these concepts for all of January and was surprised at the end of the month because I had lost a total of 15 pounds!! It was exciting. My pants were fitting looser and I was feeling better. All except for a little accident that I wasn't going to let stop me. I was determined to run 5-6 days a week for about 20 minutes each time. I continued with the diet through February and by the end of the second month I had lost another 10 pounds!! That means I was already down 25 pounds in 2 months. It was awesome. I had reached my goal way before I thought I could. I had only planned to continue with the diet through Mid-March but because I was currently seeing results, why not continue. I went through the entire month of March and lost another 10 pounds that month. I then figured that I had made it this far and so I figured I would just keep eating healthy and exercising to see how much I could lose. In April and May I lost 5 pounds each month for a total of 10 pounds!! A total of 45 pounds in 5 months. In the month of June I hit the highest weight loss of my JOURNEY. I had seen reached a total of 51 pounds in the 6 months I had been eating healthy and exercising. Some of my cloths fit comfortably while others are fairly baggy.

Summer 2010

Since hitting the 51 pounds I have started to work out other areas of my body and though I have not seen the pounds come off I have felt the waste continue to shrink. It is tough not seeing the pounds come off but I have to keep reminding myself to not go back to the way I ate before, which is not that difficult because the unhealthy food doesn’t taste like it once did. I have had so much more energy each day and it has been great. Hopefully I can keep posting how the journey continues.