I have wanted to lose some weight for a long time. I’ve become too complacent in my life when it comes to diet and exercise. Junk food and I are the best of friends, and have been for many, many years. I’m also a self-proclaimed couch potato. Having two TiVo boxes in the house probably doesn’t help this addiction I have the glowing screen in my house. My level and inactivity has been steadily increasing over the past 15-20 years, along with my weight and blood pressure.
I have tried diets before with mixed results. Typically the word “diet” is synonymous with failure for me. Weight Watchers works well for my wife, but I hated tracking everything I ate everyday and for me it wasn’t restrictive enough. Give me an inch of wiggle room on a diet and I will take the length of a football field. Last year I went on the HCG diet and was very happy with the results that came from starving my self. I lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks, but I couldn’t eat anything!
Recently I went to the doctor for my annual wellness checkup. Let’s just say the results of my blood work have been an eye opener for me. While my cholesterol levels were surprising good for someone with my bad eating habits, I am also pre-diabetic. This first thing he told me to do was lose some weight and get some exercise. Seeing that the HCG diet worked for me last time, I asked my doctor his thoughts. He didn’t have a lot of good to say about the diet. I won’t go into the details of what he said, but know that was enough to convince me not to go on the HCG diet again. What he did recommend for me was the Atkins diet along with some exercise.
Obviously I need to make a change in life. I need to be healthy. One of the problems I have is staying motivated. It’s too easy to fall back into bad habits. Last year one of my friends created a 90-day fitness challenge for himself and he blogged about it everyday. The idea of having other people track your progress and hold you accountable was all the motivation he needed to succeed. He suggested that I might try the same approach.
So here it is, I’m going to put it all out there for the world to see. I plan blog everyday about my eating habits, activity level and anything else related to my goal of getting healthy. I really want to be in better shape. I want this to be a lifestyle change and not just a short-term diet.
I welcome your comments and support as I try to change 20 years of bad habits. I know this is going to suck, but I’m hoping with your help I can do it.
Thanks,
Jared
Not that I need to tell you this but you have all of my support. I'm so proud of you for doing this. We need you around for a very long time. I love you no matter what.
ReplyDeleteCool! I am excited for you! Atkins is a great way of eating, and it works! It can work just as quickly at HcG. I am behind you 100%! You can do this!!! YAY!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on this new journey! I am also 1000% here for you and happy to give any support, encouragement, or suggestions you need. Accountability measures (like this blog) tend to be very successful so you are definitely off on the right foot!
ReplyDeleteAll eating plans can be successful (actually studies find NO difference between the different approaches when it comes to just weight loss - they are all just ways to get you to cut calories). There can be some issues with Atkins when you talk about optimizing your nutritional intake. There are some volume based diets that teach you how to eat things with high nutritional density and low caloric density so you feel satisfied and not deprived. They can often be good bets when you are looking at making a long term lifestyle change, not just dropping 20lbs and then returning to your old habits. Again, I have lots of info if/when you want it. :)
one last note for now, unfortunately despite our distaste of all that food tracking, it is one of the #1 strategies employed by successful self changers (there's something called the national weight control registry where they track thousands of people who have sucessfully lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off for at least 5 years.) There is a list of strategies that these folks almost always use, and food tracking always lands right near the top. just 'food' for thought.
Good luck! I'll be checking back often!!
-Shannon
Nice job Bro! I completely support you and I know that you can make this change. you don't know this but you actually played a part in motivating me to make a recent change in my health too. A couple weeks before you found out from your Dr. That you were pre-diabetic, I tore some ligaments in my ankle pretty bad that side lined me from the minimal exercise that I do get. For the next couple weeks as a lay on the couch feeling like a slug it really began to hit me that I need to make some changes as well. I have some of the same bad habits you do and it is so easy to just not do anything. I finally started doing some research and began to change my diet. One of the websites that was referred to me is www.freedieting.com they had some good info and calculators to help you better understand what your body needs. just by dropping soda, controlling my portions and avoiding some foods I dropped 10 lbs in 1 week. Still with a long way to go I heard about your Dr. appointment from mom and it has futhur motivated me to keep up with eating better and trying to improve my health. We bought a treadmill and I have been faithfully running on it for the 3 weeks, and I am continuing to lose weight (17 lbs total so far) and I feel so much better on a daily basis. Putting in the effort is really paying off and now it is beginning to feel like a normal thing.
ReplyDeleteI did a food log of everything I was eating for about a week, learning how much calories are in different foods. Once you have a better idea of what foods to avoid or how how to plan out things, you don't need to continue to log things, just remember to pay attention to what you are eating. I still have my indulgences here and there but I try to make up for them the next day. Also it is very important you weigh yourself every day around the same time. (Morning is the best) You will never keep weight off unless you know where you are at every day.
That last comment way by Scott not Ali. We all know she doesn't have any weight to lose.
ReplyDeleteThis awesome! I am very excited for you & know you will be successful! I need to find some motivation myself! :) Good luck! Love ya!
ReplyDelete