lost 40 pounds in 6 months
Sun Jul 14 15:13:19 EDT 2002In highschool I weighed 180 pounds.
In December of 2001 I weighed 230 pounds. I was wearing size 38 pants, and XXL shirts. I started paying more attention to not eating things that were bad for me. I had the major advantage of not being continuously tempted by all of the junk available in vending machines and 7-11s because I didn't leave the house much as a result of being unemployed. I drank almost nothing but water (lots of it), and my diet was largely based around white rice, and eventually re-discovered oatmeal, and then grits. I figured I wanted to weigh something like 210 pounds.
On May 22, 2002, I weighed 200 pounds (210 was still too much). At this point I decided to pay more attention to eating things that were good for me, and start exercising. My diet was largely inspired by things I'd read on the internet about bodybuilding diets. I've been aiming for lots of protein, and a little bit of carbohydrates. Egg-beaters (all the protein of eggs without the carbs and calories), chicken breast (usually boiled), lots of low-fat vanilla yogurt, grits, and some vegetables. Still drinking water almost exclusively.
On June 27, 2002, I weighed 190 pounds. I am incredibly happy with this achievement. I bought size 34 pants and a medium shirt (that fit). I have stayed within 2 pounds of that weight since then (17 days), so it looks like I've found my weight. I also have no desire to be quite as small as I was in highschool.
One of my bigger problems was butter. I love real butter and whole milk. I once must've spent 15 minutes walking up and down a large grocery store isle trying to find a bag of pretzels that didn't say "low fat". So trying to reduce my fat intake has been a pretty major adjustment for me. I tried 1% milk, but that didn't work out for me, so I use 2%. Instead of butter, I use pam spray to lubricate pans, and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray for flavoring (it really does taste great, and it says 0 calories). In cases where I use oil, I've switched to olive oil, because I believe it's the healthiest.
I still have a little fat I want to loose to get some more muscle definition. I plan to keep my diet about as it has been since the improvements in May.
My exercising has been freeweights and things like push-ups and sit-ups. I was doing about an hour a day, and taking days off fairly regularly for recuperation, but I haven't been exercising much in the recent heat.
I still haven't found a way to get aerobic exercise into my life. I don't think running is for me, and I don't currently want to spend the money on an exercise bike.
Graph of my weight:
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