323-223= 100 lbs. lost in 1 year. (Long-with pics)

The following is a post I wrote for my Facebook friends. I thought I would post it here too.

323-223= 100 lbs. lost in 1 year.

Let me start by saying that I am not writing this to brag. I am writing this because so many people have asked me “how did you do it?” I don't really know how to answer that other than saying “eat less, move more.” While that answers the question on the surface, I don't really think it answers the underlying questions of specifics that people really want to know.

I am also writing this because I read stories like this along the way and they were very inspiring to me. If I can be an inspiration to someone reading this, then that's great! I'm no expert, but if anyone reading this has questions about weight loss, please feel free to ask. Again, I'm no expert, but I'll be glad to share with you what I know and what worked for me. (Disclaimer: Everyone is different. What worked for me may not work for you.)

Ok, so here's the story... so far.
Like you’ve probably heard others say, I’ve always been pretty big. I wore “Husky” pants when I was in grade school. I wrestled at or just under heavyweight in Jr. high and I always had people telling me “someone your size should be playing football” (never did due to band/drumline but I wouldn't have been strong enough anyway.) I was about 230 lbs. when I graduated high school. Once I got into college and beyond, I just continued to get bigger until I was over 300 lbs. I never wanted to look at a scale so I didn’t know just how heavy I had gotten until I had a required physical to start my new job.

I got a new job at Mercy Hospital back in June of 2012. Throughout the orientation process, I heard a lot about the programs they offered to encourage fitness and wellness but at the time I wasn't interested. Then August rolled around and I started thinking about my birthday (my 31st birthday was August 22, 2012.) I'm not saying that I was feeling old, I don't really worry about my age, and 31 isn't old. I had noticed, though, that a guy I work with who is in his 50's was struggling to lose weight. I figured... It's going to be hard enough now, but the older I get, the harder it will be.

So, I guess that means the time is now.

On August 13, 2012, I started logging what I ate on My Fitness Pal. I think it started me out at about 2800 calories. My Fitness Pal setting up my calorie goal was really helpful because I’ve always had a mental block when it comes to goals. I never wanted to make a goal for fear that I wouldn’t achieve it. The same was true here so I decided to start with smaller goals: 1st get under 300 lbs., then 280, then 250, 230, etc. Even 100 lbs. and getting under 200 crossed my mind but I couldn’t make myself commit to it. I made a conscious decision to start slow with exercise as well – one of the best decisions I could have made. I knew from previous attempts to lose weight that if I hit it too hard at first, I would burn out and I wouldn’t go back. I started walking on the treadmill in the exercise room at the hospital and eventually added in a little running as I felt I could. At first, I could only run about 1/8 of a mile at a time.

Starting slow allowed me to continue going back. The more I went back, the more I pushed myself and the more I was able to do. Eventually I was able to run a full mile without stopping, then two, then three. Then, in March, Mercy Health was a major sponsor of the Heart Mini (for the American Heart Association) in Cincinnati so I ran my first ever 5K race. My goal for the race was to run it at an average of 10 min/mile pace (6mph.) They messed up the turn-around on the race course and I ended up running 3.8 miles...without walking... at an average pace of 9:58/mile (6.02 mph)!

About the time of the race, I had lost around 70 lbs. in 7 months just by staying under my calorie goal (set up by My Fitness Pal) and exercising. It was at this point that I started thinking that maybe, even if my weight-loss pace slowed down, I could lose 100 lbs. in a year.

For the next couple months, I did P90X. Well, kinda. I did what I could to do the program as it was intended but with work, home, a wife and 4 kids it didn’t end up that way. I was usually able to get in 4-6 days per week. After a couple months, a couple of the bands I was using snapped while I was using them (that sucked!) Not having the right equipment or motivation, I decided to stop P90X and go back to running. Don’t get me wrong, I got results from P90X. My weight-loss slowed down quite a bit but I got A LOT stronger! I forgot to take measurements, but I know I got a lot smaller too. If I had the time to commit and the right equipment I think the results would have been amazing!

I went on vacation for a week in June of 2013 and took off a week of logging my food. I thought that when I got back I would have a lot of weight to re-lose but I didn’t! I think 10 months of logging my food and exercise had finally allowed me to wrap my head around how many calories are in the food I eat and how few I actually burn off when exercising. Sorry, you can’t walk a mile and go have a large milkshake. It’s doesn’t equal out!

I hit it pretty hard through July because I really wanted to hit my goal of 100 lbs. in 1 year which was August 13th. I pushed myself a little harder, ran a little longer and farther and the weight-loss picked back up.

On August 7, 2013, I stepped on the scale and it said 222.8! 100.2 lbs. lost!

Since then, I have been staying under my calorie goal and trying to figure out what to do next for exercise. Running hasn’t really been my favorite thing to do but I can’t deny the results! I would like to do some strength training or lifting but I’m not sure yet. I’m not going to worry about a weight goal right now, I want to get stronger and maybe get some muscle definition. I just signed up to be a volunteer firefighter at my local fire department so maybe I’ll do some kind of firefighter workout. I have my annual physical next month so I’ll talk to my physician then. I guess for now I’ll just continue to eat less and move more!

You just motivated me to keep with running Progress seems so slow, but if you can do it, I guess I should keep with it.