I did it!

Well, since June 1st I've been able to get my weight down by 35 pounds from about 208lbs to around 173lbs and my body fat down from about 23% to about 9%, and I feel great. People told me that they could see the weight loss especially in my face as I was losing the weight, and people that haven't seen me in a number of months can really tell and its motivating. I don't feel as bogged down, I don't feel as full all the time and I just feel better mentally too. I just hope that during the coming holiday / winter months I can keep motivated and keep it off and just keep going. My next plan is to work on building more muscle and doing the P90X workouts to try to get more cut. I have to develop some new goals! I attribute my success to the following:

1. Determination - making up my mind to do this at the beginning of June and not looking back. After feeling that my clothes were getting too tight I had to do something and I said that I was going to start eating better and get to the gym and be serious about it this time.
2. alli - getting on this program helped me because it made me look at what I was eating and forced me to start a low fat diet before I started on it, and then continued on the program. There is a good support system in place as well.
3. Diet - I ate a low fat diet, but one that was also high in protein and fiber and lower in carbs. I tried to stick to the <15g fat per meal rule and tried to get at least 60g of protein a day eating tuna, lean meat, supplements, etc. I stopped the late night snacking as well and said that past 10PM I'm not going to eat anything and wait until the next day.
4. Cardio/Spinning/Lifting - keeping a regimen of at least 6 days a week workout, and trying hard to get at least 45 mins of cardio a day, taking spinning class whenever possible (I can't really run - too much impact as I have knee problems). I feel like I'm in great cardio shape now! This definitely helped it come off!
5. MyFitnessPal.com - tracking everything you eat is great to see the nutritional values of everything and to cut out the daily snacking etc. It helped me to eat more continuously throughout the day and to just be more AWARE!
6. Having a partner - my girlfriend Dana has been great thoughout these months and started on a program as well with me - pretty much doing the same things - and its great to have someone to do these activities with and go to the gym with, go biking, etc.

So, I encourage all of you to start a new program and set some goals, you can do it! I hope that showing you what I did helps and if anyone has any ideas what I can do now or some other things to change it up please let me know. I'm looking to get more cut, put some more muscle on, and still maintain cardio fitness while having fun. I'm planning on getting a road bike with Dana and getting into cycling outside, and starting the P90X program (which will hopefully get me through winter - 90 days starting Nov. 1).

Hope to hear from you about your own successes!