120 pounds down in exactly one year!

A year ago this week, I stood on the scale on a whim just to see what it said. I was shocked to see it read 405 pounds. This was unacceptable. I knew I had put on some weight, but I didn't realize it was that much. I felt terrible. I could barely breathe normally. I was constantly tired. I couldn't even sleep properly. If I didn't do something, I was going to die. Probably not immediately, but I was unhealthy. To make matters worse, my dad had started losing weight and I could no longer say "At least I'm not as big as he is."

That day, July 24, 2018, I started using MFP to track my food intake. Shortly after I bought a cheap smart watch/tracker from Wish.com and started tracking my activity. I tracked my normal habits at the time and I was barely making 4000 steps a day and eating between 5000 and 6000 calories every day. Once I saw the numbers, I knew I had to do better.

Immediately, I cut out all sugary drinks. No regular soda, no more sugared sweet tea, no bottled juices. I switched mainly to diet/zero sugar sodas and "enhanced" water. I slowly weaned myself off the sugar addiction. I set a realistic daily calorie goal for myself and stuck to it. I have never like vegetables, but I knew if I was going to eat and be satisfied while maintaining my calorie counts, I'd have to add more veggies and eat less of the starchy things that I used to eat. I replaced rice and pasta with cauliflower and shirataki noodles (try it, it's pretty good and only 15 cals a serving). Now, I eat and, more importantly, I am satisfied with about 1500-2000 calories a day. It takes planning and effort, but it is working and I am never going back. If anyone is interested, I can offer some pointers on cooking and making healthy substitutions. I might write up a separate post on that.

I turn 37 next Friday and I can honestly say that I have never felt better. For the last 12 months, I have been able to keep a steady loss of 10 pounds per month. I started at 405 and now I am down to 284. This is the smallest I have been since I was about 19 years old. I have set a target weight, for now, of 250 pounds, 34 pounds to go. I think I can make it by Thanksgiving. I am 6'3" tall and I naturally carry a lot of muscle. At 250 pounds, I will actually be 10 pounds lighter than when I graduated high school.

If I can make it work, so can you. I hope you find this encouraging. Keep at it. If you haven't started yet, start. Join the discussion here on r/loseit. The redditors here have been nothing but supportive and I thank all of you.