How I started and stayed on track. Maybe it'll help someone?

I had originally sent this to a couple friends that kept asking how I managed to lose my weight and I figured maybe, just maybe it would help someone here. My tactics are not actually ideal for everyone but it worked for me. Everyone is different. It's a long read but it's been a real learning curve that I managed to straighten out.

Starting
Last July I was finally tired of clothes not fitting, feeling blah and decided that enough was enough. Sitting in the parking lot of an out-of-town Burger King, I scanned through the Play Store looking for an app to assist and educate me. I ultimately download the My Fitness Pal app and explored it for about 15 minutes. Wanting the fastest results possible (I realize now that it is a SLOW process), I enter my then current weight of 250 pounds and enter my goal weight as 150 figuring it would accelerate my weight loss. The app tallies up what my caloric needs per day would be and 1,500 total calories are displayed. Fifteen hundred! I had NO idea how much food 1,500 calories would be but it didn’t take long at all to realize that it wasn’t much at all.

Learning Curve
Starting the calorie counting was a slow process to learn. Old habits are hard to break so I ease into this whole adventure slowly. I want this and I know how my brain works so I start really slow. I figure my typical meals and drinks consumed on a daily basis and put a newly introduced number to it…total calories. I was floored when I realized I was consuming between 3k – 4k+ calories a day! No wonder I’m fat, I tell myself laughing. I start my journey with a very simple reduction of calories. Now aware of how many calories are in my foods, I start to reduce my daily caloric intake down to about 3,000 and over the course of a month I refine it to about 2,000 per day. It takes time to learn and didn’t happen overnight. Being on the go all day and night, we eat out almost every meal so I quickly learn where I can eat and where I cannot.

Empty Calories
I realize that I like to eat and now my calorie counting is becoming obsessive. I want to maximize my food intake and ultimately make the decision to cut out soda. THAT was the easiest decision to make for me as I wanted to EAT those calories…not drink them. Eliminating sodas or high calorie drinks allowed me to increase my meal calorie count drastically. But this left a void and again, knowing how I work…I had to find a substitute quickly. I’m fine with water but I needed a “fun” drink to enjoy. I turned to diet sodas but just could not get over the synthetic after taste. I try bubbly flavored waters but I didn’t enjoy them at all. I went on to try so many calorie free drinks without success until I tried a Monster energy zero ultra. Great flavor, no after taste and it was just a good fit for me, although I’m not a fan of high caffeine drinks. Due to their heavy caffeine levels, I regulate my daily consumption of Monsters until I could find a different drink that I could enjoy. This was 10 months ago and I never did.

My Meals
Over the course of several months I refined my calorie intake to fit within that 1,500 per day. Some days a little more, some days a bit less but I did manage to find a sweet spot. If I consume a lot of calories for lunch, I reduce my calories for dinner and vice versa. I vary on many different restaurants but Wendy’s is a fast lunch go-to for a large chili (280 calories), an apple pecan salad w/o bleu cheese and only ½ the dressing (280 calories) or a grilled chicken sandwich (I remove the top bun and use the bottom bun like a taco, to reduce carbs). It might be spicy lo mein with beef (a favorite), a 1 top pepperoni pizza from Blaze or maybe Wegmans for bourbon chicken or black pepper salmon (300-400 calories). There are many places I frequent but the above are my primary hot spots.
If I brown bag my lunch, it typically is the same thing over and over (I’m fine with consistency): 3 ounces of sliced turkey with 1 slice of swiss on a 60 calorie wrap (that I slice into thirds so it’s only 20 calories). 2 hard boiled jalapeno eggs (I throw away the yoke center), an apple sliced and grapes. Water before and after meals helps suppress your urge for overeating.

Refinements
Realizing I may not be taking in the proper nutrition, I started taking a daily multivitamin religiously. From there I made refinements to my diet that seemed to help immensely. My wife was trying the keto diet and she only counted carbs, not calories. I figured I would just incorporate an aspect of her diet into mine and although I LOVE bread, I reduced it dramatically. Switching from bread to wraps is a game changer as well because you can eliminate a ton of calories fast and with little sacrifice. The wraps I use are 60 calories versus breads/roll which can range from 150-300+ calories. Because of this, I watched my weight drop even faster yet; enough for it to become a permanent part of my diet.

Cheating
I have a sweet tooth the size of Texas and I knew going into this that I need to compromise with myself to be successful. Because of this, I allow myself a “candy allowance” that I try my best to adhere to. I am a sucker for Boston baked beans, Good N Plentys and my favorite…Chewy Nerds. If I overindulge on them, I’ll pay for it later on in the day due to strict calorie counting.
I REALLY miss cookies but I’ve cut them out. You can find me in the cookie aisle drooling and looking like the dead guy in the subway, from the Movie ‘Ghost’, wanting ‘just one more drag’.
I don’t really allow cheat days per se because, to me, that is flirting with disaster. Similar to telling a recovering alcoholic that it is ok to have a few drinks once a week. Stay on track. The exception is the holidays or what I refer to as an overindulgent day…which is when I eat beyond my 1500 calories but stay under the 2,000 threshold.

Exercise
There isn’t much other than walking and I walk a lot with my job and activities. I know many people that are the hard core “gotta gym it, man” but honestly…I have an insanely busy lifestyle that doesn’t leave a lot of time to visit gym. I have family that I love and spending my nights pumping iron is not in my wheelhouse.
Recent Fast Drop in Weight
Over the past week I have eaten the same thing, day in and day out and have watched my weight shred off (a pound a day plus). I don’t understand how eating lo mein can help cut weight but this combination really made me awestruck on the scales. It is not something I intend doing long term but just something I noticed.
• Wake, Monster drink and vitamins.
• I drink a ½ gallon of water before noon.
• Lunch: A small order of spicy lo mein with beef for lunch (757 calories).
• Dinner: To Wegman’s for either 8 ounces of bourbon chicken or black pepper salmon, with rottiserie chicken soup and a small side of green beans/veggies (500 calories total).
• Chewy Nerds snacks (300-400 calories).
• Water throughout the afternoon and at least 30 ounces before bed.

Weigh in
Perhaps I am a bit too obsessive but I have scales at both bathrooms that I use daily. Personal accountability. I notate my weight in the morning and then prior to bed. I use this information to make corrections with what meals I had previously. With unexpected weight gains, I’ll scrutinize meals that I consumed and try to educate myself for later. Most of the time if I had temporary weight gains it was due to meals heavy in the carb department, which was a primary reason for reducing them from my diet.

Wrap Up
1 year into this and I’m 70 pounds lighter, I’m down 2 shirt sizes and my once size 36 pants (that were getting too tight) are now a size 32. I found that my sternum bone protrudes downwards (haven’t seen that in 25 years due to fat), I have a collar bone and my vehicle’s seat has metal hardware down by my tailbone, that made it increasingly uncomfortable to sit in (my once larger self compressed the cushions down)…enough that I bought a new truck.
I know I’m not the most brilliant when it comes to healthy living and many would be floored by my approach but as my physician told me…”I’d rather you in a healthy weight range than where you were”. Everyone is different. Some are Vegan, some like organic home grown foods, some like protein shakes and spending every waking hour at the gym. But this worked for me and it is still a work in progress. I started “somewhere” , did “something” and slowly refined my approach, adding and eliminating as I went along (still doing this). I’ve never truly been a hardcore healthy eater so I really only learned how to control my caloric intake but during my weight loss I’ve actually have learned to eat healthier. I’ve learned that I like salad. I love Asparagus. I love all sorts of things that I previously despised and if this is what it took…overall it is a win win. I couldn’t have done it without My Fitness Pal. It truly is a life changer and has reinvented my life, in a very positive way.