One Year Later: 3,000 cans of Coke per year VS NO Soda for a

Vital Stats: 6’2”, 72” wingspan, 34” inseam, frame size small to medium

Nothing special about me, other than I finally decided to commit. If you commit, then you can do it too.

A year ago today, a little before my 40th birthday, I looked at myself in the mirror after a shower and decided, NO MORE. I was tired of barely being able to put on my 36” relaxed fit jeans. I was tired of the simple act of tying my shoes being such a chore. I was tired of having to wear dark XL T-Shirts to disguise my gut. I was tired of needing a break after climbing up a flight of stairs. I was tired of wearing out before anyone else did. I was tired of not feeling like I could be at the pool without a shirt on. I was tired of being embarrassed about what I saw in the mirror. I was tired of being tired!

I remember as a Teenager and in my early 20’s, looking at the older adults around me and vowing to myself to never let my jean waist size be bigger than my inseam. My jean size at 20 years old was 30 to 32 and my inseam was 34 and I couldn’t conceive of even the remotest possibility that my waist would ever be larger than 34”! Well, my inseam has stayed the same…but 20 years later my waist size had grown to be 36” relaxed or 38” regular fit.

How did that happen? How did I get up to 210lbs? How did *I* let that happen? Neglect, that’s how. I hadn’t paid attention to my health and fitness, and it had obviously gone downhill over the previous 20 years. That day, one year ago from the time of this writing, I decided to take back control of my health and fitness. I was going to get rid of that gut! It wasn’t going to get any easier the longer I waited.

The obvious 1st step was to quit drinking Soda and Sweet Tea. I literally had been drinking 6 to 12 cans of Coke a day, been doing that for 15+ years. So, I decided NO MORE. Not even one. I knew from past attempts to cut down my habit that I might be able to get down to a few per day, but that it would just ramp back up again. I felt the only option for me was to just quit cold turkey. It worked. I haven’t had any soda (not even diet) or Sweet Tea or any caffeinated beverage, since then. The first 3 weeks was tough! But I did it ‘cause I finally realized I had to. It was either the coke or me…and I like me much better than any inanimate object, no matter how good it tasted or felt to drink

I also started what I called My Get Fit Plan. The 1st month I did light cardio (Wii Fit Plus), the 2nd month I did Wii Gold’s Gym Cardio (Boxing Cardio), then I did 3 months of P90X Lean and then 2 months of P90X Classic, then 1 month of intense cardio with the odd strength training thrown in once a week Early on I joined MFP, which was a huge part of my success. I also took vitamins and nutritional supplements of course. Eight months after I made the commitment, I reached my Goal weight of 170lbs. That’s 40 pounds in 8 months, or a little over a pound per week.

I floundered around for about a month trying to decide, “what now?” I kept making good choices with my food, and stayed active, but I basically cruised for a month trying to figure things out. I finally decided on a strength training program focusing on gaining muscle mass. I did that for a month, but I pushed myself too hard and tweaked my knee and left hip a bit, which scared me. I’m 40 years old, almost 41, not a 20 something any more, lol.

So, I then spent a month on light cardio and light strength training, while focusing on Yoga as well. Basically, trying to maintain where I was at while giving my body a chance to recover from all I had put it through. I was still making good food choices, and still maintaining between 170 and 175 lbs the entire time. After that month, I had gotten to the point where I felt I could try to ramp it up again.

For those keeping score, we are now 11 months in

So, for the 12th month (this past month), I have gone back into strength training mode, but focusing more on good form and technique. Doing total body workouts 3 days a week, and 20-25 minutes of interval cardio about 3 days a week, every now and then I throw in a Yoga X session. My routine is still evolving, and I’m sure it will never stop evolving.
Now here I am, one year later. I feel like a totally different person now. I often think of the time before last year as a past life. I find it hard now to believe that it was really me in those before pics! That’s why I keep looking at them, I don’t want to forget again the price of neglect.

I am currently at 168 pounds. Current goal is to lose still more of my body fat and gain more muscle mass.

Enough words! Here are some Then and Now pics