Half The Man I Use To Be!!!! Next stop 300 lbs. Lost!!!

Thank you for sharing your story! It's motivating to say the least. I think, sir, that you could be an incredibly effective mentor. Could you also share your setbacks (cookie cravings, etc.) and how you got back on track to overcome them?

From the very start, I had begun working with a Dietician. We decided calorie counting for me at that time wasn't required (you have to realize at the beginning to maintain the weight I was ate, I needed to consume 7000-8000 calories a day) So concentrating on Good Carbs (complex carbs) Whole grains, whole wheat pasta's, cutting out starches was a much better approach and with A1C at 9.9 and full blown type 2 diabetes, it was apparent we had to get my blood glucose numbers under control. I had to focus on this becoming a lifestyle change because I had done the diets in the past and that had gotten me nowhere. I can tell you this, (and I am being completely honest) I had to hit that rock bottom moment in my life before I was able to realize this could be nothing short of a complete lifestyle change. Those last 3 days (before my aha moment) I sat in this house trying to decide between choosing life or choosing ??? (yes I was at that point) but I choose life and on the 3rd day when my wife came home I said the 3 words she had waited the better half of 10 years to hear. "I Need Help" So you see from that point forward even though I had no idea how it was even going to be possible, I had chosen life so my focus was on that. I went/am still going through therapy "12 step addiction, social phobia, depression" and probably will be for quite sometime. My situation was so dire and there was so many issues to work on it was overwhelming, so we broke everything down as simple as we could. I dealt with things on an hourly basis. I concentrated on getting through the first 4-6 hrs of the day and then the next 4-6 and etc... By breaking it down that simple it aloud me to focus on the tasks at hand and calmed me down alot. My food menu was drastic, We cleaned the house out completely of all the junk foods and unhealthy things (yes just like on the weightloss shows, the 32 gallon trash can came in the house) and replaced them with whole grains, fruits, veggies, chicken and fish. I was aloud 2 cheat meals a week (would normally eat one mid-week and one on the weekend) both meals was to be consumed outside of the house at a restaurant and would bring nothing home. I didn't stuff myself but would allow myself whatever I wanted. The rest of the week we ate good, I had healthy snacks and meals. I had abused food so much in the past, there was no more (well I will just eat this, this one time and get back on point been there done that) falling of the wagon meals or junk. The one thing that I aloud myself to have was diet pepsi, it has always been my crutch (my wife say she thinks I just have to have a bottle beside me whether I drink it or not lol) I started weighing in on Wednesday mornings, it was far enough away from my cheat meals and felt like it gave me the first part of the week to get my exercise in before I weighed in. I lost 100lbs. in 6 months at the beginning and that was right before thanksgiving so as a reward I took the week off (we had xmas and thanksgiving combined over thanksgiving so I told myself it was my reward for losing 100lbs.) That week I gained 13 lbs., I was eating everything I could get my hands on. (with the whole family here, we had bought chips, baked cookies, had candy.... everything I had sworn off and had not let in the house) It was a huge wake up call when I stepped on the scale and seen what I had done. Was I surprised? at first but then I thought about all that I ate, it made me sick... So I swore from that day forward no more, we cleaned the junk out of the house and refocused. It took me 5 weeks to lose that 13 lbs. that I put back on. Overtime you don't miss those foods like you once thought you couldn't live without. I have a hard time now even eating my cheat meal (All I think about is how many minutes I have to spend in the gym to work it off) I do eat it anyway to keep myself honest. When we have gathering here at our house, there is no buying chips and crap food, We prepare healthy food, and if you don't like it well you will go hungry or you'll have to stop at McDonald's on the way home. lol I am trying to set an example for my family, some have bought into it (My Wife is fully in my corner and loves our new healthy lifestyle) but there are others in my family, yes the ones that use to try intervention on me for years and would preach to me about the harms I was doing to myself that now are going down that dark road I had taken. It makes me sad and also completely drives me insane, I just want to shake them and say HELLO!! but I was there and no matter how much you pray and wish and hope for someone to realize they have a problem. Until they are ready to admit that they do you can scream until you are blue in the face and it will do no good... I know all to well...... Sorry so long.....