I want to lose weight. A lot of it. I have had success losing weight before, but I gained it all back and more. That’s how weight loss goes for most people. They start, make some progress, then something happens in life and the plan just disappears.
Now I want it gone for good and I’m going to share here what I’m doing over the next several weeks (or months more likely). I would love for you to follow along and participate. It’s much easier to travel this road with other people than to go it alone. I’ll go more into that at the end of this post.
First some disclaimers. I’m not a doctor, a nutritionist, a weight-loss “expert”, or anything like that. I’m just someone who wants to lose a bunch of weight, and here’s why…
My Weight Loss Goal
My primary goal is to feel better. That’s it.
I’m not all that concerned with a number on a scale or on a tag in a pair of jeans. Nor am I overly concerned with what other people think when they see me. It is highly unlikely that you will see me at the beach or by the pool even after I lose the weight. That’s just not me.
Like I said, I just want to feel better. I want to be able to move easily, climb a hill without getting winded, and jog across the street without feeling a lot of extra unproductive motion. A little definition in my arms and legs might be nice too, though that isn’t a driving concern. Maybe some better eating habits. Mostly, I just want to feel good in my body.
Since the scale is the easiest way to keep score, I’m looking at dropping about 60 pounds. That will put me below that threshold weight that I couldn’t get through the last time I did this. Right now I’m 7 or 8 pounds into that goal depending on the day. I started a few months ago, had a few good days here and there where I lost a handful of pounds, down to 12 total, then got a few back and maintained since. And that’s where I’ve been sitting.
My Challenges
I’m not a big fan of food.
I know that sounds counterintuitive, but hear me out.
I don’t like to take the time to make it or eat it, so I go for quick and convenient. Unfortunately, that doesn’t usually equal healthy. My favorite foods are pizza and chocolate chip cookies, though I am willing to substitute a nice, fudgy brownie if that is what’s available. Not exactly the best choices for staying fit and trim.
I eat when I’m bored or stressed about something. I don’t smoke or drink, I eat chocolate chip cookies. I’m working on some changes to my business and income right now too, so the anxiety levels creep up somewhat regularly lately.
My other big challenge is I’m chronically short on sleep. My son starts work at 5AM and doesn’t have a car yet, so I’m the driver. By the time everything winds down in the evening it’s 10PM and I have to be up at 4 so that we can leave at 4:30. Six hours of sleep every night isn’t enough to function properly. When you don’t get enough sleep your body looks to food to make up for what it isn’t getting from sleep, and you tend to make poor choices when you’re tired, like a less than healthy breakfast. It’s a compounding problem.
Finally, I’m 54. Experts say that it’s harder for older people to lose weight because your metabolism slows down as you age. Maybe there is something to that, but part of me thinks that it’s just a story to make people feel better about not losing weight as they get older.
How I’m Going to Lose Weight
As I said before, I want to lose the weight for good this time. No more bouncing up and down like a yo-yo. At a high level, losing weight is a simple math problem – burn more calories than you consume. That means eat less (and better) and move more.
There are a few ways to eat less. You can eat smaller portions and you can constrain the hours during which you eat. When you do eat, go for healthier foods to reduce the calories in those portions and improve your nutrition.
I like constraining the hours during which I can eat. It’s called intermittent fasting, which I will go more into at a later time. For now I’ll just say that you probably already do it. If you sleep 8 hours at night like “they” say you should, then you already fast for 8 of the 24 hours in each day. I increase that to 12 hours so that I can eat between 6AM and 6PM, then nothing but water between 6PM and 6AM. That’s very easy to do.
Drugs and Fad Diets
I will not be using drugs and going on any fad diets. My current weight was not caused by the lack of any lab-produced chemical cocktail in my diet. It is solely because I ate more calories than I burned, and my body is very good at storing unused calories for the future.
My wife went on one of those fad diets that was popular 15 or 20 years ago. All I can really remember about it was that she ate nothing but pineapple some days, and switched to just grapes on other days. I’m sure there was more to it, but that’s what I remember. Doesn’t that seem like a lot of sugar, albeit natural, to take in on a daily basis?
The thing is, drugs and fad diets are supposed to be used for short periods of time, then you go back to normal when you are done. But they don’t teach you better eating habits so that you can keep the weight off. So within a short time of completing the regimen, you are packing the weight back on, and probably even more.
There are some invasive surgical options as well, with the same likely outcome.
Don’t get me wrong, there are proper times for the drugs, surgeries and the fad diets. Pineapples and grapes might work great for losing a few pounds for an event in 2 weeks. Drugs and/or surgeries might be the only option in some emergency medical situations, especially when there is doctor supervision involved.
Losing weight the natural way will take longer, but you will develop better eating and exercise habits during that time to help you maintain your weight for the rest of your life.
Accountability and Sharing
Right now I’m doing this on my own, but it goes better when you have other people on the journey with you.
Part of it is accountability. It is a good idea to have an accountability partner when you take on a big project, like losing significant weight. That’s my main reason for writing. Just the idea that I’m going to share how I’m doing again, hopefully in a week, will help keep me on track.
The other reason is just sharing the journey. It is much more fun to go on a road trip with other people than by yourself. You have someone to talk to who understands what’s going on. People not on the adventure can be supportive, but they don’t understand the experience.
So, if you would like to come along there are a few ways to do that:
- Put your first name and email address in the form immediately below and I will email you the next time I write a new post. I hope to do this weekly. If you reply to my email and I will get it, so that’s another way to contact me too.
- Leave any thoughts, comments, questions, or messages of encouragement in a comment below this post.
- Join me on Facebook. I’m not big into social media but I do get onto Facebook for a few minutes most days.