From a man who has lost over ten inches on his waist...here's a story that shows you that EVERYONE can succeed when they get their mind ready to achieve long-term fat loss...
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Hi Craig,
You've said you'd like to hear more about my journey, and as I've said there's plenty to tell, so I'll give you some dot points and if you want me to expand on anything just let me know;
- I've always been big right through adolescence, the last time I was under 100kgs I would've been in my early teens
- My regular diet consisted of no breakfast, big lunches & even bigger dinners
- When I did eat it was often high fat, highly processed, low nutritional foods
- I'd average 4 litres of Cola per day for years
- I'd rarely have any fresh fruit or veg, nor would I drink much, if any, water
- I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day since my middle teens (I'd decided a few years ago to give up that first before trying to loose the weight thinking quitting smoking would be easier than loosing the weight again, I couldn't be more wrong)
- In 2002 I finally managed to get the pack-a-day down to a pack every three weeks or thereabouts
- Last year I've kicked the habit and now consider myself a non-smoker
- My exercise was very limited, I played cricket in the summer but put myself in a position where I could get away with exerting as little effort as possible while doing so. I also played some golf, but got a cart every time so the walking was very limited
Despite all this, my health issues were relatively few, I;
- had slightly elevated Cholesterol and Triglycerides levels
- suffered from sleep apnea (which I would wake up from 4-6 times each & every night)
- had chronic knee complaints
- was often low on energy & motivation to do anything about it
Surprisingly though, my blood pressure was normal despite a history of it in the family with my father and his mother both suffering from hypertension.
So that was my situation in January. A couple of years earlier I picked up a book by Paul McKenna called "I can make you thin", I had no intention of reading it at the time but it was on special so I bought it and threw it in my draw at work where it stayed. I'm not sure if you're aware of McKenna's work but I actually read it for the first time in January this year just as
I embarked on my weight loss effort, I knew what I wanted to do, but didn't know exactly how to go about it (which sounds very similar to my current predicament with the exercise).
The thing that really got my attention is that it uses similar techniques to those I had been taught at work (via a
self-improvement course) around the same time, the book just made very good sense to me and the fundamental end result of which was that I was able to eat less and be satisfied.
Of course it's much more complex than that, for example;
- I never miss breakfast now, whereas before it was a rarity that I justified not having by saying I didn't have enough time, in the end it was just a plain old habit not to have breakfast
- I have much smaller meals now, often a quarter or less of what I would've had in the past, yet I never go hungry what I've done, is stopped the overeating I did at every meal
- I eat regular snacks between meals, usually a piece of fruit or something (will be trying almonds next from what I've read on TT so far), but only when I'm hungry & I stop once I'm no longer hungry
- I now drink 2-4 litres of water per day every day, I have virtually no cola, although I do have a small fruit juice (usually 200ml of apple, cranberry or blackcurrant juice) most mornings which I've noticed you label as "liquid calories" and have put it on your list of things to avoid
But it's not all perfect eating, I still enjoy some pizza from time to time for example, but the difference is now it's not the twice a week thing it used to be and when I do it's only ever a couple of pieces, not the whole pizza like I used to. But this is possibly the best thing about change in my eating, I'm not scared of eating anything, as long as I enjoy every mouthful
& stop when I'm full or no longer hungry it seems to work well for me.
The second part to the weight-loss has been the exercise. One of the most discouraging things I had to deal with at the start was the embarrassment I felt when exercising at over 300 lbs. In fact my wife didn't even know I was exercising for the first three weeks! I'd do it once she'd gone off to work, or I'd come home & do it before she got home, it was the one thing I was least prepared for, but thankfully it was quickly overcome as the results began to show quite quickly.
My exercise routine;
- started off with low-impact cardio (exercise bike & swimming) and no weights
- after I'd lost the first 10kgs I introduced the treadmill into the routine along with some infrequent weights, just doing whatever I felt like doing at the time with no real purpose
- then after I'd lost about 20kgs around April I started playing squash (I used to play a lot as a teenager) that started out as one session for an hour a week, since about June I've been playing at least three times a week
- just in the last month I've started experimenting with some more weights and tried the methods suggested in the TT emails
Today, the health issues I had have subsided;
- my sleep apnea has gone & I've never slept so well
- my knee complaints are still there, but they are not as bad as before, no doubt due to the fact I'm carrying 35kgs less I strap up my knees every time I play squash, before when I didn't I could barely walk the next day but not so after I strap them
- I haven't yet had my cholesterol and triglycerides levels checked but have put that on the agenda to do in the new year
- I've got plenty of energy now & definitely motivated to keep going
Through all this, I do have two regrets;
1. I didn't take any really good before photos; and
2. I didn't take any measurements of myself other than my weight, now looking back I would've liked to have taken out the tape measure before I started
However, my change in clothes size is a true testament to the amount of fat I've lost;
- my pants size have gone from a 117-122 (46-48") down to 97 (38"), so that's easy to tell I've lost 10" there
- my shirt size has gone from 7XL down to XL
- I've had to replace virtually my whole wardrobe (which has cost a small fortune) and I've gotten rid of all my old "fat clothes" except for one pair of pants that I'm keeping so I can show just how far I've come
- actually shopping for new clothes is one of the most satisfying things I do now, before I was limited to the few stores that had big men's sections, now I can go wherever I please & there is nothing more pleasing than that
No doubt the other most satisfying thing is the family & friends who just can't believe the changes I've made, all the comments about how great I look, asking what's my secret, some long-time friends of mine who I hadn't seen since last year didn't even recognise me at first! Everyone is happy for me, and I couldn't be happier myself, I could write another essay just on the comments but I think I've already written way too much (that is if you're still reading this by now!).
So now I'm looking to use TT to put some purpose and structure around my exercise and try to help me get to my weight-loss goal. I haven't really started any TT routines yet other than playing with a few ideas presented in your emails, I'm still trying to absorb the huge amount of info there is with a view to get started on it properly over the next week or two.
Cheers,
Mick Carthy, Australia
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