23 Pounds Less of Me

Yep, since last December. Early in December 08 I changed everything about how I live, eat, drink, and exercise. I decided to quit screwing around--forever gaining/losing 3 pounds while slowly getting older and fatter. With the help of my wonderful wife, I became a calorie nazi, and I started working out twice a day: Biggest Loser in the morning, and weights/cardio at night. My strategy was twofold. First, an extra workout at night would give me the time to work on muscle building, which is important to me, along with giving me an extra calorie burn. But secondly, an evening workout helps me stay distracted from my danger time--at night. If I have nothing else to do, I gravitate toward the TV, where I want to sit, eat, and drink. Instead, I work out, and when I come back upstairs, I'm so drenched and de-hydrated that I just sit and down a bottle of seltzer.

The result was a solid loss of 10 pounds in about a month. And I kept it off. I was so amazed and happy about it that I backed off a bit (one workout per day and slipped on calories). For the next several months, I plateaued--no gain or loss. In May I decided to get back to the basics and drop another 10. I did it. I reached 195 last week. This morning, I'm 193. I now know that for me to lose weight, I need two workouts per day and strict calorie watching.

Each morning I have 2 eggs, 2 pieces of turkey bacon, and that's it. No bread. For lunch, I have six saltine crackers with pepper cheese and/or peanut butter. Then, we eat our evening meal early. I have either a Lean Cuisine or a home-cooked meal, but I eat off of a small plate, and I try like heck to manage my portions. Then comes the hard part: not eating the rest of the night. If things get really bad, I munch on a few nuts.

My goal (at least for now) is 185, which I should get to pretty quickly. If I'm tough on myself, I lose 2 pounds per day. That would mean that I reach the goal on Sunday, but weekends are tough, so more likely next week.

And since I've been working out hard with weights, I'm pretty much solid muscle. Makes Zanne and I both happy!