My Diet Story

At a certain point in my life, I began to gain weight.

Somehow, I didn't really notice it for for about 8 years.
Sure, I had had to replace my wardrobe a couple of times during this time period, as my waistline began to bulge.
Eventually, I finally noticed that I just couldn't keep up with my children, I seemed to always be tired, I was getting sick all of the time, and I just never seemed to feel well.

My diet story really began when a picture showed up in the mail, from my mother, of me and my oldest daughter at a joint Birthday party for myself, my youngest daughter, and my niece.

They say the camera puts on 10 pounds, but in my case, I felt like it had put on 50.

I saw a man looking back at me that I just really didn't recognize as being me. The next time I looked in the mirror, I saw that same FAT man that was in the picture my mom had sent me.

For a while I got pretty depressed, and made a number of, what I now know to be, half assed attempts at losing weight.

I tried removing the Soda's from my life. As a person who drank a MINIMUM of one 44 oz soda and one or 2 cans per day, to as much as 2 or 3 44 ouncers...  I figured that cutting out that 120 calories per 12 oz of soda would help me drop some weight. But what I ended up doing was increasing my sugar intake elsewhere, and I lost maybe a few pounds in a month.  So my diet story continues...

I was supplementing the lowered soda intake with sugared coffee to get my missing caffeine, and was drinking a LOT of beer to make me feel better. Until the day that my boss threatened me with my job if he ever smelled alcohol on me again. I am the sole bread earner in my family, so that HAD to stop.

The real kick towards getting me on the road to real weight loss came when my wife found a book called Get Off Your Ass by Marty Tulley. Here is where I realized that I needed to Eat Properly to make my body happy again, exercise to increase my body's ability to burn the calories I did consume, and develop new habits to replace the horrible ones I had been developing over my life.

My diet story really began when I started to develope my OWN weight loss program. I knew what I needed to do, but I really needed to Just Do It!

What it came down to, to make it all work for me was to develop a new set of habits.

I started with replacing the majority of my soda and beer drinking with good old plain water. I went out and got a Reverse Osmosis filter system for the kitchen sink, and bought a stainless steel water bottle to fill a couple of times a day. The water bottle was what made it possible for me to actually do this. I can't stand the taste of plastic in my water. Especially now that I had 99.999% pure water to drink.

The next step in my diet story was beginning to enjoy the benefits of breakfast. This was nothing big, just a little 180 to 250 calorie breakfast. Some fruit, toast, or yoghurt.  This stopped me from feeling a need to snack in the middle of the morning. Though It did make me feel a stronger need to eat at lunch time.

This is when I began to look at what I was eating for lunch. The heavy fried foods had to go, if I was going to be able to tell my own diet story. A sensible lunch is really quite enjoyable, and it just takes a little bit of preparation in the morning to get it ready. When I was really pushing to decrease my weight, I simply brought a salad to work with some chicken or pork over the top and a low cal/fat dressing. Keeping this meal down to just a few hundred calories with some good protein kept me from being hungry most of the rest of the day.

This is when I had to re-invent my afternoon snack. Instead of spending extra pocket money at the vending machine in the break room, I started to bring some fresh fruit, low salt pretzels, and air popped popcorn to keep at my desk in case I got hungry.

Playing my day this way, left me open to eat pretty much anything I wanted for dinner. The key was to not go overboard, and keep dinner to a reasonable, yet high on tastyness meal.

When I began to finally exercise on a regular basis...
I'm a desk jockey.
The pounds really began to shed.

I took off 30 pounds in 5 months, and now need to just concentrate on keeping my weight reasonable.

Sometimes I go up a little, and then I just concentrate on seeing where I've slipped, to lose a few pounds over a couple of weeks.

That's My Diet Story...

The information found in and throughout The 7 Habits of Weight loss (www.7habitsofweightloss.com) is not intended as a substitute for the advice or treatment that may have been prescribed by your physician.

Information found here should NOT be construed as definitive or binding medical advice and is NOT intended to diagnose, prescribe, nor endorse any brand of products or services. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new weight loss or exercise regimen or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.