At
the time of this writing, I am 40 years old. I
am the
father of 2 little girls. Amber Elaine, and Kaitlyn Rae.As
with most parents, these little packages of water and other nutritional
building blocks, are my reason for being. Before these two, I
was a very different person. Even the change from having one,
to having two, brought about changes in me. Amber is eight
years old, and Kaitlyn is five. At the same time that
the woman that was to become my wife became pregnant with Amber, I
began to put on weight. I swear that I put on 15
pounds during the pregnancy of each of our children. It
was one of those things where, it all went immediately to my belly, and
then spread itself out, in a way that was completely invisible to me. Having
lost the first 30 pounds, I looked at pictures of myself from 6 months
prior, and saw a FAT man that I never saw in the mirror. Heck,
I Str8 shave every day of the week. Which means I spend 10 to 15
minutes a day watching myself very closely in a mirror. Especially the
first year that I was doing it. There is nothing more
motivating for looking in a mirror, than putting a razor sharp 3 inch
blade to your neck and cheeks first thing in the morning, before any
caffeine source. For the First 12 years of my life I
was "chubby". Heck, I was born at 10.5 pounds. By my teens I
had stretched out to become a heroine chic body style. I
managed to maintain a slightly more muscular version of that body into
my 20's through mountain biking, rock climbing, belly dancing, or
clubbing. Honestly, all that went out the window with
the first child. I had a family to think about, and deal with. I
got a desk job (Computer Geek) I stopped spending hours a week
running around with my friends and visiting clubs. Basically,
I stopped doing all of the things that were keeping my metabolism
burning at a rapid clip. I really hadn't changed my
eating style, but I stopped burning all of those calories that I was
consuming. Was my nutritional intake perfect? Heck
No! But at least my calorie intake was in line with my burn
rate, so I was neither losing nor gaining weight. By
the time I had figured out that I was beginning to balloon, I was
unable to lose weight by simply cutting out calories. My
metabolism had slowed way down, my sugar intake was WAY out of
proportion to my exercise regiment, and it was spiraling out of control. Cutting
down my sugar made no difference by itself. Eating less,
didn't help… My body went into famine mode, and I
actually continued to gain weight. I kept looking at
fad diets, read all the guru's, and just couldn't lose the weight. Finally,
I figured out that I needed to make many changes to make this happen,
and get to a reasonable weight. I began by working on
one thing at a time, making it a habit, and then finding something else
to improve. No single change made any real difference
in my weight loss. But when I put it all together,
the pounds started to shed. My energy levels went up. I
began to feel healthier. This was the beginning of formulating
the 7 Habits of Weight Loss. It is an ongoing project
that will change as new information becomes available. I
figured if it helped me, it could help others, so I began collecting my
thoughts and data… And what you see today, on this
website, is the outcome of what I have learned and wish to pass on. Congratulations on taking the
first step, and realizing that something has to change, or nothing will. Philip Kustner Head
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