How I Lost 37 Pounds

Before

After

In 2014, I suffered a couple of knee injuries that resulted in a long period of inactivity and general self-pity. I gained quite a bit of weight. I ate too much, drank too much, and exercised little. Week after week I chose to stay in the house, waiting for sore joints to heal, but even when healed enough, came up with excuses to not go outdoors and burn off calories. I also developed an even more fervent love of good food and drink, compounding the problem.

Around the beginning of 2014 I reached peak weight of around 210 pounds, a ridiculous measurement on a 5’9” frame. By late in the year, around October 2014, I decided that I needed to make some changes. I wanted to lose weight and started to examine my lifestyle to figure out what I needed to do differently. In keeping with my personal philosophy, my emphasis was on self-discipline, which I believe solves or mitigates most personal problems, and is certainly the key to achieving healthy weight loss.

You will notice this diet does not fully agree with any of the popular fad diets, although it does somewhat agree with the notion of reducing meat intake, and is low carb. My diet emphasizes eating vegetables, permits only small amounts of meat, and includes keeping track of calories. 

Phase I - January through April 2014

Discipline: stop drinking beer during the week

Weight Loss: 20 pounds

Over the years of my 30s, I developed a pretty significant habit of drinking beer every night. This ranged from just 1 or 2 up to too many at times. These would usually be 12 ounce beers, mostly the cheap mass produced variety, but later progressing to better quality, high calorie beer. While I enjoyed beer, I did not enjoy my thick-middled appearance. I had spent much of the previous decade working out, and hung out with very active people who loved outdoor sports and the fitness required to pursue active outdoor hobbies, and it was fairly humiliating for me to have to worry about weight, especially since I had met most of them when I was doing 150 push-ups a day and believe that I had a reputation for fitness. I decided that I would stop drinking beer, since that was the easy, obvious way to lose weight without having to give up my love of good food.

Unfortunately quitting cold turkey didn’t work, so I decided instead that I would limit beer intake. After a few weeks, I determined that a regimen of not drinking during the work week helped me to attain a rhythm of drinking that matched the demands of my job, while allowing me to improve my health and lose weight. Since beer is particularly notorious for causing fluid build-up in the abdomen (i.e. “beer gut”), this proved a fairly easy way to lose weight, and within about 5 months, I had lost about 20 pounds, without any additional effort.

Phase II - May through July 2017

Discipline: Strict diet Monday - Friday (noon)

Weight Loss: 20 pounds

During this part of my life, I had just crossed the 40 year mark, and began to notice that there was quite a big difference in my metabolism, and the weight started to creep up again. Also, unfortunately, my eating habits somewhat went to the high end, and I really developed a serious appreciation for very rich, flavorful, foods (read: “high calorie”). The good news is that I stopped eating as much fast food. The bad news is that I merely started eating out at full service restaurants and consuming 1500 calorie, 3 course meals. My weight had been fluctuating around 190 pounds for a while but my Dad came for a visit to Flagstaff in May 2017 for 6 nights and we ate out nearly every meal. On the morning he flew out of town, I weighed in at 196. I was riding my bike later in the day and dragging all that weight uphill, I decided that no, I was not going back up over 200. I did not like the way I looked, I did not like being a slow runner and a slow mountain biker, and I was going to commit to a very strict diet.

Weekday Diet:

1. Breakfast: 1 cup Quaker Oats instant oatmeal with dried fruit and/or nuts, 1 12 oz. Mountain Dew (still working on my caffeine habit)
2. Lunch: 2 ounces salad (preferred Dole American Mix) with 2 ounces of meat (preferred 2.25 ounce packet of tuna). Water for a drink (replacing another Mountain Dew)
3. Afternoon: another 12 oz. Mountain Dew (reduction daily from 3 to 2)
4. Supper: same as lunch or 8 ounces of vegetables (e.g. green beans, kernel corn, mixed vegetables) or 1 packet instant ramen with 2 ounces beef jerky, or similar calories in Lean Cuisine frozen entree. I tried to keep this meal below 300 calories. Water as a beverage
5. Evening Snack: 2 to 3 cups air-popped popcorn. 8 ounces whole milk. As much water as I want.

Weekend: Eat whatever I want

A few days during the week I replaced the salad with a Subway sandwich, attempting to make good choices about what was put on it, such as choosing to get no cheese or mayonnaise.

That’s basically it, combined with self-discipline, which is really the answer to weight loss, and most personal problems. I missed the diet only about 3 days. The skipping on the weekend has somewhat slowed progress because it usually takes me until Wednesday or even Thursday to get back to where I was on the previous Friday’s weigh-in, but nonetheless, after beginning the diet around May 22nd, I have lost 23 pounds to 173 since May 10th, and 37 pounds since January 2014. I consider that a success.

Future

I’m still planning to drop about another 5 pounds and then will back off the diet by 1 day per week and see how things go.