Journey to Lose 50 Pounds

Osiyo. Dohiju?

From May 2018 to October 2018 I lost a cumulative weight of 61 pounds. I went from 331 to 270. I’ve mentioned this story a few times. It was my biggest success in the weight department. My actual biggest success would’ve been not getting that heavy to begin with, but we’re not going to bash me more than I’ve already bashed myself. I’ve struggled for 20 years or more with my weight. I thought I was fat when I weighed 200 and then thought I was way too fat at 215 pounds. Now, at 297, I feel normal. I know I’m heavy. I know I need to lose weight. I am no longer “fat”.

I’ll explain a bit more. I struggled with weight because I always saw it. My parents were overweight. My dad was 6′ 2″ and 285 pounds or so for most of his adult life. My mom was 5′ something and towards the end she weighed between 350 and 414 pounds. I, however, was never fat. I weighed 170 in 1996. When I graduated Basic Training in 1993 I weighed 155 pounds. I struggled through my childhood because my parents were always talking about weight. So I somehow developed an abnormal look at my weight. I would gain some weight and then drop weight by fasting. I did this a lot in High School. It’s a pattern I’ve not stopped. However, I saw myself as “fat” – though clearly I was not.

This last year I spent a lot of time reflecting on my past choices. I’ve managed to rectify so many choices in my life and fix a lot of wrongs that I shouldn’t have made to begin with. However, I now have no regrets. I’ve made peace with the choices in my life and apologized to those I can. I’ve reconciled with those I’ve lost. You don’t always get opportunities in life for second chances or, in my case, third chances. So, after years of not feeling like I was good enough. Or that I was sexy enough. Or that I was skinny enough. I’ve come to find out that I am all of those things. Not just to other people, but to myself.

I am happy with where I am. I obsess sometimes about my weight. I am done with all of that. I have an opportunity to right a wrong I’ve been chasing around for 10 years. My weight has fluctuated from 270 to 331 and back down to 260 and back up. I am a classic Yo-yo dieter. My mom and dad were too. They knew what to do. I know what to do. The why I don’t do it isn’t important anymore. I know why I didn’t and I know why I’m not going to accept a failure this time.

I have never made myself a priority in life. I’ve made others a priority and that has led me to use them as an excuse not to make myself a priority and that cycle continued. I was issued a challenge to lose 50 pounds by the end of October. I have 5-day rewards for accomplishing goals. I have a reward for when I lose 50 pounds and keep it off for 3 days. I also have a reward for losing 50 pounds and keeping it off for 30 days.

So, I sat down today to figure out my plan. I know what works best for me and that’s not the same as other people. For example, my best friend has to eat several times a day. They can intermittent fast, but have to eat in an 8 hour window. Me, I can eat once a day for less than an hour and eventually not eat for days. That’s how I’ve done it my whole life so that’s what I’m used to. I can also workout for extended periods of time with less food. I mean I have the fat stores, but also I’ve always been endurance over sprints. So I can’t run fast but I can run forever. I’m going to use these two items as the basis for how I’m going to push through my goals.

Let’s talk about the basics of my day and the goals I get paid for. First, hitting a 50 pound weight loss. This is the biggest monetary reward I’ve ever received and it is inspiring me. I’m not going to reveal it, however, it is something of a dream vacation for me. After that, I receive money for achieving a 5 day goal
I have several 5-day goals:
5 days no processed foods, no alcohol, no coke = $5
    5 days walking 2.5 miles = $5
    5 days yoga and meditation = $5
    5 days dancing = $5
    5 days of every hour workouts = $5
    5 days of getting up at the same time daily = $5
For each goal, I don’t make 5 days per 7-day week, I get zero for that goal. I’m going to push this a bit further. I have to make 5 days and when that 5 days is over I start a new 5 days… so 7 days is 5 day period and 2 days into a new 5 day period. Like logging in to your favorite game daily. I’m not going to reward myself if I don’t make 5 days consecutively.

Now, here are what those goals refer to:
Goals for food:   
no processed foods – no alcohol, no coke   
10-4 eating window – occasionally allow til 8pm
    mostly veggies – fish, chicken, and shrimp allowed (I actually have a detailed eating plan, I just wanted to make sure I included some of these foods for posterity)
    rice, beans, tomatoes with chilis allowed
    avocado
    black olives
    green olives
    can eat as much as I want from 10-4 
    coffee?  should I remove it? or leave it?
    water – 16 oz every hour from 8am to 4pm

I have to do this 5 days in a row and be vigilant. Trust me, after only 3 days I won’t be eating much at all and when I do, it’ll be this and probably some romaine thrown in with the rice and tomatoes and beans and avocados. But to start, there won’t be a lot of eating.

Next, my daily goals related to the workouts:
up between 6 & 7am
20 mins yoga/stretching first thing in morning
20 mins meditate first thing in morning
1-3pm walk 2.5 miles minimum daily – 4 laps or 5 miles preferable
Dance 30-60 minutes daily – that’s fun and is a pretty good workout
Every hour – ab crunch on ball, shoulder side, shoulder front, shoulder press, chest press with dumbells, ab roll side to side, triceps, biceps, trx chest press, trx row, jump rope, 10 push ups
bedtime – NLT 11p – don’t sacrifice wake up time just because went to bed later (meaning get up at the same time even if I don’t want to – I can lay there in bed, but wake up and stay awake)

There isn’t anything drastic here. I mean, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t normally do. The difference is the motivation behind it. I don’t do things for me. I have to do something for someone else. My reward is that I get paid and I get a dream trip. Just for me.

Here’s the secret that I think will make a giant difference. If I’m persistent at these things I’ll lose the weight and get in shape. Persistent. I’ve not been persistent in the past for more than a few months then something happens and my body returns to it’s previous glory.

Tomorrow morning, I start my day and do my weight and taping. Tomorrow is Day 1 of losing weight. I’ll keep a spreadsheet update for tracking rewards and weight, etc. I’m a little nervous because I really want this.

Until next time. Dodadagohvi.