Several folks have asked how I've managed to lose the weight I lost and quit the smokes. I quit smoking by using the Cooper-Clayton method. Basically you use a patch or lozenge or gum as cigarette replacement as directed by the manufacturer but have weekly meetings of a support group to educate, help talk about adjustment issues and coping strategies, etc. Dick Clayton was an old professor of mine in graduate school and later a colleague at the University of Kentucky sociology department.
How did I lose the weight? You already know the answer to that. The weight loss was by doing what this website and The Biggest Loser preach. I used to eat 3 meals a day and had a snack or two and that got me to 420 pounds. I never really put together that each or my meals was really about 2 meals and that 3 doughnuts does not qualify as a snack. During the summer of 2005 my 78 year old father was gravely ill and had been hospitalized for about a month. I had braced myself for the phone call from my Mom to come at any time (I live 400 miles away from them). The phone call came but it was a good one. Mom told me that Dad was finally getting better. By the end of July she told me that he was actually going to be released from the hospital. On the day of his discharge she brought him home, helped him settle into his chair and stood up to get him a soda and promptly died of a massive heart attack in the middle of the living room. Dad was so frail he couldn't even get out of his chair to do anything except call 911 on his cell. The call that day was not the one I expected.
A few months later my father's health had stabilized and I started looking at mine. I was 44 at the time. My blood pressure was 179/103 and I knew that if I ever had a blood test I'd show up as diabetic (I had seen the signs and every one of my relatives was an overweight diabetic). I started tweaking my eating and trying to work out a bit. A year later I was no different. Another year goes by and I had probably managed to lose 20 pounds (I didn't have a scale that would go that high so I'm kind of guessing here). In the late summer of 2007 I finally decided I had to do something. I started weighing my food and that's when I discovered that the steak I considered a dinner portion was really big enough for 2 and sometimes 3 dinners. A medium pizza is not designed to feed 2 people. We all have been here, haven't we?
I decided to cut out the sodas. I had been having at least 3 a day, usually closer to a 6 pack and on a tough day I moight have a couple of extra ones. I cut them out since I hated the taste of diet cola. Wow. I suddenly noticed that my size 58 pants were a touch loose. Duh. I stopped going through the drive thrus and soon needed to buy a size 54 to replace the 58s. I started to walk in the park. A mile took me about a half hour and made my ankles and knees so sore I could hardly walk for 2 days (I should add here that because of a birth defect my legs are not as sturdy as the average pair of legs and I have a bunch of issues there which included 20+ surgeries on different parts). A couple of months later I was up to 1.5 miles a day 4 and sometimes 5 days a week. I decided to challenge myself to walk in a 5K so in July 2007 I did the 5K Road Race for the Bluegrass State Games and finished dead last (with my wife) in a little over 54 minutes. I also met Jared Fogle that day. He's the Subway Guy you've seen on Oprah and all the Subway commercials (Subway sponsors the BGSG and paid him to come and host the event and give out the awards). I bought a scale in October 2008 that would go to 350 and expected to break it. I didn't and I literally cried when I saw it had 320 on it. In December 2008 I bought 2 pairs of size 50 jeans and started walking just about every day. Soon I noticed that I could walk 2 miles just about every day. Along the way I've adjusted the portion size of my meals to something more in line with normal. I have not really changed the content of my eating, only the amount. And I killed the donuts and pies I used to cook all the time. A snack now is a handful of cashews or some carrot sticks (which I still dip in full fat beer cheese--I just dip it now instead of covering it in the cheese). Maybe a pretzel rod instead of a candy bar. When I want chocolate (every day of course) I have a Hershey's Kiss or a fun size candy bar instead of a full size one. I used to cook pies and cakes all the time. Now my nightly dessert is a slightly larger than recommended portion of sugar free Jello pudding made with 1% milk. And I have a cookie with my lunch daily. One cookie instead of the 3-4 I used to have.
I've now weighed in at 236 pounds 3 days in a row and my blood pressure last Friday was 118/74. My blood sugar tested well within normal parameters at a health fair in town a month or so ago. My bad cholesterol was 89 (but good only 19) and my triglycerides were about a third of the recommended level at 61. I'll still have a regular soda when I want one--maybe one a week now at most, probably about 1 every 2 weeks. I did go through a Wendy's Drive Thru once last summer when I was exceptionally hungry and had forgotten to bring snacks from home. No restaurants since the portion sizes are so out of whack. Last week I bought a pair of size 38 jeans--they're not buttoning yet but they will by Thanksgiving I think (although the probably won't be comfortable uuntil Christmas). My former 3X shirts (and an occassional 4X) have been swapped for XL and the occassional small cut 2X. The size 48 suit coat I bought at the 90% off end of season sale a few months ago fits now, but needs another couple of weeks to be comfortable.
I do cardio now every day-- usually 45 to 60 minutes walking or 75-90 minutes on my bike. If it's raining I walk 2 miles on the treadmill in the gym (it hurts my knees to go more on a treadmill) or ride the recumbent bike for about an hour. I'll take a day off about every 10-14 days depending on what my body feels like. I try to lift in the gym 3 days a week but I must confess I usually hit about 3 days in 2 weeks. My food is almost all grilled (I can't remember the last time I had something fried) and the portion sizes are close to recommendations instead of restaurant size. Other than a few substitutions of ingredients (ground turkey in my chili in place of half the ground beef, for example and fat free half and half instead of regular) I haven't really changed what I cook at home, I just eat a normal amount of it instead of supersizing it.
I still plan to lose more weight. I think I'll look good about 180-200 pounds so that's where I want to go. The BMI charts tell me I need to be 150 pounds but I'm 47 years old and I think I'll let 30 pounds slide and to with the charts. 180 pounds down and 50 or so left. I think I can get there from here.
Wow. This has turned out a lot longer that I thought it would. Sorry if I've bored you and if anyone is still out there I'd love to read your stories as well.
New Year's Day 2010: I hit 225 pounds yesterday which hit my goal for 2009 of losing 75 pounds right on the head. I will hit my double century of 200 pounds lost somewhere around January 10, 2010 and I have a really sweet present for myself in mind. I'll give you more details when I get there.
March 11, 2010: I've been at 214 or 215 for 2 days in a row now. My BP has dropped into the 106/69 range as an average. Today I walked a 10K in the gym in just a bit under 2 hours and last week I started training for a century bike ride (100 miles in 1 day) that I plan to do on Memorial Day weekend this year-- it's called the Horsey Hundred and is sponsored by the Bluegrass Cycle Club (which I joined this year to get back in the saddle so to speak). I just managed to get a new road bike after Christmas as my present to myself for losing 200 pounds. It's a Giant Defy 1 with some really sweet components and it practically flies on the road.
