I made my goal weight!! It’s been a long ride and I’ve had a few setbacks, but I finally made it! In high school, I was fairly slender (at one point weighed in around 170-175) but before graduation I ballooned out a bit.
At age 19, summer after freshman year of college (currently 21 in junior year), I tipped the scales at 245. As a guy who’s around 6’-6’1”, that’s not good. I was obese. I didn’t have a huge gut, but I noticed my ankles hurt when I walked up stairs and hills and I didn’t have the energy I used to have. I was in denial. It was a trip to the doctor that made me realize I needed to do something. At my young age, I was on the edge of having stage 1 hypertension.
Naturally, I started a pretty aggressive low sodium, high vegetable/fruit diet. The dining hall’s enticing sugary and fattening foods made weight pretty hard to shake off. By the time the new school year rolled around, I was down to 228. I started a new job at a convenience store that had just opened up in town, and I was determined to not let their hot food offerings balloon me back up. Sure enough, the rigorous and physical nature of my job allowed me to shed weight, as well as going to the campus store to get lighter and more controlled portions. I occasionally had hot food but tried to stick to salads or lighter sandwiches, what helped was the option to get a free piece of fruit every shift. What kind of workplace has that program? A smart one.
By last summer, I was on the cusp of 200. But some hard life stuff going on led me to pick up smoking. As a result, I ate quicker meals while I smoked and they were sometimes higher in cals and sodium, and sure enough I was back up to near 210 by this past August. I hovered around there until Christmas and then I kicked it into high gear again.
I resumed my diet but allowed for more variety, as well as quit smoking well before Christmas. This allowed me to choose healthier foods, and I started tracking calories with MyFitnessPal. With this system, I lost weight precipitously, losing almost 6 pounds of pure water weight my first week and a half back home for break (I was peeing almost constantly!)
I continued tracking and watching my diet, and continued to lose weight at a more gradual rate, and recently I have stopped religiously tracking because my diet is pretty similar in portions and content day to day. And sure enough, even without tracking, I continue to lose. Now that I’m at 185, a whopping 60 pounds less than just under 2 years ago, I feel I have the tools to maintain, potentially keep going, or reel it in if I see myself creeping up again!
And yes, I still drink alcohol occasionally and eat junk food once in awhile. All about moderation. Good luck to other losers out there, it’s a tough battle but it’s a hell of a prize at the end.
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