How I Lost My Unwanted Weight

[abrunn11]

First off, let me preface this by apologizing in advance for my lack of writting skills, I barely made it through 10th grade english.

I was roughly 30 pounds overweight when i stumbled across this life changing site. I really, truly, desperately wanted to lose weight and get to a point where I could look at myself in the mirror. I read every post in the losing fat section of the bodybuilding.com forums and it was extremely helpful in many aspects. In lieu of my bag of Doritos, I digested every bit of knowledge that was offered on this site. Besides my own will power, this site is the biggest reason for my successful transformation and for that I am grateful to all of you.

I can point out the main things that helped me attain my goals, and they are as followed;

1. Set goals.

In my opinion this is a must. I set short term goals (lose 3 pounds per week), mid term goals (lose 10 pounds per month) and long term goals (lose 30 pounds). After I attained my long term goal, I then set goals to keep the weight off. I can stress how important this was for me. I could not wait until after my workout on Monday mornings to see how much I weighed. Setting goals gives you a sense of accomplishment and instills a drive to keep going. Sucess breeds success!

2. You do not have to be perfect.

You can cheat on your diet. Now, before you get too excited, I am not talking about getting the king sized Kong Burger value meal at Burger King, but more along the lines of eating outside of your "normal" meal plans. I will not get into my exact diet because there is no way my exact diet would suit anyone else. Simply put, I would consume 1800 calories per day, with very little fat and a lot of protein. Sorry, back to my point. During my "cutting" phase ( I love that term because the only thing you are "cutting" is any food that tastes good) if i wanted to eat a chocolate chip cookie, I did. The human mind is made up in such a way that is desires most what it cannot have. So if I told myself that I could have that cookie, I didn't want it so much and I was satisified after eating 2 of them, instead of an entire row of Oreo's. Put it in these terms, during my weight loss, which took 3 months, I consumed 1800 calories per day. That is 162,000 calories! Now if you added 10% on to that, about 16,000 calories, do you really think it would have made that big of a difference? Maybe a pound or two. Now, if you give yourself 16,000 calories in a 3 month span to consume how you wish, that is a lot of oreo's, or 1 king sized Kong Burger value meal at Burger King. When I tried to lose weight in the past I would fail because I was way too strict on my diet. I would cheat once, feel much shame, then quit. With my new "cheating" mindset, I would plan on cheating then move on. Pretty important if you ask me.

3. Variety.

You need to spice things up often or you will get so sick of the same **** that you will quit. What I did, was I found 20 "meals" (another term I like because before I came to this site I was not aware that a cup of yogurt with oatmeal in it was a meal) and I rotated them every week. This was important because I never got sick of the food I was eating because I was mixing it up so much. Believe me, if you eat tuna for 13 straight days, you would not want to eat it ever again, not to mention you would have more mercury in your system than Al Roker's barometer. I aslo mixed up my gym routines bi-weekly asnd rotated between the treadmill, stationary bike and rowing machine. Keep your body guessing! Note: As far as my marriage goes, this is not my credo. The only variety I get in that area is when my wife wears her hair in a ponytail.

Those are the main things that helped me get to where I wanted to be. Setting goals, cheating and variety. If this post helps just one solitary person out there, well then it would have been a huge waste of time. But if it helps 10, it will be worth it.

[QVT93]

Hey man thats great You did really well, how much weight did you lose total?

[ohiolifter]

first of all, congrats on the weight loss! i wholeheartedly agree with everything you have said in your post. i am currently doing almost the exact same thing you have done. i have lost 49 lbs as of friday, and am nearing my goal! when ireach it, i will set a new one, and i know i will not fail, because i have the willpower and all the support of my friends on this site to keep me going! you have said it all in your post, and i hope it helps out some noobies. again, congrats on the weightloss!!

[abrunn11]

Congrats to you Ohiolifter, 49 pounds is amazing. I agree, the support that is given on this site is a real help. You really develop an appreciation for others who are going through the same things as you. Keep up the good work.

[boywonda]

wow...congratulations man!!! sounds great ..keep up the good work