Part 1: The Past

Intro

Hi everyone, my name is Tim and I’m a Designer from Dallas. I hope the story I’m about to tell inspires anyone with some extra weight to do what’s necessary to ‘fit up.’ When my whole outlook on food and lifestyle changed, I was a staggering 270 lbs…I’m 6′ and should be at 180lb or less! Like many people in a relationship, I got comfortable and packed on the pounds (working at Microsoft didn’t help matters much either). So, my wife inherited an overweight designer and I feel ashamed that it’s taken me this long to start getting to where I need to be.

This part of the story discussed what I did to drop from 270lbs to a low of 211lbs over a course of 3 Years. NOTE: proper weight loss takes time and dedication, not to mention patience. I spent 3 years changing my daily habits to lose the first 60lbs. I’m not promising miracles and results can change drastically depending on your personal dedication. I am still working to lose weight and Part 2: Present will discuss things I am currently doing to kick-start the weight loss again so I will be HOT for the first time. Part 3: Future will discuss future plans once the next weight goal is hit.

Stopped Drinking Sodas for 3 Months

The first step in my weight loss regiment was to dump my sodas and replace them with something else…water. Yeah, I know, “water, ug tastes like….nothing! Ahh…. sugar!!!!Caffeine!!!!ETC!” My job required me to sit at a computer for 8 hours with no exercise. I didn’t want to exercise on my own, so I started with the easiest item to change, my drinks. I made a pact with myself that if I did not drink a single soda for 3 months (hard, I know), then I would reward myself with an awesome night out with the wife. I mean, spending some money on food and beverage. We had a water dispenser and ice machine at the office and I had an old, very large, water jug. I combined the 3 ingredients and drank. When I was bored, I drank water. When I was working, I drank water. I ended up drinking 2-3 64 oz jugs of water per day for 3 straight months. It became an oral fixation (using a straw helps btw) and felt weird when I did not have my jug next to me. I made good on my pact and did not drink anything else (except tea) for 3 straight months. I stepped on the scales and noticed a whopping decrease in weight. I dropped 10 lbs…by doing nothing else but drinking water. I didn’t understand why at first, but here’s the reason.

Sodas are made up of syrups (yes, even the ’0 calorie/diet’ ones). A syrup is made from 1. sugar and 2. bonding agent. The most common syrup found in sodas is high-fructose corn syrup. Basically, our bodies have a hard time breaking down these simple/processed sugars (simple sugar = bad, complex sugar = good) and all the left over/unused sugars are turned into fat molecules and stored. The fat builds up (usually around the stomach) and just collects. Over time, sugar will lead to water weight and increased fat in the body. Candy will add to this issue as well. So, ditch the candy when/if you ditch the soda…it’s something I didn’t do until much later and wish I had in the beginning.

After another 3 months and 10 pounds lost, I was feeling good about my decision to stop drinking sodas but allowed myself to have a soda once a week until I could manage my intake. To this day, I’m lucky if I have a soda in a day. But, replacing sodas was the first of many changes I would make.

Went to the Doctor for Advice

Honestly, who else is more qualified to give advise about the human body than a medical doctor? So, I started there. I went to go see my PCP (Primary Care Physician) about my desire to lose weight. I’m sure she was relieved to hear me say that and started offering up all kinds of suggestions and ‘rules of thumb.’

1. Read the Nutrition Labels on Food: I was always intimidated by the nutrition labels since I had no idea what the numbers meant as a whole in perspective to my personal diet. But my doctor broke it down for me and only gave me a couple things to observe. Caloric Total per Day, Calorie Intake, and Fat Grams
2. Total Caloric Intake: The average total caloric intake per day should not exceed 2000 if you are male and 1500 if female in order to maintain current weight. This means that if I am taking in 2000 calories per day (since I am male) then I can maintain my current weight (at the time, I was 270lbs). I know what you’re thinking, “Oh Crap, Math!” Well don’t fret; it’s only a little math. If I were to take in less than 2000 calories per day (say 1500), then theoretically I would lose weight. In order to do that, I had to know what I was eating…a hard task since I always ate what I wanted.
3. Calories: I’m not claiming to be a Nutritionist or Body Expert, I’m relaying knowledge as I understand it and if you’d like to explore these items further, by all means go for it. Typically, everything we take in our bodies (aside from water and calorie-free drinks) contain calories. The calories may be made up of things like carbohydrates, fat grams, etc. The key point is that EVERYTHING has calories and that calories are not bad! <-- Important!!!!!! The key is limiting them to make sure that caloric intake does not exceed your personal threshold.
   
   
   
   
   Example: Apples contain about 100 calories. So, if I wanted, I could eat 15 apples and be under the 2000 calorie limit. Although this isn’t a smart move …I’m just sayin…
   
   
   
   
4. Fat: Fat grams are a specialized form of calories that sit waiting to be used. By limiting the amount of fat calories we intake, the less likely the fat will store up in our bodies and the ones that are there will be used. The doctor suggested limiting my daily intake of fat grams to 50 grams (male) and 30 grams (female).

I now had a starting point (2000 calories per day) and a measurable system (calories per food/water) as well as a secondary measure (fat grams < 50 per day). I now had to figure out what foods I could eat that would fall into my new system.

Threw Out the Pantry

Coming home from the doctor, I was motivated to lose weight and tired of being fat (which I finally admitted to myself). I called my wife, Christy, and told her I’m about to change our life and I needed her support. After discussing my first idea to her, she hopped on board and gave me some wings to fly. I threw out everything fattening in my pantry, freezer, and refrigerator. I looked at the nutrition label and tossed anything that had more than 10 grams of fat per serving (food). The per serving on the nutrition label is very import. Follow the suggested amounts and determine for yourself if the food is worth having around. I went to the store and started buying these foods on a normal basis:

• Whole Wheat Bread
• Sandwich Meat: Low fat Ham, Turkey, and Chicken
• Whole Grain Pasta
• 93/7 Ground Beef (Lean)
• Fat Free Cheese Slices
• 2% Milk
• Apples
• Insert whatever fruit you want here!
• Fish to Grill
• Chicken Breast
• Vegetables: Broccoli, Onions, Peppers, etc.

Basically, I looked for very lean foods and surrounded myself with them. Changing my diet (not going on a diet!) for the long-term was the only way I could guarantee I was surrounded by healthy items.

Stopped Going Out to Eat

I’ll be honest, if you really knew how much fat was in those restaurant dishes, you’d probably wish for innocent bliss again. Restaurants make people fat! It’s not just the food, but the atmosphere, screams ‘stay around and eat some more.’ The servers make it easy to not do anything…just sit there. All this leads to over-eating fatty meals. My solution: learn to cook. Before I knew it, I was grilling fish, chicken, steaks, potatoes, corn, and anything else I could throw on the grill. That lead to me learning low-fat cooking recipes like fat-free cheese and chicken enchiladas, low-fat, garden fresh spaghetti and penne, and much more. I knew what I was putting into the skillet and I could control how healthy it was for me.

Don’t think my wife and I just abandoned going out to eat all together; it’s more like we reduced it considerably which leads to the next item.

Make a Date Night

It gets boring eating low-fat foods all the time. I remedied the situation by taking the wife out to dinner and ‘splurging’ once per week. It was (and still is) on Friday nights. We’d pick a place during the week and get all excited for it. By the time Friday came, we were so excited to eat something other than the norm and it made the experience out that much better. If you fully deny yourself the things you love, then you will regret the decision and revert back to a simpler time. That’s not good! Allow yourself to snack, in moderation, from time to time.

Drastic Measures

I began to plateau my weight loss (happens to everyone) around 240 lbs (-30 lbs from high). I went back to the doctor and advised her of the situation. There are many ways to help accelerate weight loss, but if the right precautions are not met, the weight will come back! She felt that I’m doing a lot of things right (eating better, drinking water etc.) but my portion control was the main problem. I wasn’t a candidate (nor would I want to be) for lap-band surgery so my doctor prescribed a drug to me called Phentermine. Phentermine is an appetite suppressant designed to help people limit their portion sizes when eating. The reason I did not mention this before is because if I had not changed my eating habits to maintain a healthy lifestyle, I would gain the weight back once I stopped taking the drugs. This drug is effective, but is not the answer. There were side effects to this drug I was not prepared for:

1. Increased heart rate: The drug contained a high amount of caffeine to kick-start the body’s metabolism. I felt high energy all the time. So much so that it became very difficult to sleep at night.
2. Extremely small portions: I was having a hard time finishing most food and would only eat once or twice a day. I had to force myself to sit down and nibble foods I loved.
3. Began hating food: I got to the point that I didn’t even want to see nor think about food. The thought would make me sick to my stomach…which was great for losing weight.
4. …and finally, I Sh*t Bricks!: Literally, my body was not in taking enough food to actually make it digest properly that I was passing excess hardened fat and other stuff. It felt like sh*tting bricks. That was the worst part…I’ll never forget that.

Phentermine helped me lose another 25 lbs over 5 months. After I stopped taking Phentermine (doctor advised me to stop), I dropped another 9 lbs after my portion control transferred over into my normal eating habits. I was eating food again, but wouldn’t eat very much, for a while. I wouldn’t regain my normal appetite until Summer 2009 when I was able to maintain my weight. It’s now time to start dropping again and I have a plan!!!

Stick With It

Persistence is the key to anything worth doing right! I’m not going to lie, you won’t see results overnight. It took me 6 months to lose 20 lbs, but that 20 lbs never came back. It’s taken me over 3 years to lose at total of 60 lbs and I fell into a state of relapse over the 2009 holiday season (that will be discussed in more detail in Part 2). This whole plan is not a diet, but a way to help you change your life for the long run. Once this decision is made, there’s no going back. You can visit the fatty places from time to time, but if you stay, the weight will come back.

Come back soon to read about Part 2: Present where I talk about some issues I ran into while changing my life, the relapses, and what I’m currently doing to start the weight loss again.

You can see current photos of my body condition here: LINK



I’ll post a ‘before’ picture as soon as I can find one…they are quite scarce.

Thanks for reading,


Tim Truelove