My Top Secret Strategies for Losing Weight.

I’ve lost 53 pounds in last year.

And I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is no such thing as a quick fix to your fat ass. You have to be ready to put in a little bit of work and make your health a priority. Don’t kid yourself. But don’t give up hope. Before last year I thought it was out of my reach, too.

 

That is me in April of 2010 with Dan Rather. It was the fattest I’ve ever been. So puffy. So, so puffy. Dan is lucky I didn’t decide to eat him for lunch.

WHY NOW?

I was sad that my daughter would have an obese parent who would have trouble keeping up during her active play. I felt sad that she might look at me – and through no fault of her own – emulate my sedentary lifestyle and nutritional standards, and become fat and tired like me. I was sad about the thought of dying a fat, flabby, out of shape, blob of a man. But I thought it was hopeless. Why start now? I’m always going to be fat — right?

I’ve lived like this for all my life. I don’t work out. I eat pizza and watch TV like it’s an Olympic sport. So what on Earth could I possibly do to turn this ship around? It was too late. I was too tired. Anything I try will be so small that it won’t even make a dent in the giant pile of obesity that hangs from my slow, lumbering body.

Time passed. And then I was inspired. Two of my overweight friends decided they were ready for a change — and they did something about it.

After seeing my friends face and overcome challenges very similar to mine  — I knew I could do it. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be easy but most importantly I knew it would take TIME. There is no such thing as a quick fix to a problem decades in the making.

WORKING OUT

Nov 2010 - 245 lbs

I started slowly without a hard goal in mind. I thought I was eating “OK” — so I decided to start working out. But I was so out of shape that just the thought of working out exhausted me. If I was going to get serious about this I had to get into good enough shape just so I could start working out. Slow and steady.

I hate gyms. I hate all the trouble it takes to get all your crap together, drive over, park and then pay to have people stare at you as you try to figure out the buttons on the elliptical machine.

Anna and I bought a treadmill 10 years ago when we lived in Savannah. It has moved with us across the country and across town and has until recently only ever taken up space. It was in our garage, folded up behind a giant pile of boxes. Freeing it from storage was a major workout on its own and even after I had it out, I was apprehensive. But in November of 2010 I started a Couch to 5K program and gave the treadmill a big workout.

I strongly recommend a Couch to 5K program for someone who is as out of shape as I was. The mix of walking, running, walking and running really does the trick. And no one is judging you: if you can’t get past a workout, do it again and again until your body is ready.

After only about 15 weeks -  I could confidently walk into the garage and “work out” for 30 minutes without gasping for air, passing out and having the treadmill shoot me through the back wall of the garage. Fifteen weeks prior I had to take a 10 minute break and lay down if I went up our stairs too quickly.

I kept up with the garage 5Ks and pseudo-healthy eating until late spring and then worked out less over the summer. After ten months, I had lost 15 lbs by simply adding some exercise to my routine.

WHAT ABOUT THE FOOD?

Aug 2011 - 230 lbs

I thought I was doing just fine in the eating department. I like salad. We are very conscientious about the food that goes into our growing daughter’s body. Most everything we eat is organic and sourced locally.

But even if you eat healthy food — when you eat too much of it you get fat. Plus when you add frequent ice cream and potato chips to the mix you get a caloric explosion.

My friend Josh wrote in April of 2011 about his journey with weight loss and he talked about tracking his calories. I had tried it in the past, but it was tedious. In September 2011, I decided I would try it again.

So, using a handy app on my iPhone, I started keeping track of everything I ate. EVERYTHING. I can tell you the number of pistachios I’ve had for the last 6 months. Every soda, every slice of pizza, every salad, every tablespoon of sugar and, most importantly, every bowl of ice cream.

WOW!

This was the key for me. It all comes down to a numbers game when you track your calories. And it means YOU CAN EAT ANYTHING YOU WANT! When I started to get my head around the mechanics of weight loss it seemed so simple.

You need to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound. If you want to lose 2 pounds in one week that is 7,000 calories. Sounds like a lot — but if you break it down by day, that’s only 1,000 calories per day. And when you start to track everything you are eating, you quickly find ways to reduce the number of calories you consume.

Want to eat some ice cream? No problem if you have the calories. Don’t have enough? Go spend 45 minutes on the treadmill.

Dec 2011 205 lbs

When the number of calories you consume is no longer a mystery –  I repeat — YOU CAN EAT ANYTHING YOU WANT.

And boy did it work. When I wasn’t tracking calories it took me 10 months to lose 15 pounds. Once I started tracking calories along with regular exercise, I lost 30 more pounds in just 4 months.

And you know what? It wasn’t hard.  I don’t feel like I gave anything up (well, Christmas candy was hard) and I have so much more energy and feel great about myself.

It took time. But it’s time I would have spent anyway, probably gaining 5 pounds a year. It didn’t happen over night. It feels like overnight now, but when you are in the middle of it, 2 pounds doesn’t feel like a lot. Two pounds repeated over and over makes a huge difference.

I have confidence that I will reach my weight loss goal (22 more pounds to reach a healthy weight). I am also confident that I will maintain this weight loss. Because time has passed, I’ve trained my body to accept a normal portion size. After tracking calories for six months I finally have a pretty good idea of what different foods I should be eating a lot of — and which foods should be eaten in moderation. I actually like to go for a run and my body is fully capable of doing it without collapsing into a wheezing heap.

Now, a little over a year later, I can spend 30 minutes “dancing” with my daughter (essentially we spin around the living room, while I pick her up and twirl her around) and be appropriately tired — but not dead.

Also: At this point I should say that I’m not a doctor – I don’t really know what I’m talking about – I’m just sharing the journey that I went on.

NEXT

In Part 2 of my Fat Dad to Fit Dad series I write about the tools I use to digitally track myself and train. Also – what happens when none of your clothes fit anymore?

February 2012 - 192 lbs