Longtime Lurker first time participant
Hello all,
I have been on here many times reading success stories and also looking for tips, inner peace, struggle stories, recipes and so on. I think I am in a lifetime change mode now. I started my journey again on October 3rd. Now in the past I have done low carb, but I would go back to carbs or have cheat days and I am hear to tell you that is not a good idea. At least not for me. I will first introduce myself and go from there.
I am 37 years old, feel like I am still in my 20s. I work a desk job, but do a lot of traveling for work so a lot of eating out. A lot of drinking happens in my life as well for my job and social environment. I have always been up and down with weight my whole life but the older I get and the less active I am I have now noticed the difference. The breaking point for me was when I was worried about weird chest pains I would have for no reason. I could still play sports and bench press my own body weight even at my peak of 368, but that was not who I wanted to be. When I was younger and slimmer I felt better of myself and who I was. Now its coming back again. I didn't want to die when my kids were young and I had tried this diet multiple times before, but with little discipline or long term plan.
2 years ago I stopped drinking and eating carbs for about a month and a half and dropped some weight. Not sure how much and didn't care. I know that if I am micromanaging myself I will eventually fail and I did. I started planning cheat days that would go from one meal to 3-5 day bender. With the same old song and dance I will start again on Monday or whatever day was the choice.
Fast forward to October 2016. I woke up one day and said Fu(k IT! I am done with this $hit. I was more mad at myself from seeing my weight gain from year over year holiday pictures and hated myself. I have an absolute knockout for a wife and 2 great kids and a great job, so I do well, but inner me is not happy with who I have become.
I said this time my goal is going to stay under 20g per day. Not NET carbs just straight carbs. It started out a bit difficult but I realized that if I had different approaches and really expanded my menu I would get through it and I did. Sure sausage has a few carbs here and there but they are life savers, along with crust-less pizza and crust-less cheese cake and frozen whipped cream. I went 67 days before we took a trip to New Orleans and I said that when I am there I will eat some bad food and jump back on the minute we left and I did. I never weighed myself, never measured myself, never counted calories, never stopped drinking. The two points I tried to make is #1 stay under 20g's per day, and #2 try to get 30-60 minutes of exercise daily.
The diet became easy as hell, and for the most part the further along I went the exercise became part of the routine as well. Don't get me wrong there were days that I didn't do a damn thing, but overall I kicked my own ass pretty good to get up and do something. Most of my exercise was simple walking. 2.5-3 miles per day actual distance not some stupid fit-bit lying machine. Sorry if you believe in those things but they don't work.
When I got back I stayed on track except a couple days at xmas and new years I went up to 50g a day. On Jan 7th I went to the Dr for an issue with my eye and they updated my chart from 6 months ago. In that time-frame I had dropped 50lbs, my blood pressure went from borderline high to normal. Since then I keep doing the same thing and figured my average with my lifestyle I lose about 3.5lbs per week and that's cool with me.
Since this change my clothes fit great and are actually too big, I had to order a couple new suits, and I said I would not tell anyone I was on a diet until they complimented me on looking slimmer and if they were curious. I did it for me not them. They come all the time now and I appreciate it and it gives me motivation to keep going. As far as other things go I was a pretty active guy in the bedroom before but now I am like an 18 year old all over again. When it comes to physical activity my stamina now is incredible and before I didn't even think it was to be concerned about. I plan on keeping this lifestyle permanent now as I know there is no going back. Will I eat carbs again absolutely but it will be on my watch and will be worth it if I so see and right now it doesn't seem worth it.
I had done a couple days where I ate a brownie at holiday and noticed how sluggish I felt the next day or two, but it didn't make me want to go back to carbs. I have taught myself that cheating is cheating and if you want it to work then you must stick to your plan. No plan has ever had a cheat plan involved and worked.
When I started I was at 368 and am now probably down to the 280-290 range. I have hit some plateau's im sure because I see it in my body, but I didn't let that bother me and stuck with the plan. I still drink like a fish and I prepare myself for the late night binge if I do go out and cook up a shitstorm of eggs or cheese or burgers or whatever. As long as I keep carbs out of the mix I could care less if I ate 4 3xcheeseburgers from MCD and I have many times. I don't know if physically I can get down to 225, but it won't be from a lack of trying as I like to keep my muscle mass. If you have any questions about some of the meals I have ate feel free to message me, I would love to be able to pass on some knowledge I have gained through this adventure to help another. Thanks for reading my sch-peal and best of luck!
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