You Lost How Many Pounds?
One hundred and sixty. Probably more because the bathroom scale locked up past 350 and was straining to go higher. The suspenders that held up my size 56 pants were cutting into my shoulders. I'm the size of a linebacker (six-foot-four) but I had an obese body and a BMI of 44. You could count my chins and rolls. From a distance.
This page isn't a come-on to get you try a new diet fad or buy a diet book. This is my personal experience. I don't like to talk about myself, not even on one of my web sites, but many people have suggested I should at least put this life-changing event together so others can benefit from it. There's no 'Before' and 'After' pictures here, either. But I can tell you how it worked for me.
I didn't like the side effects from the high blood pressure medication I was taking. I had to use a breathing machine at night to help me sleep. The doctor was talking about diabetes and kidney damage and high cholesterol counts and strokes and all other kinds of bad stuff, which I sort of ignored. But then one day I almost collapsed while doing traffic control for a parade.
How Did You Lose 160 Pounds?
Pretty simple, actually. Eating the wrong kinds of food was a just bad habit. The hardest part was making the determination to change my lifestyle so it didn't include items that were making me fat. I knew a "diet" wouldn't work, it had to be permanent change in what and how I ate.
The only way to lose weight is to cut back on the calories going in, so I followed just this one rule: anything that went into my mouth would have to come out of the back yard. I had a small garden with beans and squash and beets and tomatoes and peas and lettuce and garlic and potatoes and onions, a couple of fruit trees, some asparagus and different kinds of berries. I could prepare them with any method I wanted and with any kind of spices I had in the cupboard, but this couldn't include sauces or dressings. I lost ten pounds the first month and twelve the next. I was on a roll!
But even though I could eat as much as I wanted and whenever I wanted, I was still hungering for something different. The cat stayed out of reach, I suspect he was thinking cat-ka-bob. And during times of thin harvest I was down to twigs and bark, or maybe it just seemed that way. Since there's only so much you grow in this cooler part of Humboldt County, I then amended my rule just a teeny bit and changed it to "Anything you can find in the supermarket produce department or at the Farmers Market."
That was
much better. Suddenly I had a much larger variety of foods to choose
from. But these places included stuff that wasn't
produce, so the rule was again amended slightly to include only fruits and
vegetables and even those foreign veggie-looking things that I didn't quite
recognize. I also added a little bit of (real) fruit juice, the low-sugar
type.
And that's it. The weight loss averaged a bit over three ounces per day, and I was looking forward to punching each new hole in my belt. People who knew me were concerned that the weight loss was caused by an illness. It was gratifying to reassure them that it was being done purposefully--I really was trying to be half the man I used to be.
After a couple of years my weight had stabilized at 200, twenty pounds more than my high school weight (remember, I'm a big guy). My pant size had dropped to 34, one size larger than in high school. My doctor was impressed because my BP and cholesterol numbers were all back to normal and he no longer needed to prescribe any meds. The apnea went away and the energy came back. Best of all, my back and my knees didn't hurt any more. I could ride my bike again without having to rest every few minutes.
Four Years Later
Did I keep the weight off? Yep, and I lost another ten pounds. Am I still 100% vegetarian? Nope. My food intake consists of about three-fourths fruit and vegetables, much of it still out of my own garden. The rest includes whole-grain cereals and brown rice, beans, different types of soy products. I eat about six eggs each week and fish a couple of times, and (very) occasionally a piece of chicken or turkey. Nuts are a treat, and I use canola, safflower, and olive oil for cooking and flavoring. I drink water, low-sugar fruit juice, and a little soy milk because the stomach doesn't play nice with dairy products.
I still experiment a lot with new recipes and even new foods. Occasionally I pig out at the Thai or Oriental buffet style restaurants. I like these because their food choices present a wider choice of salads and vegetables. That also allows me to indulge in an occasional pork chop or a piece of cheesecake, but those seriously upset the flora and fauna in my digestive system and then I'm uncomfortable for a couple of days.
I used to arm-wrestle the family members for the last piece of deep-fried chicken. But now my desires for food have changed so much; grease does not taste good anymore and too much salt burns my mouth. It can be a challenge to find a good meal in a family-style restaurant. When the garden is sparse I do much of my food shopping at the supermarket freezer and produce sections, and at the Farmers Market.
Do I still have to watch my weight? You bet. You can get fat on any kind of food, it all boils down to how many calories go in versus how many calories go out.
The good news? My doctor says I can expect to live into my mid-nineties. The bad news? What's left of my 401K isn't going to last that long...
Healthy bodies are built with healthy food. You really are what you eat. Follow Michael Pollan's advice. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
