Well today is truly a milestone in my life. As of this morning I have officially lost 40 pounds!! No Pills! No Gym Membership!! No Crazy Diets!! .... Just eating healthy, running, push-ups and sit-ups. This may be hard for some of you to believe but it is absolutely true. I started at 215 pounds and I now am 175 pounds! At times over the past 5 years I have been more than 215 pounds but that is what I weighed when I actually purchased a scale once I decided that I was going to lose weight. I began my journey of weight loss about 4 months ago in July 2010 in response to a not so great yearly checkup with my doctor. He said I could stand to lose a few pounds or it was going to start affecting my health and now was the time to do it. Everyone I have talked to lately has wanted to know how I did it so I figured I had not had an entry on my blog in a while so what a better time than now.

Well first of all it was with the help of my God-given will power and determination that I was blessed with. I could not have done it without this. Another key to success was the support of my wonderful wife. Thank you Bre for supporting me the entire way and not thinking that I am completely insane (or at least saying it out loud).

Ok so now to the actual details of my success. If I was going to lose weight successfully and make it last I knew that I needed it to be a lifestyle change. I subscribe to the Rick Burgess mentality of the idiot’s guide to weight loss and that is if you simply burn more calories than you take in you are surely to lose weight. So this is the basic premise of what I did. I began by cutting out the major things in my diet that were high calorie and consistent. I cut out all fried foods, began drinking water only (and coffee in the morning – can’t live without that), and began a low calorie diet consisting of lots of grilled fish, chicken and vegetables. This was actually easier than I thought once I got thru the first couple weeks. Drinking a lot of water helped me to curb my appetite and reduce my meal portions.
My daily routine consists of cereal for breakfast with skim milk, salad or turkey sandwich for lunch, and a sensible dinner (basically whatever my wonderful wife cooked). If I was in the mood for a snack I would eat fruit or granola/nut snacks. When I get home from work each day I run about 2.5 miles and each night do about 50-75 push-ups and sit-ups. A huge key to success was eating healthier when traveling or eating out. I travel a lot for my job and eating out was one of the big reasons I gained a lot of weight. My go to fast food items now is a grilled chicken garden salad or a grilled chicken sandwich and a side of fruit at Chick-fil-a. When dining at a nicer restaurant I would always go for any of the grilled fish entrees with roasted vegetables or rice.

I am so excited to be able to purchase new “skinny” clothes (I have lost 6 inches in my waist) and not have to purchase clothes that hide my stomach! Just for fun I put some old photos below so everyone can see where I was and where I am now. I plan to continue my new lifestyle and hopefully stay at a weight that is healthy for me so I can live as long as possible to be able and enjoy great times with my family for a long, long time. For those of you wanting to lose weight, take it from me……..You Can Do It!!!!

Here are some before photos:











AND NOW Below is the lighter NEW AND IMPROVED ME..................