Thursday, February 7, 2013

pull up a chair and listen hear my story

first of all I want to thank all of you reading this right now.  It means that you were either searching for something health related or are one of my dearest friends and have taken the time out of your day to read this. 
Secondly I want to tell everyone THANK YOU for your support through my weight loss and lifestyle changing journey.  All the positive feedback and words of encouragement are what keeps me pushing along each day and makes that finish line just a bit closer for me to cross.
Lastly I just want to say that even though this blog is public I will not tolerate ANY disrespect, rude remarks, nasty comments, or trash talking on this blog.  if you don't agree with something I post that's fine you don't have to be whiny about it and complain I understand that not everything I do, what I eat, how I workout will settle well with everyone and I don't expect it to HOWEVER I value their opinions such as you should value mine!!
alright enough with the jibber jabber and on with the show I now present to you

CONFESSIONS OF A FOOD-A-HOLIC

ever since I can remember I've struggled with my weight.  the first time that I was aware of me being a bigger kid was probably in the fourth grade I remember wearing the "husky" size clothes and just figured that I would grow up and out of it besides when you're 8 years old the only thing you think about is how close are we to summer break and why can't we just pause it on summer so I wouldn't have to go back to school lol
growing up I had it fairly easy in school I was well liked got along with most of my class mates graduated towards the top of my class and did fairly well in all of my subjects.  I went away to college only to come back home two weeks later and just start working.  it was around 2001, three years after I graduated, that I found service industry and became a server.  I worked at a local mom and pop mexican place then a pizza parlor then went on to obtain a job at applebee's in my hometown.  That's when life changed.  I was 23 serving/bartending making good money and a friend I worked with mentioned to me that her and her mother were doing a weight watchers group and wondered if I'd like to join them.  I said sure I'll drag my sister in too! we went to her house and when it came time to weigh in the scale, which only read up to 310 pounds, wouldn't read my weight.  so I told my sister that we should go to an actual weight watchers meeting someday and check it out.  we decided on a saturday morning to go at 8 am we walked in on our first day got signed up got our welcome packets and all the information we needed to start then it was  time for the first weigh in.  I can honestly say that was the first time that I have ever held a number to memory for all these years.  I took my shoes off stepped on the scale and thought i bet i weigh about 325-330........when the number appeared before my eyes I was ashamed.....397! I was 25 years old and almost 400 pounds.  This kicked off my weight loss battle almost seven years ago. 
I continued doing weight watchers for nine months losing a total of 77 pounds with the program.  it was in september of 2006 I moved to sunny warm Florida.  I took a small break from weight watcher, only to never go back to it again, and while I was working at an irish pub at downtown disney my "work wife" and i decided to do the south beach diet and join a gym.  I weighed in at 310 pounds at the begining of march 2007 and by october 2007 I was down to 235.  early 2008 I transferred to Kansas City MO to open a new bar there and always maintained my weight right around the 235-240 mark.  the whole time I was at this weight though I kept telling myself "ugh you're fat you're gross"looking back now I see the errors of my way and now know that i was doing wrong all those years.  while living in Missouri I also came out to my family and the rest of my friends.  Being an overweight person in general society is bad enough but being a gay male and being over weight is truly hard.  I moved back to florida at the end of 2009 and that's when things started to spiral out of control.  I was eating late a night not exercising and cramming my body full of fat and junk food. 

I know I'm rambling but I'm almost there I promise lol

flash forward to 2011 I'm working in orlando at an Italian restaurant  and at the end of the day we can take home the left over lasagna.  THAT"S GREAT!!! so I would take a piece, or two, home lay in bed at night after work and eat them both usually then go right to sleep.....
well living like that isn't good nor healthy since moving back to florida I packed on another 80 pounds bringing me back to 320 :( after i moved to orlando I started going to the gym working out a little here and there, thanks in great part to my roommate, but my diet was still out of control. 
one of my best friends down here started doing Body By Vi shakes and wanted me to try them so I gave in and gave it a shot.....after months of doing the shakes I lost maybe 8 pounds total something wasn't right I knew I had to change something else. laying in bed one night I googled "not losing weight on body by vi" and that's where things got interesting which brings me to the point that I'm at today writing this blog and why you're reading it.....

+fourhour bodyapp

a lady with the same problem as I, doing the shakes not losing anything, had asked the same question and stumbled upon Tim Ferris' 4 Hour Body and when she made some minor changes she started shedding weight

and I did too

many times people ask me what is the four hour body how can the do it what does it entail etc etc etc I would explain to them for 20-30 minutes  explaining  the ins and outs what to do what not to do what to eat what to take when to do it

now I just simply tell them it's slow carb not to be confused with no carb and the rules are simple
1-nothing white  no bread, flour, starch, etc
2-don't drink your calories  only water coffee and occasionally Iced or hot tea
3-eat within 30 minutes of waking up
4-no dairy  Dairy has the highest amount of sugar  compared to fruits
5-try to consume at least 30 grams of protein with each meal
6 *this is my favorite* one day a week have a cheat day where you eat whatever you want

I'm not here to sell you on the 4 hour body or body by vi I gain nothing from that I'm simply here for you to learn from me and do something about it! one of the things I despise the most is when people say I'm tired of being fat...I use to say I know me to.....now my response is then do something about it

complaining will get you nowhere, sitting around and wanting change just simply isn't going to happen

ok so one thing I have done here as well as changed my lifestyle (you will never nevver never never hear me use the word diet-a diet is something that you go on to lose weight only to get discouraged after a couple of months and give up a lifestyle is something you live day in and day out) is I've also changed my mental attitude.  when I first started to lose weight about a year and a half ago I was doing it to get attention of others.....WRONG.....do it for yourself not for others.  once you make that mental change the physical change will follow. 
this is just one of the many journal entries that I will post since I've started doing both the 4 hour body and the body by vi shakes at the end of september I'm down 42 pounds!
I'm closer to my goal than i was when I started and that's the way I look at it one step at a time one foot in front of the other
two of my favorite quotes both have to deal with working hard for what you want
"the dictionary is the only place where success comes before work"
"never give up what you want the most for what you want now"

My goal is to reach my mid 30's and be in the best shape of my life and also to inspire others to do the same and eventually one day help others too who want to lose weight but are just as clueless as I was when I first started.
I will be updating weekly on my cheat days which are also the days I weigh in on I will be adding recipes too as I come across them!

now I challenge each of you that have read this to make a healthy change in your day whether it's parking a little bit further from the store, buying more fresh fruits and vegetables vs processed, or to simply take an evening or morning walk.

until next time!!!

1 comment:

  1. Hey Man,
    Just took the time to really really really read through this. It is very similar to my own journey. I just started on the 4hb and am in the third week and I can't believe it. Totally loving it, and I am looking forward to pushing on into the future and making more and more improvement in my life. Keep it up!

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