Almost 1/3 to my goal in a month

The Weigh In

This morning I was 206.0 pounds. I’m down 18.5 pounds since I started the diet. I’m pretty stoked about this. I should have lost 20 pounds ,but I’m human so I failed.

You Have to Time Your Bites

On the page that details the plan, I say this:

This is where you will most likely fail so be wary! Use a watch or your phone to keep track of your minute. Only one bite per minute regardless of what it is. And don’t forget to monitor the size of your bites! Keep them small.

It appears that I seemed to have forgotten my own advice. Two weeks or so ago, I stopped using a watch. I figured I had been doing it 3 weeks and could figure out when I needed to take a bite. Looking back, I also began to take bigger bites as well. The very two things I said don’t do, I went and did.

Well,  now I can tell you, without a doubt, that it truly is the point where you will fail in the diet.  You see during that week, I was at 209. When I disregarded the rules, I steadily climbed back up into the 213 range. I finally came to my senses, and the weight slowly went back down. Now, I’m happy to say that I’m 206.

What If You Hadn’t Forgotten the Rules to Live By?

Well, my guess is that I would at the very least be 204 by Feb 1. This would’ve meant that I would be at exactly 1/3 of my goal weight within the first month. On the more optimistic end, I may have actually crossed the 200 pound mark. That would have been really great for the diet plan and psychologically boosted my weight loss efforts. I haven’t been sub-200 in a really long time.

I remember, before I picked up my vices, I was between 145 and 165 pounds. I was healthy then. At 145, I was probably a little too skinny, though some body weight maps do list that as the ideal weight for someone of my build.

One Vice Leads to Another

In College, spring of 1994, I picked up two vices: Beer drinking and smoking cigarettes. I’m not going to blame any one for me getting those vices. The decision was mine and mine alone. I take responsibility for choosing to pick up those bad habits. I pretty much drank and smoked until I stopped in the spring of 2003. By the end, I was doing both pretty heavily.

Because I was drinking so much, my stomach got pretty big. It’s hard to drink a pitcher or two of beer and not stretch out your stomach. This inadvertently led to my increase in eating portions. I could say it was all McDonald’s fault with their Super Size Me campaign but that would be blame shifting. The truth of the matter was that my stomach was used to being enlarged by all this liquid. Thus, I had more room to fill. When I wasn’t drinking, I was eating…a lot.

Perspective You Can Wear

People say, “Hindsight is 20/20.” Well, in my case, hindsight is also about 60 pounds. LOL The thing about vices is that you don’t realize what your doing to your body. Even though I stopped my two vices of drinking and smoking in 2003, I still kept eating with the same fervor. It wasn’t until I took my “Before” shot, that I realized how fat I had become.

It’s funny how you don’t realize that you’re ballooning up in weight. I don’t know if it’s the human condition of denial, where we choose not to see things we don’t want to acknowledge, or if it’s the human condition of rush, where we’re so busy with every thing not related to ourselves. Regardless of which one it is, most of us don’t realize we’re getting fatter/heavier until 60 pounds (or more) later, you wake up one day and realize you’re not the skinny person you once were.

We Must Regain Ourselves for Others

The nice thing about being human though is we can change. With a little determination and a change in our routine, we can regain control of our lives and of our eating habits. I’ve been sober and smoke-free for almost 8 years. I’ve been following the One Minute Bite plan for a month now and have been having wonderful results. Sure, I slipped up for a week, but that’s no biggie. The key to success is to continue on a path you know will work, despite any hardships that come your way.

I’m not saying that I’m the shining example to all, but I do have 2 (soon to be 3) people that I am an example to. I have my two boys (one is six years-old and the other is four years-old) and my baby girl (due to arrive around July 3). It is them that inspire me to lose weight and eat healthier.

It amazes me how much kids pick up on things. I think my oldest has tendencies to eat too much too fast, but his brother seems to not have picked up the habit yet. I don’t correct them or tell them how to eat. The oldest one notices how I’ve changed my eating habits and so I’m sure he self correct by my example alone. My youngest thinks I’m “making a baby” (i.e. am pregnant) because I’m so fat. Hopefully, when mommy’s baby comes in July, I too will look like I’m no longer pregnant.

My last hope too is that my little girl never sees me fat. In her eyes, she will hopefully only know a dad who is skinny and healthy. It is our role as parents to lead by example. I’ve been neglecting my part in the weight department, but I’m slowly fixing that and it feels good!