I've lost 50lbs since May 1. Definitely big, closer to where I want to be, but I am not done yet.
A lot of things have surprised me along the way. One is how awesome I feel. I thought I would feel better. But I feel much better than I thought, all of the time. Just walking. Heck just sitting and breathing. EVERYthing gets better. Energy levels, everything.
And I feel this is really important. Will-power is VASTLY overrated. All of us have many accomplishments. Be it education, job, family hobbies, volunteering, what not. We aren't slouches. So all of a sudden on food and exercise we just can't apply that will power to accomplish the other things we do to weight loss? I am not buying it, at least for me.
What I discovered was the power of changing habits, getting through the transition period, lowering carbs, and motivation. I do not feel motivation is the same as will-power and I do think it is really important.
After a long journey my wife and I finally adopted. In May of this year, I was 47 my daughter was 2. I would be 60 when she turned 15. I HAD to get myself in gear. And also one day and I can't explain this, it just felt so absurd to be as large as I was. The day before it was what it was. But that day it just seemed insane. And I had this internal feeling there was no way I was not going to loose weight. Can't explain it, I am sure a lot of things were boiling under the surface but it just manifested itself that day.
It was probably helped by the fact that a dress jacket I wear about once a year I was like 2 to 3 inches from being able to close. Enough. I had to change.
So fast food, snacks, chips, candy not exercising were all big parts of my daily habits. I had a huge belly. High BP, bad cholesterol (not awful), high triglycerides. Started learning a lot more about carbs and also being overweight but undernourished. Carbs for me was the key. I was a carb addict. And what happens is overeating and low exercise can be symptoms of too many carbs.
Everyone in America blames the individual and will power, or seems to. Oh look you eat too much you don't exercise. Well what if your diet was setting you up to those things over and over? And you were so far into day after day it was hard to separate the chicken and the egg.
I was well into too many carb mode day after day. It was why I'd eat a huge fast food meal and soon after feel hungry. A lot of the calories were just getting stored and never used.
So anyhow I just with my motivation started exercising every day, at least 30 mins on a recumbent bike. I started that first. Then I gave up fast food. Then I gave up my snacking, then bread, pasta, potatoes. It just wasn't that hard, it truly wasn't. And I use to LOVE carbs. Salt and vinegar potato chips....yum.
But you cut it out over a few weeks and it just isn't as hard as you think it is.
Now doing a C25K program.....I won't talk about that in this post, but that has been hard at times, but also wonderful.
In any event once you have motivation and then start working with your body, and get rid of excess carbs, and start up your carb burning metabolism things get better. Mark's Daily Apple has A LOt of good info on it about all kinds of things carb and science related. I would check that out.
Find your motivation, the rest will follow and it will be easier than you thought. And 'awesomer-er'.