A friend of mine and I were having a conversation one day at my office and he asked me what sparked my decision to lose weight. He asked me if it was due to medical reasons, my own free will or something else. My initial response was that I wasn't sure, but then after a few seconds I responded I couldn’t keep up with my son who was almost 2 years old at the time. I must say dieting is not easy and losing weight on a diet is not easy either. So here is my story.
One night I was chasing my son up our stairs and at the top he ran into his room to get ready for bed, while I sat and huffed and puffed a bit. I thought to myself, "This isn’t right." I had always told myself that I would never become overweight and wondered how could someone get to that point in life. I couldn’t understand how someone could let themselves get to that point in life. Well I was there, not as bad as some and worse than others. I am pretty active in life, playing softball, golf, biking and hiking, but there I was, in my opinion, overweight and out of shape. This was not an overnight occurrence, but something that was built over 3 years. With a new member of the family, work was getting more intense, and getting older didn’t make it any easier to maintain or even lose weight, Wendy’s was a favorite stop, and fried food was a personal friend of mine.
My wife and I had been discussing several different diets, and we knew we had issues long before the huffing and puffing came into play. Either she did not like the diet or I didn’t. Finally one day, my mom came over and told us that she had lost 36 pounds in a little under 2 months. After discussing the success of my mother and how my mom described the diet to my wife and I, which by the way, my wife was not overweight, but decided to join in the diet adventure with me anyways, I took 2 weeks to research the diet we decided to try. One thing I will say is that I have not discussed a diet, any diet at that, with someone who did not have something bad to say about it, but I figured, "What could 4 weeks hurt?"
So we started our adventure, not sure what to expect but we both had goals to achieve. With the diet we were on, my wife was going to focus on one session and I was going to focus on 2 sessions. This would spread over 7 weeks per session. She wanted to lose 15 pounds and I wanted to lose 50 pounds. For the record I started the diet at 250 pounds and she at 140 pounds. I will be honest that I was so focused on the diet and wanting to be able to run around the backyard with my 2 year old son that the diet was pretty easy for me during the first session; my wife on the other hand was struggling the first week. I was shedding weight, but she was not. She was on the verge of giving up, so we talked one night and I said just give it one full week. She agreed to give it 3 weeks total, and after the one full week, she was all in and following the diet 100%. She was on the road to weight loss. The diet we were on had 3 phases, phase 2 being the main diet phase. As we went on through the diet I found myself on Facebook posting how my diet was going. What I discovered was an entire network of supporters: coworkers, long lost friends, family and even people I barely even knew who were supporting my adventure. Not only were they supporting me, but they were sharing their weight loss adventures as well. I also discovered some people who decided to start their own adventure and some of them are still on their adventure and have stayed in touch for support.
The first main part of the diet was over within 4 weeks and I had lost 26 pounds and my wife 15 pounds. We began phase three which allowed us to eat a regiment consisting of a low carb diet and 1500 calories. We both still lost weight, mainly because our appetite had disappeared, and we were full with the simplest of meals.
At this time, I looked back at my success and as I told myself in the beginning, if it works, I will do it again and if it did not work, I would look at other diet options. Well it worked and worked well, but I must say I followed the diet to a T. So here I am starting phase 1 for two days enjoying everything I can, but still I was not gorging like I did in the very beginning, I found myself being more aware of what I was taking in and eating a little more on the healthier side (I learned what eating healthy is). Phase 2 started on a Monday and it went over well for the first week, then I found myself making food that was not on my diet for my wife, which I began to crave, but I did stick to my diet. My point here is it was much easier having both of us on the same diet at the same time, and we could support each other much better while on the diet together. My wife was my biggest supporter on and off the diet, but it made it a little difficult for me with her not on the diet. After a total of 11 weeks I lost a total of 43 pounds and began my second session of phase 3 which allowed a larger variety food on a low carb diet sticking to 1500 calories.
I finally ended the diet at 205 pounds, with a goal between 200 to 210 pounds (not knowing what to expect). I look back at what I have achieved, and it was not an easy adventure, but it was worth it. Today May 23rd, 2011, I weighed in at 203 (still slowly going down) and I am 2 pants sizes smaller; I have not worn size 34’s since early college. I have decided not to do a third session of the diet, and focus on eating right with the right amounts and cut down the calories to slowly lose the weight while teaching myself how to eat the right way, and also introduce more activity into our lives. I have been completely off the diet for 2 weeks now and I have gained a few pounds and lost those same few pounds, but I am educating myself on how to eat right and what affects me in energy, weight, and sleeping. I have to thank my wife for her support and motivation, along with my friends, family and co-workers who kept it positive during my adventure.
Whether it is the diet I am on, or another diet with exercise, they all take focus, motivation and determination.
Tom is the Operations Director & E-Commerce Director at Harbor Automotive Group, Inc. in Portage and Michigan City, Indiana.