Only 9 more pounds to go

I weighed myself today. I’m 11 pounds lighter than I was 7 weeks ago, and I’ve lost a little more than an inch off my waist.

Like most people, I have slowly gained weight over the last 10 years. But that weight gain quickly accelerated after Rowan was born. I don’t know how much I have gained since he was born, but I estimate it to be around 15 to 20 pounds. I was the heaviest I’ve ever been.

And like most people, I have wanted to loss weight. I just don’t have the time to hit the gym 5 days a week. So how did I lose 11 pounds in 7 weeks?

It started shortly after NSConference. Drew McCormack tweeted that he was under 80kg for the first time in years. What caught my attention was the #4hourbody hash tag. I immediately thought of the book The 4-Hour Workweek, and I thought this hash tag might be related. Turns out, it is. The author of The 4-Hour Workweek wrote another book called The 4-Hour Body.

While I enjoyed The 4-Hour Workweek, I thought the The 4-Hour Body would be nonsense. Still, I added to my wish list as something to read later.

That time came a few weeks later. I wanted something different to read, and thinking about my ever increasing weight I decided to buy The 4-Hour Body. I read through the first part of the book that talks about rapid fat loss. It recommends a diet that is very much inline with what I like to eat. Meat and beans. Lots of meat and beans.

After reading this part of the book, I decided to give it a try. I was already eating chicken and pork daily, but I was also eating ice cream and cereal every day. And my side dishes with my chicken and pork were usually rice or potatoes. I cut out the daily ice cream, and I replaced the cereal with a fried egg. And I replaced my side dishes with beans.

I used to eat lots of beans, but my wife can’t stand them. So for years, I would only have beans a couple of times a week. Now I have them a couple of times a day.

In addition to the slight change to my daily diet, I decided to hire a personal trainer. For the longest time, I’ve wanted to get back into a route of go to the gym, but my busy life has made it hard to do. I knew hiring a trainer would motivate me to go, and so far it has worked. I’ve been going to the gym 1 hour a week since I started this personal challenge.

So that’s what I changed. I cut out daily ice cream, cereal, rice, and potatoes. I added an egg a day, lots of beans, and 1 hour per week at the gym. And as a result, I have lost 11 pounds in 7 weeks. Not the rapid results the book claims can be achieved, but I’m only loosely following the book’s advice. In fact, I haven’t even finished reading the book. I read what foods to eat and not eat then ran with it.

I also kept it a secret that I was on this mission to lose weight. Even my wife didn’t know for weeks that I was loosely following a diet (though she was noticing the results). That’s how minor of a change I made with my diet.

The trick for me now is to continue with the weight lost. I want to lose a total of 20 pounds, returning to my ideal weight of 150 pounds. I have only 9 pounds to go (woohoo!). The real fun, however, begins after I hit my goal - keeping the weight off.

Posted in personal. Tagged in fitness.

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