I’ve had great success and great failure. Let me tell you my story.
I’d never been a skinny person. Nor particularly in shape. But in 2007 my new “desk job” contributed to significant weight gain and I found myself topping the scales at 330 lbs by mid-summer. I’m 6 ft 5 in. One night after dinner at Mimi’s Cafe, I remember walking to the car and feeling completely out of breath. That turned out to be a pivotal moment for me.
Over a one year span, by summer of 2008, I lost 100 lbs. It was more than a diet. I’d made a lifestyle change. I traded my pizza and burgers for salads and apples. I feasted on broccoli instead of barbecue. I drank protein shakes as meal replacements. Along with the healthy diet, I became a regular in the gym. At least 5 days per week. Sometimes 7. Occcasionally twice a day. I took up mountain biking with fervor. I ran, I lifted weights. I even swam from time to time. I dropped 6+ inches in the waist and a shirt size or two.
By the spring of 2009 I was in the best shape of my life, at 26 years old, weighing less than 220 lbs – a total weight loss of 110 lbs. I had aspirations of winning races and competing in triathlons. Some days I would spend 5+ hours doing various forms of exercise. And, I enjoyed it. Mountain biking and road biking were my passion. I hiked a “14er” in Colorado and fell in love with the mountains.
Deep in my heart, I still loved food. Now I could eat without guilt. The sheer number of calories I burned daily during this time afforded me the ability to eat almost anything I wanted, in almost any quantity. I didn’t gain weight. Life was good. I’d found the solution: I could have my cake and eat it too.
During the next 4 years I slowly faded from my healthy lifestyle. I had good times and I had bad. For a while I stayed in pretty good shape. I continued going to the gym, continued biking, and even ate pretty good sometimes. Little by little, though, old habits returned. For the most part I continued to eat a lot, without the corresponding exercise to burn those calories. I would gain 20 lbs and lose 10. Over and over. I took solace in food when I was having a bad day or felt stressed. I celebrated with food when I was having a great day or accomplished something, no matter how minor.
Slowly but surely, I put those 100 lbs back on, one sweet tea at a time. Fast forward to May 2013, and I once again find myself weighing nearly 320 lbs. See my latest hike for exactly how out of shape I am.
Part of the goal of this blog is to document my weight loss journey again, my second attempt at losing 100 lbs and regaining my fitness. I hope that my blog readers can find some inspiration or motivation in following this. I hope that I can find some inspiration by blogging about my journey, my constant struggle between my love of food and my need to be healthier. I hope to search deeper into myself and analyze what motivates me to lose weight, what causes me to eat the wrong foods and the wrong quantities of those foods.