Simple Weight Loss - Part 1
When I was in my thirties I gained a lot of weight. In my twenties I had always been an active individual; jogging, downhill skiing, canoeing, kayaking and any other sport that tickled my passing fancy. I was generally pretty good at most physical activities I attempted. Not great, just OK. I had even competed in local 10 km road races and did quite well; my best time was 36 minutes, I’m still quite proud of that.
My weight gain was very slow, insidious, barley to be noticed. I didn’t own a scale and had never worried about how I looked. I ate when and what I wanted, greasy breaded chicken wings, loads of white French bread, pizza, ice cream, fries with gravy, all the good stuff. If you’re reading this, then you are probably intimately familiar with my preferred diet. I say preferred because even though I lost the weight and rarely eat that stuff anymore, lets be honest, it really is yummy! I still do give myself a treat every now-and-then, I’m not totally denying myself and turning into a vegan. I admire the resolve of those people but I am a common man struggling for success in my common way. If I could eat like a kid every day, morning and night, and not have to worry about weight gain or the effects on my health I certainly would; it just tastes so damned good! But alas, I’m a grown-up now, my twenties are long gone. Those crazy kids have a magical metabolism.
The turning point in my life, the point at which I said to myself, “Hey dude, you’re fat”, came when a relative said to me. “You’re getting fat, you got a big neck”, I was quit shocked and hurt at his frankness. I had never really had much love for this guy, and didn’t really value his opinion about much, but this comment hit home hard. The other people in the room where shocked as well. I’m sure they new I was getting bigger as the years flew by but they didn’t come right out and say it to my face! In retrospect this person actually did me a huge favor. Something or someone had to kick my ass and get me motivated to do something about my ever expanding gut, and neck I suppose.
Looking back at pictures of myself I can see now that I really was pretty big. I wasn’t morbidly obese or anything, but I was on my way. I weighed in at 215 lbs. That’s not big some of you may say, but on my 5’9” frame it was too much weight. I was not able to do a lot of things that I used to enjoy and it slowed me down considerably. The health effects of too much weight were quite evident, although I at the time I had no clue what-so-ever that the issues where caused from weight gain. It was only after I lost the weight, and the problems vanished, that I actually realized the excess poundage was giving me all of those annoying health problems. I had horrible acid reflux problems, especially at night. I would wake several nights a week gagging on a mouthful of burning foam. I would dash to the bathroom, nauseated, running into walls and tripping over the laundry that my kids left in the hall, greedily gobble three or four rolaids and try to get back to sleep. This led to a prescription for Losec, a drug that slows acid production. The doctor relieved my heartburn but actually did me a disservice; my body was telling me loud and clear that it did not approve of my diet, the doctor shut off that switch which allowed me to continue eating greasy fatty foods. I started to sweat like a pig! I would break into a sweat climbing the stairs. I would totally soak a shirt when I had to cut the lawn or shovel the lane. My knees, feet and lower back ached; always. I was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome which found me regularly squatting on the crapper writhing in pain, begging god for mercy and willing to sell my soul to the dark one to make it stop.
My body was revolting, in many ways, protesting against the garbage I was stuffing down my pie-hole. Acid reflux from the daily assault of saturated fats and the full meals I was consuming before bed time, sweating and aching from the excess body mass I was lugging around, chronic diarrhea from the surplus of greasy fats and lack of dietary fiber.
I realize that my issues where just the beginning of the problems suffered by the obese, and others will have a whole host of problems I never had to deal with. I lost the weight before I got too big and was lucky that way. I am just writing this to try and inspire people to just change. There is nothing special about me at all. I am a common man, married with two teenaged daughters and a dog. I have a common job, make a decent living, drive a toyota, and live in a small house in a small town. If I can do it so can you. The truth is that I find myself gaining weight again and I hope that getting my thoughts down in this blog, in an attempt to help others, that I may begin to practice what I am preaching more thoroughly. I’ll continue this next entry. Thanks.
A Note on Weight Loss Products
Below are some products I have researched lately that may help you along your way to permanent weight loss. Some of these products will work for you and some of them may not. Take a good look at them and read through them carefully before you decide to purchase any; we need to ensure that a product is right for us. Many products will assist you on your way to permanent weight loss, but it all begins in your mind with the intention to improve your overall health and lifestyle. Some products help from a physical standpoint and some from a psychological position; we need to be strong in both areas to succeed. Some of us are simply not as active as others for various reasons and that’s OK. If we could benefit through taking safe effective supplements or using motivational material to get us going, then we should go for it! There is a plethora of products available for us to take advange of to speed us along our way, we just need to make sure that they will actually help us and not pose a risk to our health. I have read throught this material and decided to offer it on my blog because I believe it may help people out. I will not promote anything rediculous or unhealthy here just to make a dollar. So look over the products below, and if there is anything available that can help you on your personal weight loss journey just give it a try!
Weight Loss Products (I have placed a brief analysis of my findings after the link in brackets)
- Turbulence Training Click Here! (this info is accurate)
- Fat Loss Secret Click Here! (evidence is growing toward this)
- Strip That Fat Click Here! (good solid accurate info)
- Lose Your Belly Fat Program Click Here! (good accurate info)
Inspirational Weight Loss Literature
- Fit Over 40 Click Here! (ebook - for those of us over 40)
- fityummymummy.com Click Here! (ebook - lots of info and testimonials, may be a winner for new mothers)
Check out my recommended self help materials page.Click Here!
Reader Comments
Congrats on your weight loss!! I too did it, not once but twice and it feels great when you are in shape! It’s good that this time you have noticed your weight gain right at the beginning …. so just try and stop it right away. You sure can do it a lot easier this time around. I have also written an article on using Cravings to Motivate Yourself. Here’s the link: http://www.fitnchic.com/Article13.html. Just thought of sharing it with you.
Hi there,
Cool blog, I just found it and I’m already a subscriber
I recently shed 30 pounds in 30 days, and I want to discuss my weight loss success
with as many people as possible. I wrote up my experience
on my blog, and I welcome your comments!
If I can lose weight then any one can. Whatever you do, don’t give up and you WILL
achieve all your weight loss goals!
much thanks for reading,
Joan
Most recent blog post: diet to reduce stomach
Nice work Dennis.
Not so much for losing the weight as for using a self-help / self-examination process as you do so.
“The truth is that I find myself gaining weight again” - learn from this that Dieting = Regaining Weight and you will be on the way to lasting (ie non-dieting) success.