5 years, 80 pounds lost. some insights that i've gained.

male. 37. 5' 11''. SW: 221. CW: 141. GW: it's all about waist-to-hip ratio.

this is an update to a post i made 3 months ago titled 'the lazy man's weight loss plan'. to sum that post up, i let myself get fat over a long period of time, so i decided to get thin over a long period of time. since that post, i've managed to lose an additional 13 lbs by only changing my physical activity level. i now run about 6 miles a week, at around a 9 minute per mile rate.

the 3 biggest things that have gotten me to where i'm current at are: don't drink calories, eat mostly unprocessed food, and practice intermittent fasting. exercising is a distant number 4.

DON'T DRINK CALORIES: all i drink is water and unsweetened coffee & tea. i don't use any artificial sweeteners. i stopped drinking alcohol almost 9 months ago. that wasn't easy, but well worth it. i've lost 32 lbs since i got sober.

EAT MOSTLY UNPROCESSED FOOD: at my heaviest, almost everything i ate came in a box, can, or was pizza. now i eat many things that have no nutrition labels, because, well, an orange is an orange. the processed food i do eat, like peanut butter, is lightly processed. just peanuts and salt, no added sugar or fats.

PRACTICE INTERMITTENT FASTING: there are many different ways to do this, but for me, what works best is not to eat for at least 12 hours in a row. that's a minimum, i usually fast for 16 hours a day, but it varies. some days i go 22 hours. it all depends on how hungry i am. what fasting really does is retrains your body to know what hunger is. i used to wake up each morning hungry. at least, i thought i was hungry. turns out, i was thirsty. i now wake up and drink a glass of water, then i get out of bed and make a cup of coffee. if, after i'm finished drinking the coffee, i'm hungry, i eat something. that pretty much never happens, because i was never hungry in the first place.

EXERCISING: weight loss can be done without sweating. but exercising does speed up the process. the cliches are true, you can't outrun you fork.

being aware of calories matters, but i'm not anal about it. i don't weigh anything i eat. for example, i know a medium banana has around 100 calories, but i'm not gonna take the time to figure out if the banana i'm about to eat has 90 calories or 115. i measured out a serving size of peanut butter one time to get an idea of what 2 tablespoons look like.

so.....yeah. that's my story weight loss story. it didn't happen overnight, but then, i didn't get fat overnight.

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