I started my weight loss journey on February of 2012. My starting weight was 278. My wife (Jamie) and I were raising the grandkids at that time, ages 5 and 7. To relieve some stress and to have some time alone, we started walking at our community center where they had night care for our grandkids. We would walk about 30 minutes every night at a brisk pace. After about 2 weeks, I noticed that I had lost 5 to 7 pounds and had become interested in losing more. I went to our local Christian bookstore to find a diet or weight loss book.
I discovered a book called First Place 4 health My Food Plan. I purchased this book because it had 13 days of meals as a guide (about 1500 calories) and also had a lot of information about calories and portion sizes, etc. I read about not drinking soft drinks and drinking eight ounces of water before every meal and exercising at least 30 minutes each day five times each week.
So I put a plan together. I stopped all soft drinks and started drinking 5 to 7 bottles of water a day. I also downloaded the My Fitness Pal app on my smart phone and started entering every meal, snack and drink I would have daily. I kept up the walking 7 days a week only missing maybe 5 times in 5 months. I was very consistent every month.
My wife and I are very blessed to have a couple that we call our best Friends, Rick and Margie Davis. Margie is amazing. She just happens to be a personal trainer, and what a blessing she has been to me! I would text her questions and goals that I had accomplished. She was a great help on my journey to reaching my personal goals and giving me encouragement. I don’t know if I could have done this with out her help. What a blessing she’s has been.
I started running in July with the help of Margie and now run together with others on weekends. I’m now running an average of 3 miles, 6 days a week. I will run in my first 5k in December.
One year later I weigh 168 pounds. I have lost 110 pounds by just doing the right things, exercise, drinking water (NO SODA) and eating the right foods and keeping track of it. This is a whole new experience for me I was heavy all my life. I wore husky pants in grade school. Now I’m a 33″ waist and wearing clothes I never thought I would ever wear.
I’m still running almost daily and looking forward to my first mini marathon this summer. I still keep track of my meals and work out with weights twice a week and eat about 2000 calories a day depending on how much I run.