My weight got out of control. It was late 2018 and I was pushing 250 pounds. I’m around 5′ 11″, so the weight wasn’t really overbearing, but I was getting heavier and heavier as the colder months went on. My senior year of high school I weighed 180, and it kept running through my head that I’m 70 pounds heavier. 70 damn pounds!
My turning point was early 2019, I was attending our local Sportsmen’s Show with my cousin and best bud, walking through the endless aisles of fishing and hunting gear, drinking beer, and ultimately ending up at the new casino right around the corner. I didn’t realize we were walking in front of the local news camera! A few people text me saying they saw me on TV. I tuned in to the rerun of the evening news, and sure as shit, there I was, belly and all. I was flabbergasted, “that’s what I look like?!”.
That’s me in the green/grey long sleeve shirt. This is the news clip that sent me over the edge. It was time to lose the extra weight and to stop feeling like shit every day. It was hard even rolling out of bed.
There it was. My breaking point. It’s time. It’s time to lose weight. I fucking hated exercising. Mainly because I was so sluggish, had no energy at all, loved alcohol, and I sat at a desk all day. Lazy, drunk and fat. That was me.
The first steps to losing weight for the average person.
The first step is realizing that you need to lose weight. This may be the easiest step of them all. Once you realize it, you may contemplate for weeks, months, heck, even years. After realizing that you need to lose weight, you have to WANT to lose weight. Once you want to lose weight, the first step is to start keeping a log of everything that goes in to your body. Train yourself to look at the Nutritional Facts of everything you consume. Keep a log of the Total Carbohydrates of everything you take in. Not calories. Carbs. Carbs are bad.
You may be surprised at how many carbs you are actually consuming. I was. I was eating 200-300 carbs a day. And bad ones at that. Delicious IPAs, bread, pasta, sweets, sodas, candy, snacks, everything has an overwhelming amount of carbohydrates, and you probably don’t even realize it. Sugar. Sugar is bad. Very bad. Sugar = Carbs.
Take a look at this two pound container of Yoplait Yogurt. 30g of carbs in a 2/3 cup serving, but only 150 calories. Many would see this as “healthy” based on a 2000 calorie diet, because the serving only has 150 calories.
However the 21g of sugar and 30g of Total Carbs is totally unhealthy with only 1g of Total Fat. Fat is not bad for you.
Conclusion: This is totally unhealthy for you, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Carbs are the enemy.
Keep track for a full 7 days of how many carbs you consume. It’s also helpful to note how you feel after eating certain things. How do you feel after eating vegetables? pasta? bread? etc. It’s also helpful to keep track of your sugar intake. Carbs & Sugar are going to be the key things to cut out if you want to instantly shed weight. It’s also very important to take in 64oz of water, daily.
How to lose weight for the average person.
Now that you have at least a weeks worth of data, you can begin the process of changing your diet. If you are like me and don’t like to exercise, changing your diet is going to be the most important part of losing weight. I was right around 248 pounds and consuming around 250-300 carbs per day. I wanted rapid results. I was fed up. I wanted the weight gone fast. I committed to a hybrid-keto diet (I was drinking alcohol a few times a week, heavily, and at this point in my life, I wasn’t ready to give up alcohol, so that was the reason my “diet” was a hybrid-keto diet.).
CARB INTAKE
Choose your magic number. Mine was 10%. 10% of 250-300 carbs is 25-30. I committed to taking in a maximum of 30g carbs per day. No limit on calories. Now the research starts. I had to figure out what foods I could still eat, and not break my limit. You are going to need to get creative. As you look at nutritional facts, you may find some staple foods that have no carbs. The biggest problem will be snacks and sweets. Vending machines are so damn convenient. I guarantee you will not find anything truly low carb in your office vending machine.
CARB REPLACEMENT
You may find some things that are simply non-negotiable for you (though you shouldn’t if you are truly committed), but carb replacement may be as simple as replacing your go-to Coca-Cola with a Coke Zero. Do you know how much sugar and carbohydrates are in a can of coke? Check it out!
That right there. Is that image big enough for you to read? 39 grams of total carbohydrates, which is all sugar. All added sugar. Sugar ADDED to this recipe of soda pop. On my strict diet regiment, a can of Coke would be a day and a half of carbs. That’s right. I wouldn’t be able to eat anything with carbs. My day and a half if I drank soda, would be a can of soda, and meat, veggies and cheese. It’s just not worth it.
You are going to want to replace all those carbs you take in with sugar-fee, no or low carb solutions. This is a list that I made several years ago. It’s a no-nonsense list of foods, that I stuck to, for daily consumption. I never really drank soda anyways, unlike the average American, but you should think of ALL soda as poison.
CONSUME AS MUCH AS YOU WANT:
- Raw vegetables
- Meat: Chicken, Pork, Steak, Turkey, Bacon, etc
- Cheese: Good fat for your body. The key here will be to consume foods HIGH in fat.
- Butter
- Pork Rinds: The 0 carb solution to potato chips
- Popcorn: Also another snack that got me through this change
- Cream cheese: Try this: celery, cream cheese & everything bagel seasoning (delicious!)
AVOID, ALWAYS!
- Fruit: high in sugar
- Sugar
- Pasta
- Bread
- Soda
COFFEE LOVERS
Through my journey I found that consuming “Bulletproof” coffee over regular coffee (with splenda), amplifies the weight loss process by consuming fat in your coffee, in particular, grass fed (irish) butter. Here is how I made mine. It also helps cleanse your system 😉 It clears you out.. in a good way.
You want something with a sealable lid. In my case, I used a 33oz glass milk bottle. Brew your hot coffee, and fill your jug about 7/8 full of coffee. Add heavy whipping cream to taste, I like a lighter coffee. One or two packets of sugar-free sweetener (optional), a pump or two of Torani sugar free Vanilla sweetener, a quarter stick of grass fed butter, and a dash of cinnamon. Now cover the jug and shake it vigorously to break up the butter and get it mixed in your coffee.
You want your body to take in good fats, such as butter and cheese.
Start here. This is literally all I did. I dropped 10 pounds in my first week. Weigh yourself regularly (2x per day, or after each meal). Track your results. The naturally energy I regained in to week 2 was off the chart. Lose the sugar, cut the carbs. Discipline. Do something for yourself. Set a realistic goal and track your progress after the first 30 days. If you really want to lose weight, do this now. It’s idiot proof. It’s also very easy to fuck up. Discipline, discipline, discipline.
And please, share your results with me! I will share other weight saving techniques in the future.
Stop dreaming, start doing. Here’s my result 6 months later.
