how I did it
90% of you reading this won't be able to do what I did.
Why?
First, I have a job where I walk about 5 miles a day. This was my cardio baseline.
Second, you need to have a reason. Mine was that I had gotten to the point where I hated myself. It was either fade and die, or climb out.
This is how I lost 40lbs in 4 months.
I cut approximately 1000 calories out of my daily diet. I changed my meals to 4 a day. I drank 2 gallons of water each day.
What I ate:
Meat. Either chicken, ham, turkey or roast beef.
Cheese
Eggs
Fish
Cottage Cheese
Fruit and vegetables
Wraps
Power/Protein Bars
Water and Green Tea
This is it with the exceptions of vacations and my guilty pleasure of coffee at work. I followed whatever the portion was on the product. If it said 2 servings, I would only eat half(1 serving). Saturday was my cheat day where I ate whatever.
Breakfast was a protein or power bar.
Lunch was my normal meal. Since I eat at the same place everyday, I would have whatever their diet meal was of the day. Usually a tuna or turkey wrap, which had lettuce, tomato and cheese. Cottage cheese and a salad with fat free dressings were my choices.
After work I had deli meat before working out.
And finally before bed, I would have a piece of fruit.
That's it.
My workout started with my baseline 5 miles of walking each day. I would walk a fast enough pace to be sweating all day. I would skip steps I walked up, which was in the 200 plus range. I would not take any elevators in the businesses I delivered to.
For 3 weeks I did 100 pushups per day. For 3 weeks I did crunches until I wanted to puke. I played basketball for an hour each day. I tried to keep my body sweating as much as possible from when I woke up to when I went to bed.
The biggest thing everyday that you need to do when trying to lose weight, is pushing yourself. Losing weight is 100% mental. You have to push even when the pain says stop.
Motivation
You will have setbacks. I had many. I also quit smoking during these 4 months. Bad move in retrospect. I spent 3 weeks not sleeping more than 2-4hrs. I am one to not have dreams, but during these 3 weeks I had the strangest ones. I developed Insomnia. I ended up going to the hospital because my body was refusing the chemical inbalance from the lack of nicotine. I was already pushing myself to the limit everyday, and quitting smoking exceeded my limits. Also my sex drive went to dirt and has not recovered.
Of course, quitting smoking is a very wise thing to do. Just don't do it when you are doing so much else to your body already.
Last April before I started this plan, I literally hated myself. I got divorced 3 years ago. I have been through depression, I have sat in a cold shower crying. I have looked in the mirror with digust. I was rock bottom. My emotional state had totally wrecked my body to where I was fat, overweight, and out of shape.
I have spent 4 months abusing the hell out of my body. I have lost the weight. I look good in the mirror. Do I feel better? Hell yea. But, am I still where I was mentally? I overcame one thing, only to realize I still have no direction. I am taking steps forward, slowly. One day it will all make sense.
I'm sure I forgot some details that I will think of later. I will try to answer questions. I did not follow any program. I just did what we do in bootcamp. Push your body to the limit, sleep, do it again the next day.
My bootcamp was also 4 months long.
Why?
First, I have a job where I walk about 5 miles a day. This was my cardio baseline.
Second, you need to have a reason. Mine was that I had gotten to the point where I hated myself. It was either fade and die, or climb out.
This is how I lost 40lbs in 4 months.
I cut approximately 1000 calories out of my daily diet. I changed my meals to 4 a day. I drank 2 gallons of water each day.
What I ate:
Meat. Either chicken, ham, turkey or roast beef.
Cheese
Eggs
Fish
Cottage Cheese
Fruit and vegetables
Wraps
Power/Protein Bars
Water and Green Tea
This is it with the exceptions of vacations and my guilty pleasure of coffee at work. I followed whatever the portion was on the product. If it said 2 servings, I would only eat half(1 serving). Saturday was my cheat day where I ate whatever.
Breakfast was a protein or power bar.
Lunch was my normal meal. Since I eat at the same place everyday, I would have whatever their diet meal was of the day. Usually a tuna or turkey wrap, which had lettuce, tomato and cheese. Cottage cheese and a salad with fat free dressings were my choices.
After work I had deli meat before working out.
And finally before bed, I would have a piece of fruit.
That's it.
My workout started with my baseline 5 miles of walking each day. I would walk a fast enough pace to be sweating all day. I would skip steps I walked up, which was in the 200 plus range. I would not take any elevators in the businesses I delivered to.
For 3 weeks I did 100 pushups per day. For 3 weeks I did crunches until I wanted to puke. I played basketball for an hour each day. I tried to keep my body sweating as much as possible from when I woke up to when I went to bed.
The biggest thing everyday that you need to do when trying to lose weight, is pushing yourself. Losing weight is 100% mental. You have to push even when the pain says stop.
Motivation
You will have setbacks. I had many. I also quit smoking during these 4 months. Bad move in retrospect. I spent 3 weeks not sleeping more than 2-4hrs. I am one to not have dreams, but during these 3 weeks I had the strangest ones. I developed Insomnia. I ended up going to the hospital because my body was refusing the chemical inbalance from the lack of nicotine. I was already pushing myself to the limit everyday, and quitting smoking exceeded my limits. Also my sex drive went to dirt and has not recovered.
Of course, quitting smoking is a very wise thing to do. Just don't do it when you are doing so much else to your body already.
Last April before I started this plan, I literally hated myself. I got divorced 3 years ago. I have been through depression, I have sat in a cold shower crying. I have looked in the mirror with digust. I was rock bottom. My emotional state had totally wrecked my body to where I was fat, overweight, and out of shape.
I have spent 4 months abusing the hell out of my body. I have lost the weight. I look good in the mirror. Do I feel better? Hell yea. But, am I still where I was mentally? I overcame one thing, only to realize I still have no direction. I am taking steps forward, slowly. One day it will all make sense.
I'm sure I forgot some details that I will think of later. I will try to answer questions. I did not follow any program. I just did what we do in bootcamp. Push your body to the limit, sleep, do it again the next day.
My bootcamp was also 4 months long.
0
Comments
3 cheers for Fat Cat!
As I told you while camping, I also lost 40 lbs, doing nearly the same thing as you, only not nearly as much exercise. The result, it took me 8 months instead of 4 months.
The reasons for losing the weight were also similar: I had just broken up with my fiance who was cheating on me, and I was feeling rather self conscious.
On the plus side, in the following year since then, I learned that I could make friends again, get out and do stuff, meet people, and do all kinds of fun things that before I couldn't do. I realized I had money again (which I've heard you say many times!) which helped me have even more fun. Just doing fun stuff was the key (and sometimes making myself do fun stuff) to being able to respect who I was, and figuring that out seemed to be the hardest, longest part.
Since then, I've found a new girlfriend who respects this new person I have become, and I make sure that I will never lose sight of this again. I'm happy with who I am, and the people around me. If I could just make work less stressful, I'd be set now!
Time heals all things, my friend.
You have come a long way. I hope you find the 'direction' you're looking for to complete your journey.
Perhaps I need to join the military?
I'm just starting to hop up onto the wagon again. I'm tired of living a fat guy lifestyle. It's so hard to mentally motivate myself. I need a good drill Sargent.
I am very happy for you. Many of us at Icrontic have been back stabbed by the coldness of a woman. Being happy with who you are and finding a lady that respects you for who you are is great!
Honestly I torn. Being single has allowed me to travel all over the United States, spending awesome times with friends, having money to do what I want when I want to.
But, I have also slept alone in my bed for three years now. I find myself always wanting to be around friends to cut into the pain of loneliness. I also built walls to keep from being hurt again. I have taken these walls down.
By no means am I desperate for someone. I know love finds you when you are not looking for it. And, honestly, I don't know if I trust myself enough right now to make a commitment to someone either.
Time heals. We'll see what I find down the road I travel
j and QCH:
thank you. I love all my Icrontian friends
GHoosdum:
Yea. I had to pretty much single myself away from EVERYONE. Having the will power and motivation to do it how I did would not have worked if I hadn't.
Cliff:
Like I said. You have to have a very powerful motivational reason. Changing your lifestyle is not for the weak.
Everyone:
for the responses on my blog posts. for the IM's of wisdom. for answering your phone when I had a bad day and wanted to vent.
I do reduce my meal consumption a bit, but basically I added no exercise to my daily routine (I have plantar fasciitis which makes walking painful) and I still eat some dessert and junkfood like potato chips and ice cream. How was I able to lose so much weight with such an easy-going regimen? The answer: it's all in the mind. Like you said: you have to WANT it. A lot.
That's why a reason is very important. If you're just thinking, "yeah it'd be cool to lose some weight," you probably won't make it. You need something stronger to really cause the change. Something that keeps your waking moments occupied with the thought of it.
So to all prospective weight losers here, personally I don't think a major change in lifestyle is needed; you just need a strong motive to get yourself going. All else will follow automatically.