How I Lost 125 Pounds

Yes you read that title correctly. Today February 15, 2011 I stepped on the scales this morning and I weighed in at 215 pounds. To some this may seem like a lot but to me it is a milestone because 215 pounds is what I weighed in college and college was some 30 years ago.

Like many people I have struggled with my weight my entire adult life a couple years ago I got on the scale and I weighed 340 pounds. At that point I knew I had to do something about my weight but what I tried to diet several times and I was always successful at first I would generally lose about 20 pounds stall out gained 20 pounds back and put on another 20 pounds for good measure does this scenario sound familiar?

My saga begins at the beginning of 2009 I knew I had to do something I knew that I had tried diets before and they didn’t work I actually looked at the bariatric surgery options and soon ruled those out.

The first thing that I did was to cut out all calories from my drinks, so basically I drank water and diet drinks. I also removed the best I could things that we all know we should not eat like candy bars and cookies and ice cream and that type of stuff. Believe it or not this actually works fairly well for about the first seven or eight months I had managed to lose 35 pounds. However after the seven months I pretty much stagnant this brings us to the beginning of 2010.

In January of 2010 my daughter came to me and wanted me to pay for her to join a health club, well advised her to research it and come up with some cost for me I certainly wanted her to begin an exercise program. She located a gym and gathered the pricing information for me as a price seem quite reasonable I decided that we would both join. This was the first piece of the puzzle.

My next step was to try and figure out a diet plan that I could actually live with. After some research I decided on trying the Atkins diet, maybe I should say the Atkins lifestyle. February 1, 2010 I started the Atkins diet and believe me I was relatively positive but it was going to fail, I thought there was no way that I could live without eating bread or potatoes. Before I even started the diet I told myself that if I could stick to it for one month I would allow myself my favorite meal.

A strange thing happened after a couple weeks I no longer had any cravings for sweets and for the high carb foods that I was used to eating I know many of you cannot believe this but it is absolutely true by the time the 30 days was up I had no desire to have a slice of pizza or eat a candy bar and his people could be the real trick behind Atkins lifestyle. I have lived the Atkins lifestyle for little over one year now I have successfully lost 91 pounds since starting the Atkins plan and I can truthfully tell you that I am less hungry on Atkins plan that I have done most of my adult life which was spent thinking I should not eat this should not eat that.

At this point my goals to lose another 25 pounds I’m shooting for 190 which if I can remember correctly would bring me back to the late 70s. I will update this as time goes on and add more diet tips.

Ed Hazel