Thursday, September 28, 2017

A State of Mind - My Story

Weight lose is the battle of your will and your body. In you mind you see all of the fancy ads on TV, that talk about how fast you can lose the weight if you buy their wonder this or that. But reality sets in and you find that yes maybe you can lose the weight fast, but what happens when you stop using the wonder this or that. You go back to the way you were eating what you were and your weight more than likely goes back to where it was and adds even more to it.
I have been there and done that so I am speaking from my experience. Now I am going to tell you a story and it is going to be a little long.

As a boy in middle school and high school I as always fairly slim and trim, but I always had a little bit of a belly. At 21 years old I joined the Navy and left for Boot Camp 3 days after my 21st birthday. I weight 167 pounds and was right at 6 feet talk. Boot Camp was 11 weeks long, in that 11 weeks I gained up to 210 pounds. I had never ate the foods that they fed us before going in to the Service. I was always eating food grown on the farm before I went in the service. I went from a 28 inch waist to a 33 inch waist in those 11 weeks. I felt less active and I felt that I was not able to do as much as I was before Boot. After Boot I was sent to schools so I was in a classroom all day 5 days a week, and on top of that I was going to evening classes. I do not really know what my weight was for most of my time in the service, I just know that I was able to wear the same close I was given in Boot most of my time in the service. I was never given PTs and was never asked to prove I could run or do other real exercises as long as I was in the service. That had to do with the fact my job was never physical it was always desk, and lab work. I did do some really physical work while in a special agency that had me setting up communication all over the country and the world. But I never really noticed any weight loss, or gain. I got out of the service in February of 1977, I remember my weight from my physical that I got leaving the service and it was around 225. So I had stated reasonably stable for the 8 years. The summer of 1977 I was having headaches and not feeling that good so I went to my doctor and was told I had high blood pressure. I was places on medication that made me feel worse than I was without it. I ended up not take the medication due to the fact I could not do my job and take the pills I was given. So I found another doctor that told me that if I would lose some of my weight and become active that more than likely I would not need the medication. My weight at that time was 235, I started riding my bicycle and getting as much other activity as I could while working 10 to 12 hours a day 6 days a week. My weight never really got any lower but I was more active and my blood pressure was under control. I managed to stay away from medications and at least my weight stated stable until when I was about 45, my job changed again, and my son was off to college and I did not have my riding partner so I stopped riding my bike and I spend all of my time chasing every computer certification and class that I could. My weight started up and I ended up back on blood pressure medication, acid reflux medication, and even for a while cholesterol medications. And I lived with the medications for over 15 years. I was so busy trying to feed my family and get them through school that I forgot about myself. At that time I lost my first wife to a car accident and that made my life even worse, due to not have her and my daughter was off to college at the same time. I no longer wanted to be at home. I worked and even made excuses to stay over night a lot. I also chased more certificates. My weight went up and up. I started seeing and old friend that I new and we ended up getting married. She is a great cook, and I managed to lose some weight for a while but I was chasing certificates and jobs trying to make ends meet, so my weight went back up to the point that I could not even tie my own shoes. This was 2010 at about Thanksgiving and my doctor wanted to put me on one of the sleeping machines and I said no, I cannot stand anything over my nose. So I made him a promise and a promise to myself to lose the weight. Now my goal was not a number on the scale but to get off all prescription medications. I was up to 290 pounds. On New Year’s Day 2011 the day I say I really started losing weight I was down 10 pounds. That was a victory in itself. I stuck with just portion control up until March then I quit drinking diet cokes, and I started to walk. At first I was lucky to make it a quarter of a mile. But I stayed at it. July 26, 2011, I found and joined loseit, and Fitbit, by then I was walking a few miles non-stop and was feeling good and my weight was down to around 250. I never stopped the portion control but now I was logging and learning how to portion my food out better over the day. And Fitbit was giving me really goals to meet. By New Year’s Day 2012 I was down to 208 and I was walking 10K steps a day with ease, and I was also riding my bike again. I have lots of energy and I was off all medications. My goal was reached, even with my still be being 23 pounds heavier that my doctor wanted me at. Worse was the fact my weight just was no longer coming off with ease. Every pound was like a war being fought. I never stopped logging and never stopped trying to figure out if I needed changes to my diet. I also worked at increasing my walking and reached as much as 25K steps a day. By the end of 2013 I was down to 195 and walking and bicycling. 
Then came February 2014 and I was forced to retire. My weight started going up and up, I was still logging, and I was still active but not walking as much. I just could not figure out what was wrong and I kept cutting back on my portion sizes. Early 2016 my weight was up to 250 again and I was eating very little, but gaining weight and I was still as active as I had been but not walking that much. I gave up and asked my doctor if I could get a referral to a dietitian. I started seeing the dietitian and the very first appointment we just talked and she suggested that I get an RMR test, I had to ask what that was and she explained it was to test my metabolism. I got the test the next week and we found that it was lower than it should be. The reason was as she put it was I was not eating as much as I should. I started by eating the way and the amounts she recommended and walking again At first I gained weight. I was eating more but still only portion control and no special diet. After about 2 months I started losing weight again. Very slowly at first then I would have weeks I would lose 2 or 3 pounds. By New Year’s Day 2017, I was back down 205. I was walking my 10k to 15K steps a day every day. My weight kept coming down until I got to about 195 and it stalled out there for about 6 months. 
I was reading and researching weight loss and plateaus/set points. I came across a few very good books. But the most interesting was the concept that stress is our worse enemy when it comes to weight management. So about 3 months ago I started following some very good at vice that I want to share with you. 

What is a failed plan?
Eating foods you are not willing to eat the rest of your life.
You are eating less food than you need and you are hungry all the time.
You are exercising but you hate what you are doing.
You are not allowing yourself to have any pleasure in what you eat and the exercises you are doing.
You are dependent on the scale as your measure of success in your plan.
You are unhappy or miserable when out with friends and family due to lack of what you feel you are allowed to eat.
You have not planned for missteps, bad food days, or days for rest.
You cannot think about anything else but your weight, your diet, and what exercise you will be doing next.
You are not sleeping at least 7 hours a night.
You are giving up sleep to exercise.
You believe that you cannot lose weight without exercising yourself to the point of total exhaustion
You allow friends or family to get away with telling you that you do not need to lose the weight or that you should gain some of it back.
You are not happy with your life then your plan is a failure.

You have not researched all types of plans and made a decision just for you.
You are not flexible about your food choices.
You do not have a wide variety of food choices.
I am sure there are other things to be said I will add them later if I think of them.

I live by this now I continue to log everyday. I walk everyday, and I do resistance workouts 3 days a week. As of this morning I was down to 189. I cannot even describe how much energy that I have. I am walking 7 miles non-stop at a pace of just about 4 miles an hour. I am almost 70 years old and I feel like I am 30. You to can do it you just have to stay with the plan that works for you. I believe that what I follow above is the key to my plan. 

Please never give up and never stop working the plan if the plan is not working for you make adjustments and give it a month. And make more adjustments if needed. 

You can do it if I can.

Charles Kemp 

My motto is JUST DO IT

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