Summary
Gary's story of gaining weight and then losing it, then gaining and now trying to lose it again.
Not just sweets, although I love those as well. I thoroughly enjoy a good steak from Fleming's, a big juicy hamburger from Huey's, Memphis style chicken wings from D'Bo's, Dreamland BBQ (along with a few other BBQ shacks in Memphis and Alabama), any and every pizza joint, and a number of other tasty delights.
To help put it in perspective, I go to fairs just for the food. So, as you can see, eating is one of my favorite things to do in this world.
My biggest battle during my 34 years on this earth has been with controlling my weight.
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I brought up to Chris (my awesome co-host on the podcast) last week that I'm starting a personal weight-loss challenge this year. The biggest reason being my need to be more healthy, and the fact that I've gained over 30 lbs in a year and a half.
My wife and I started talking about getting married in May of 2015. At the time, I weighed 193 lbs. I proposed to her in November of 2015 and had reached 200 lbs. We were married on September 10th, 2016 and I weighed in at 218 lbs.
After Christmas, I weighed in at 227 lbs.
Now, to put all of this in perspective, my weight has gone back and forth over the years. I'll explain in more detail in other posts / chapters, but I was around 180lbs in high school. I have an 11 year old daughter, and when I first met her mother, when I was 21, I weighed 190 lbs. When my daughter was 2 years old, I checked in at 260 lbs. I got back down to 220 lbs, then jumped back up to 230 lbs in the July of 2013. I started an intense diet / workout plan and got down to 179 lbs by December of 2013. I stayed around 180-190 lbs for the next year.
The most difficult part of gaining weight is knowing that, at one point, I had the willpower and the drive to be healthy and fit. I know people that can eat anything they want, never workout, and still look great. That's not the case with me. Between buying a house, moving, getting married, and taking new jobs, my health went down the toilet, and my weight started to skyrocket.
So, again, I talked to Chris, and decided to use Winning Cures Everything to help tell my story through the process of losing the weight again, while also giving a little bit of a backstory on my life and how I've dealt with it. I can already tell the process is going to be quite difficult this time because I'm on day 3 currently and I've never wanted to eat greasy fast food so badly in my life.
I'm not working on measuring anything other than weight, and my shirt and pant sizes. Because, while some people want to know how big around their biceps are, or exactly how small their gut is getting, I know that, by the end of this, I'm going to be in a much better place, and I'll be able to wear the same clothes that I did when I convinced my wife to marry me.
So, first things first, let's take a look at where I'm starting from:
Day 1: Monday, January 16th
Weight: 223.8 lbs
Exercise:
15 minutes - Eliptical
15 minutes - Bowflex
Food:
Breakfast: Protein Shake & Banana
Lunch: Smoked Turkey Reuben & Potato Salad from Bogie's
Dinner: 2 Grilled Hamburgers w/ Whole Grain Buns, Olive Oil Mayo, Ketchup, Mustard, Lettuce, Onion, Pickles & Tortilla Chips w/ Hummus
On the first day, I did not go as hard as I initially thought I would. With it being Martin Luther King, Jr Day, I was off work, so I woke up around 8am, started my coffee, rode the eliptical for 15 minutes, and then did 15 minutes of weight training on our Bowflex.
I ate a banana and a protein shake for breakfast - both very filling, so I wasn't hungry for quite a while. The wife and I had to visit Ikea to pick up new shelves for the living room in our new home, so I got in quite a few steps on my FitBit there, and we went for a walk around Overton Square before I had to take her to a dentist appointment.
After that, we finally grabbed lunch at Bogie's Delicatessen in Overton Square, where I drank water and ate a turkey reuben sandwich and some potato salad. Not the healthiest, but much better than the fast food I've been used to.
That night, I had a podcast to knock out with Chris, and we had a guest come over for a bit, so no evening workouts.
Day 2: Tuesday, January 17th
Exercise:
15 minutes - Eliptical
15 minutes - Bowflex
30 minutes - Walking the Dogs
Desk workouts
Food:
Breakfast: Protein Shake & Boiled Egg
Snack: 1/2 cup cottage cheese w/ fresh blueberries
Lunch: 4 oz grilled chicken seasoned w/ Old Bay, Starkist Herb & Garlic Tuna
Snack: 1 Banana w/ 1/4th cup of Dry Roasted & Salted Great Value Peanuts
Snack (at home after walk): 1/2 cup of green seedless grapes
Dinner: 4 oz Atlantic Wild Caught Salmon and 1 serving of green beans
Tuesday was back to the grind - getting back into the swing of things around the University at which I'm employed. First day of classes for the spring semester are always a little crazy, so I knew fitting in everything would be pretty crazy.
Alarm clock went off at 5:30am, and I headed straight for the mancave and hopped on the eliptical for 15 minutes, and then hopped on the bowflex and did leg and ab workouts for 15 minutes.
Tuesday is not the busiest day for classes in my department, so I was able to do my desk workouts, which go like this:
Mon-Wed-Fri: 5 sets of 20 pushups, :30 of fake rope jumping in place, and 1 min stair climbing
Tues-Thurs: 5 sets of 20 squats, 50 calf raises, :30 of fake rope jumping in place, and 1 min stair climbing
I knocked out the desk workouts throughout the day, but because of my schedule, I was not able to walk around campus to get in my 1 mile of walking.
Once I got home, the wife and I took the dogs for a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood, and by that time I was starving, so I ate a 1/2 cup of green seedless grapes before I baked 4oz of Atlantic Wild Caught Salmon and some green beans.
Day 3: Wednesday, January 18th
Weight:
222.8 lbs
Exercise:
15 minutes - Bowflex
45 minutes - Gazelle
Food:
Breakfast: Protein Shake & Boiled Egg
Snack: 1/2 cup cottage cheese w/ fresh blueberries
Lunch: 4 oz grilled chicken seasoned w/ Old Bay & Starkist Lemon Pepper Tuna
Snack: 1/4th cup of Dry Roasted & Salted Great Value Peanuts
Dinner: Subway 6" Turkey Breast w/ Lettuce, Mustard, light mayo (280 cals) w/ Oven Baked Lays (130cals)
Snack: 1 scoop Baskin Robbins Caramel Turtle Truffle ice cream
My job schedule was crazy on Wednesday, as I assume it will be for the rest of the week - so no time for desk workouts.
After work, I had to grab a Subway sandwich because, every Wednesday, I have to go out to my daughter's gymnastics class from 5pm until 8pm, which is where I wrote the majority of this post.
After the class, my wife and I rode over to pick up an old used copy of Madden 16 for the PS3 (didn't need 17, just 16 is fine), so I could play something different while getting in my cardio on the elliptical or gazelle. She wanted some Baskin Robbins (she's been sick for a few days), and I got one scoop of Caramel Turtle Truffle ice cream, because it had the least calories of anything that wasn't just vanilla.
Once we got home, I knocked out 45 minutes on the gazelle, broke a really good sweat, and then got some sleep before the next morning.
Day 4: Thursday, January 19th
Exercise:
10 minutes - Gazelle
Food:
Breakfast: Protein Shake & Green Super Food mix
Lunch: Cook Out tray - 2 hot dogs, onion rings & 3 chicken nuggets (horrible)
Dinner: grilled cheese (w/ deli chicken) & tomato soup
Thursday morning I woke up and felt like I had been hit by a truck. I have apparently caught whatever illness my wife has, which ain't a good thing.
I only had the strength to knock out about 10 minutes on the gazelle, and I took a shower and went to work. I drank my shakeology shake and tossed in a scoop of Green Super Food mix, which is supposed to get you all of your veggies and nutrients for the day.
The day was incredibly busy, and I felt like garbage, so I did not have time for any desk workouts (lot of walking around campus for the day). I had to leave to go to a building off-campus around 2pm, so I stopped at CookOut (right next to the University) and got a Cook-Out tray for $4.99 and drank water with it. Definitely not healthy, so don't do this, but I needed some carbs, because I was on the brink of death.
Once I got home, I immediately laid down on the couch. My wife cooked me a deli chicken grilled cheese with tomato soup for dinner, and I continued to stay on the couch for the rest of the night.
Day 5: Friday, January 20th
Exercise:
none so far
Food:
Breakfast: Protein Shake & Green Super Food mix
Lunch: Chick-Fil-A Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Woke up feeling awful again. Made it through the podcast, but was not able to workout this morning. Was pretty busy at work again, so no desk workouts. Today should be the last day that things are crazy, and I'll hopefully feel better tonight in time to at least get in some cardio and knock out the bowflex full-body workout.
Chick-Fil-A for lunch was terrible, but I was running around on campus and needed something in my system.
This weekend I should be able to get back on a better schedule and fix my habits before kicking off next week.
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