One Year Ago I Decided To Give Losing Weight One More Try: I Lost 60 Pounds

Hello weight losing fans...

Today I stepped up onto the Magical-Mystical-Digital-Scale weighing in at 183-pounds.
So, maybe I put on about a pound of fat after eating so well on Thanksgiving Day. Maybe...

It Was One Year Ago I Decided To Attempt To Lose Weight Again. Throughout my time as an adult I had lost weight, and then regained that weight.

I got my time lines messed up here and wrote that I did the Doctor Atkins's Diet four years ago. NO, I started doing the Doctor Atkins's Diet back in 2002.

With that diet I managed to lose 60-pounds. I got down from 260-pounds to 200-pounds. I then regained 40-pounds.

That brought me to the dilemma I found myself in on Thanksgiving Day 2006.

I woke up at 2:00 in the morning so I could be at work by 4:00 AM.
I was getting dressed and found that I could not button my uniform pants. The collar on my shirt was so tight, that I had to leave it unbuttoned under the tie. I was emotionally distressed.

That day I was deeply depressed at the thought I was so PREPONDERANT (FAT).
When I went to go to a family members house to eat, I ate reluctantly.
I wasn't enjoying the feast.

When everyone left to go home, I remember sitting slumped on the chair sideways staring at the TV. Then I saw the Jenny Craig Commercial. I had an, "AH HA" moment.
I thought, "Can it be that easy?"

All this time I was trying to redo the Doctor Atkins's Diet. I was trying to do the low carbohydrate thing. Nothing worked. My body was piling on the fat. I was gaining and gaining. Everything I did before was failing. It was depressing.

I was at Target purchasing Christmas Lights. I passed by the frozen food case and saw the Lean Cuisines on sale for half price. I purchased a freezer full. I packed my freezer with Lean Cuisines. (I kid you not.)

Morning, noon, and night I ate nothing but Lean Cuisines. I wasn't weighing myself everyday yet. To be honest; I didn't think this would work. (So much for that BS about having a positive attitude.) My attitude had nothing to do with this.

It was pure physics and science that went to work on my behalf. With Less Food, and Less Calories, the body has no choice but to go after the fat reserves.

When I was done with those Lean Cuisines I very sceptically stepped up onto the scale. I was ecstatic. I had lost weight.

There was one problem. Those Lean Cuisines were just way too few calories for me. So, I went and purchased a bunch of Healthy Choice that were on sale. I filled my freezer again. This time I ate about 100 calories more per meal.

Again I lost more weight. I started looking carefully at the side panel. I thought just how many calories am I eating here?

I calculated that with the Lean Cuisines I was eating around 250-300 calories per meal. This came out to be about 1000 calories intake per day. No wonder I lost weight. Whew...
I was starving to death.

With the Healthy choice I was eating 300-400 calories a meal. This gave me around 1,200 calories a day. No wonder I still kept losing weight.
I was still miserably hungry.

This time I shifted to eating regular TV dinners. This put me at around 1,500-1,600 calories a day.

With that change; the rest is history. I decided to start counting calories, and writing down everything that I ate. I started my food log on some plain paper. I started weighing myself everyday.

I didn't set some of those REALISTIC WEIGHT GOALS... I still say that's BS. And the crap about the Positive Attitude that goes with it. CRAP is what I say to that.

I didn't have a positive, "I'll go get them attitude." I was actually very sceptical. I was in the mind set of, "Let's see if this will work."
When I made up my mind, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was depressed and struggling.

NO ONE, NO ONE came to my aid. NO ONE in my family or around me was giving me an example of how to lose the weight, and keep it off. NO ONE...

When I decided to lose weight I struck out on my own. And with that, and a prayer for wisdom, I hit the answer.

Am I anyone special for this? NO!
Did I hit upon something that's new and revolutionary? NO!
Am I a genius? NO!

Since that time of one year ago I have actually been an inspiration to people in my family, and to people at work. Some incredibly fat people saw what I was doing and decided they could lose weight too.

I Still Get Heckled
I was at the table eating Thanksgiving dinner, and I had my food journal with me. Someone at the table told me to put that thing away. I didn't listen and continued keeping a written record of everything that I piled up on my plate.

Here is why I was being heckled; I was pricking some consciences. People don't want to see the truth being played out. And, to be honest I don't care if Ann Landers herself rose up and told me my actions were tasteless. I give a darn what anyone thinks.

I have written before that there will be those people who are for you losing weight, and you are going to find plenty of people who will be against you. Sometimes those people are right there in the same family, as is in my case.

I don't care what anyone says about having a Positive, Optimistic Attitude when tackling this weight loss program. It's not easy to consistently lose weight. It's not easy to finally get the weight off and then keep it off.

Losing weight is a LIFE LONG PROGRAM. It's like finally figuring out and admitting to being an alcoholic. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. For any person addicted to alcohol, the alcohol is his/her weakness.

For WE THE PREPONDERANT ONES, our addiction is food. Unfortunately, by the looks of things, food is an addiction for most everyone here in America.

WE eat too much food. WE eat more than we need to survive; and we are suffering for it.

I Am Not A Carbohydrate Counter, Or A Fat Grams Counter; I'm A Calorie Counter
When I was sitting at the table someone told me that he's counting his carbs. Great, another stupid complicated way to attempt to lose weight. It doesn't work.

I saw this same person in the kitchen with two pieces of pie on a plate, and a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. So much for counting those carbs.

Most people have never studied the concept of reduced carbohydrates. I did. I read carefully three books that were written by the Late Doctor Atkins.

There has to be a time in the beginning of doing a low carbohydrate diet called induction. This is when someone restricts the total grams of carbohydrates to 20 grams a day.
Then there must absolutely be, a very careful adding in of those extra carbohydrates.
If not, then the body takes everything and turns it all against you.
I know, I did it. It's not an easy life style to live by for years at a time.

It's not easy to count the fat grams either. Have someone at the buffet tell you how many fat grams are in the food you are about to eat. No one can tell you.
Counting fat grams is crazy too. The body has to have fat for the brain and for the organs, and to aid in lubricating the digestive tract.

If someone cuts too far back on the fat, they in essence are starving the body of a vital nutrient.
It's too complicated. It's even harder to explain the dynamics.

The easiest thing to do is just count those calories. Everything else seems to take care of itself from that point on. With a calorie restricted diet, (normal food consumption.) someones not restricted to one category of foods, not proteins, sugars, or fats.
With a low calorie diet, you can eat anything you want. You can change up your food from day to day. I do. It's sure beats eating just meat.

I live and die by this saying, "EAT LESS FOOD."

This is the best way to finally get those unwanted pounds off. I have been successful with this, and I will continue to be successful. Well, as long as I keep my wits about me, and follow this line of thinking.

Bye for now...

And that's the way it is...I'm David Dane