25in20
New member
First of all, this is my first post on this forum so I thought I would just tell my weight loss story and hope to help some people out. I lost over 50 lbs in a five month span, including the first 25 lbs. lost in the first 20 days of my diet program.
In July, 2011 I was smoking more than a pack of cigarettes per day and I weighed 215 lbs. I am 6 foot 1 inch tall. I had next to no muscle and basically just had a fat belly and man boobs. I was eating fast food probably around twice a day on average, and I would crave fast food when I was eating anything else. I had quit smoking cigarettes for around 4-5 months a couple of other times with help of the nicotine patch, however for some reason I always kept relapsing after I thought I was completely done with cigarettes. I knew I needed to quit the cigarettes once and for all. I decided that on August 1st, I would quit smoking cigarettes again.
Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead
A few days before my quit date I got very lucky in stumbling upon a documentary on Netflix called Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead. Without going into too much detail, this documentary profiles two men going on an all raw vegetable juice diet with some absolutely insane weight loss results. Before I finished watching, I had already ordered a juicer on Amazon. It was clear to me that I might be more successful quitting smoking cigarettes if I incorporate a serious lifestyle change. I was in the habit of eating horrible food all day, and sitting on my butt playing video games all night.
August 1st
I went to the farmers market in the morning and loaded up on spinach, kale, carrots, and all sorts of other veggies and fruits. When I would eat veggies up to this point, they were always cooked, and not prepared in any type of healthy manner. One thing Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead taught me was that raw vegetables are completely necessary to ANY healthy diet, and my diet had none at all. The first vegetable juice I made did not taste too great. Kale does not have the best taste, but you get over it after a bit. I was not willing to make green veggie juice 100% of my diet like the guys in the documentary did, but I was willing to make it about 50% of my diet and see if I had results.
I had a moment I am not proud of at the end of the day on August 1st. I had gone all day without a cigarette, and was on the nicotine patch again. I wanted a cigarette so badly that I ripped off the nicotine patch, drove to the gas station and bought a pack. I opened it up, took one cigarette out and then threw the rest of the pack in the trash can. That cigarette would turn out to be the last cigarette I smoked. As I write this article it has been over a year and I have not taken so much as one puff.
Running
The following day I decided that there was no way I was going to give up on not smoking as I have done so many times before. Diet was not the only change I needed to incorporate. It was time to start putting myself out of my comfort zone. It was time to start running. My first attempt at running was totally pathetic by the standards I have for myself now. I ran (very slow jog) about 1/8 of a mile and was covered head-to-toe in sweat. When I stopped running I was essentially hyperventilating. This was the first real exercise I had gotten in a long time. I knew from watching Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead that this was just my body telling me that I was completely out of shape.
Each day for about a week I kept running a little bit further. I would walk sometimes and then just start running again when I got my breath back. I made a habit of running at night. There were a couple of reasons for this. First, my work schedule at the time had me working into the evening, and secondly, I was flat-out embarrassed of being seen running. I knew I did not look like a runner. I often hear people say they are too embarrassed to go to the gym, and I guess this is the same feeling that I was having.
The first 20 days
It is also worth mentioning that I was not drinking water at all before my diet started. My liquid intake consisted of two things, Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper. Cutting the sugar was another shock to my body. Complete lifestyle change is the sole reason I was able to get off of cigarettes. There is no doubt in my mind about that. For the first two weeks or so, I was so focused on my diet change, that any discomfort I felt from the lack of nicotine, I just attributed to my diet change. I weight myself multiple times per day, and the pounds started flying off immediately. When you have a routine of sitting on your ass and eating unhealthy for every meal, a small change will make a difference, and a complete lifestyle change will make a huge difference. The I ran every day and started keeping track of my runs with an app on my iPhone. Every day I tried to improve. I had some set backs with shin splints. This is something you will get over. You just have to take a couple days off and let your legs heal up, and then get right back at it.
I lost almost 10 pounds in the first 5 days of my lifestyle change, and ended up losing 25 lbs in the first 20 days.
Today
The most important thing besides the diet change for me was the exercise. Today I am in week 9 of 18 training for my first marathon. I am basically running a half marathon or more every Sunday, and running various smaller distances during the week. If you are losing weight, you can essentially look at exercise as a multiplier of how fast you want the weight to come off. The harder you work at exercising, the faster you lose weight. Constantly setting new exercise goals is the best thing you can do. Forget looking at the scale to see weight loss. If you are constantly achieving your goals and then setting new ones, you will get in better shape than you ever thought possible. After about a month of running, I couldn't believe I could run for 30 minutes straight without a break. Just a month earlier I couldn't run 20 feet without being out of breath. I remember thinking that one day I would run for an hour non-stop. This last week, I ran 18 miles as part of my marathon training and that was 2 hours and 40 minutes non-stop. One year later and I still have new goals I am setting. There is NO CEILING for how fit you can get. Just start small and set goals with numbers that you can achieve.
I hope this helps someone out. I just started a(LINK REMOVED) if anyone cares to read more about my dieting and exercise. Also feel free to ask me any questions you have!
In July, 2011 I was smoking more than a pack of cigarettes per day and I weighed 215 lbs. I am 6 foot 1 inch tall. I had next to no muscle and basically just had a fat belly and man boobs. I was eating fast food probably around twice a day on average, and I would crave fast food when I was eating anything else. I had quit smoking cigarettes for around 4-5 months a couple of other times with help of the nicotine patch, however for some reason I always kept relapsing after I thought I was completely done with cigarettes. I knew I needed to quit the cigarettes once and for all. I decided that on August 1st, I would quit smoking cigarettes again.
Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead
A few days before my quit date I got very lucky in stumbling upon a documentary on Netflix called Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead. Without going into too much detail, this documentary profiles two men going on an all raw vegetable juice diet with some absolutely insane weight loss results. Before I finished watching, I had already ordered a juicer on Amazon. It was clear to me that I might be more successful quitting smoking cigarettes if I incorporate a serious lifestyle change. I was in the habit of eating horrible food all day, and sitting on my butt playing video games all night.
August 1st
I went to the farmers market in the morning and loaded up on spinach, kale, carrots, and all sorts of other veggies and fruits. When I would eat veggies up to this point, they were always cooked, and not prepared in any type of healthy manner. One thing Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead taught me was that raw vegetables are completely necessary to ANY healthy diet, and my diet had none at all. The first vegetable juice I made did not taste too great. Kale does not have the best taste, but you get over it after a bit. I was not willing to make green veggie juice 100% of my diet like the guys in the documentary did, but I was willing to make it about 50% of my diet and see if I had results.
I had a moment I am not proud of at the end of the day on August 1st. I had gone all day without a cigarette, and was on the nicotine patch again. I wanted a cigarette so badly that I ripped off the nicotine patch, drove to the gas station and bought a pack. I opened it up, took one cigarette out and then threw the rest of the pack in the trash can. That cigarette would turn out to be the last cigarette I smoked. As I write this article it has been over a year and I have not taken so much as one puff.
Running
The following day I decided that there was no way I was going to give up on not smoking as I have done so many times before. Diet was not the only change I needed to incorporate. It was time to start putting myself out of my comfort zone. It was time to start running. My first attempt at running was totally pathetic by the standards I have for myself now. I ran (very slow jog) about 1/8 of a mile and was covered head-to-toe in sweat. When I stopped running I was essentially hyperventilating. This was the first real exercise I had gotten in a long time. I knew from watching Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead that this was just my body telling me that I was completely out of shape.
Each day for about a week I kept running a little bit further. I would walk sometimes and then just start running again when I got my breath back. I made a habit of running at night. There were a couple of reasons for this. First, my work schedule at the time had me working into the evening, and secondly, I was flat-out embarrassed of being seen running. I knew I did not look like a runner. I often hear people say they are too embarrassed to go to the gym, and I guess this is the same feeling that I was having.
The first 20 days
It is also worth mentioning that I was not drinking water at all before my diet started. My liquid intake consisted of two things, Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper. Cutting the sugar was another shock to my body. Complete lifestyle change is the sole reason I was able to get off of cigarettes. There is no doubt in my mind about that. For the first two weeks or so, I was so focused on my diet change, that any discomfort I felt from the lack of nicotine, I just attributed to my diet change. I weight myself multiple times per day, and the pounds started flying off immediately. When you have a routine of sitting on your ass and eating unhealthy for every meal, a small change will make a difference, and a complete lifestyle change will make a huge difference. The I ran every day and started keeping track of my runs with an app on my iPhone. Every day I tried to improve. I had some set backs with shin splints. This is something you will get over. You just have to take a couple days off and let your legs heal up, and then get right back at it.
I lost almost 10 pounds in the first 5 days of my lifestyle change, and ended up losing 25 lbs in the first 20 days.
Today
The most important thing besides the diet change for me was the exercise. Today I am in week 9 of 18 training for my first marathon. I am basically running a half marathon or more every Sunday, and running various smaller distances during the week. If you are losing weight, you can essentially look at exercise as a multiplier of how fast you want the weight to come off. The harder you work at exercising, the faster you lose weight. Constantly setting new exercise goals is the best thing you can do. Forget looking at the scale to see weight loss. If you are constantly achieving your goals and then setting new ones, you will get in better shape than you ever thought possible. After about a month of running, I couldn't believe I could run for 30 minutes straight without a break. Just a month earlier I couldn't run 20 feet without being out of breath. I remember thinking that one day I would run for an hour non-stop. This last week, I ran 18 miles as part of my marathon training and that was 2 hours and 40 minutes non-stop. One year later and I still have new goals I am setting. There is NO CEILING for how fit you can get. Just start small and set goals with numbers that you can achieve.
I hope this helps someone out. I just started a(LINK REMOVED) if anyone cares to read more about my dieting and exercise. Also feel free to ask me any questions you have!
