The human male animal is governed by three motivating desires, food / eating, sex / reproduction and sleeping / being left the hell along! The latter two are easy to understand powerful yes but predictable so in my new book If you Like it don’t Eat it…. Fat boy I have diagramed a lifestyle to deal with this the most powerful desire man has eating and the decisions that go into what we eat and how often.
I am a 57 year old male that has battled food issues for over 25 years and it shows. I was not always a fat-kid but shortly after my oldest son was born [1988] I found get joy and satisfaction in eating a lot of crap that tasted great but was full of sugar and fat. Last December I was turned down for life insurance a policy my ex-wife insisted on so if my fat ass was to die she would continue to get her cut. The problem was my A1C was too high and my blood pressure was through the roof. In fact the tech taking my blood pressure kept asking me if I was OK and if I had ever had a stroke. I had to Google A1C and when I found out it was a blood sugar issue I called my son Patrick who is a Type 1 diabetic. My first blood sugar test 2 hours after eating was 268 over 2x normal blood sugar.
Long story short I was in trouble. I was feeling awful all the time not sleeping and always thirsty with no way to quench my thirst. I knew I had to do something and quick. The problem is I hate doctors [haven’t been to one 12 years] but Patrick convinced me to work with Anthony a Chiropractor he knew to at least get a baseline on my condition. After checking my blood pressure 184 over 116 Anthony told me I was in very bad shape and should get to an emergency room now. I told him no and if I was going to die than I was OK with that. But that is a topic for another blog. Anthony had a very interesting approach with me. He didn’t tell me what to change in my life he gave me the research to do, so I could develop my own plan to change my lifestyle. He also had me start keeping a food journal and said that I was to drink a minimum of 5 bottles of water a day.
That was February 5, 2016 and what I found was that my food instincts were so wrong and so corrupted by years of self abuse that I had no idea what to eat. That is when it hit me if I liked it I should not eat it. I gave up all side dishes such as potatoes, rice, pasta and French fries. No more 10pm bowls of ice cream with a variety of toppings such as peanut butter and chocolate sauce. No more pizza or fast food for lunch and dinner 3 times a week. I needed to take stock in what I was putting into my body as food is food not pleasure. We eat for survival not for enjoyment. What I found was diets are like assholes everyone has one so I sifted through a lot of articles and came up with a high protein low crab diet. It is amazing when you are forced to read what you are eating that you realize that is why I am a fat-ass. The first two weeks were tough but I instantly started feeling better and now I wake up at 3:30am instead of 1:00am. Little steps people.
That was the first part of my plan the second part was to up my game at the gym. I have been going to the gym for 6 years but there is a big difference in going and actually executing a workout program. I decided to go with a cardio centric program that used spin classes as my major cardio. I then would use strength training in between my spinning and elliptical sessions. I also got a heart monitor that tracked calories burned and determined through talking with trainers that I should be burning a minimum of 600 calories per one hour workout. To be honest in a good spin class I can hit 800 calories. I am at the gym 6 days a week and I also found that working out first thing in the morning suited my schedule. I call it my “play 60” time if it works for kids and I am a big kid than it should work for me.
The bottom line is that in the last 5 months I have lost 25 lbs and I feel so much better and I don’t really miss all the crap I used to eat. My diet is not perfect I still slip back once in awhile but it is so much better than it was I cannot even tell you. I am still fat just not as fat as I was 6 months ago. I now can fit into a 36 waist jeans [it was a 40] and my golf shirts are a large not ex-large. I never went to a doctor as my Father always told me that the goal in life was to get to Heaven maybe I found a short cut. Now I make different decisions about eating along with balancing what I like and what is good for me. Balance is the key.