Since January

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I guess its time that I finally post again. (Thanks everyone for all the reminders:)) I apologize to everyone who has come to my blog hoping to find a new post and finding nothing. I would say that I have been too busy but that would be a lie. I just haven't made posting a priority like I could have. I have suggested to all to subscribe to my blog through google reader so that you can be notified when I do post. So here you go, another post after such a long time!

Well for this post I will tell something that many people already know, but many might not. When I got back from my mission three years ago (ya its hard for me to believe its been that long as well), a couple things happened. I started working manual labor causing me to be very hungry. I stopped walking around and sweating all day, and I started eating excessively. Because of these things I went from 165 lbs up to 195ish pounds, topping out at around 197 or so. Often times I would see people and they would ask if I had been working out because I was looking "big" or a little more filled out. I had to respond with the truth, that I had just been eating. I would eat until there was nothing left on my plate. I would eat beyond the point of being satisfied. I would eat much more than my fair share while there are many in the world who have nothing. So for two or so years I kept up my "good" eating habits, exercising occasionally, and remained just below two hundred pounds. I remember that I may have topped two hundred at one put which put me in the cleidsdale (spelling) classification for a marathon. Many times I talked that I wanted to lose weight and get back down to a healthy weight (my BMI - body mass index- says I can be anywhere from 135- 175 lbs, I think the 170s are good for me).
So on New Years I set one of those infamous resolutions. I wanted to lose 23 pounds by my birthday April 23rd. That would require losing about 1.5 lbs or so a week. I had my goal, it was broken down into smaller achievable increments, I thought I was set. After the first week of not losing weight I remembered that I needed a method of how to do it. I also thought that it would be good to include others. I asked my brother in law Trent to join with the goal of losing 5 lbs in five weeks. He joined in. After the first five weeks I had lost 9 lbs! I was very happy! I was weighing myself every time I got the chance, which was every morning on a unreliable scale. The true tests would come when I visited home on the official scale. We reset the goal and after each five weeks I had lost at least five pounds! On April 23rd I rode my bike to the HYPER building at Utah State and hopped up on the scale. My starting weight had been 197 lbs. I set the balances and there I was, a whopping 174lbs! I had done it! I lost 23 lbs exactly!. I don't share any of this to boast, this is just my life.
So some might be asking themselves, "What was your method?" I didn't buy anything off of those infomercials, or try any weight loss drug, nor did a do some fanatical weight loss work out plan (however I did have one ready and did it a few times). All I did was eat half of what I normally ate. That's all! I would eat like my brother Sean who stops when he feels he is satisfied. For the first couple weeks I felt like I was starving. But after each meal I felt satisfied and just had to be in control of my body. Sometimes I spaced the content of the meals out throughout the day so I wouldn't feel so deprived, but the portions remained the same. When I began seeing the results it became easier and easier. I wasn't starving myself, but I was training my body to be happy with what it needed. I still ate enough. So for me, my weight loss was all about self mastery. I don't claim this will work for anyone else (though others have told me they are now trying it and its working) but it did work for me. I get weird looks taking home a box from a restaurant, I have to save a lot of food from meals (which helps the food go farther), but its all worth it. Now I have a new lifestyle when it comes to eating. I am the one in control now, not the food in control of me. I am currently maintaining a weight of 168- 171. So from just over 200 down to 166lbs at one time, I feel a whole lot better. Feel free to remind me to eat appropriately anytime you see me, cause because I am addicted to food, I need all the help I can get!



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