The Realm of the Verbal Processor

A Healthier Me

Back in the middle of May, Julie and I were talking about both of us wanting to lose some weight. I had put on 35 pounds since our daughter Marybeth was born eight years ago. Julie had significantly less weight than that to lose. :-) I came in from work the day after that conversation, and Julie was walking out the door to go for a run as I was walking in. That motivated me to also go for a walk/run that day. And quite honestly, before I started that run I prayed a very sincere prayer for God to not let me have a heart attack while running…I was honestly nervous. That night I stepped on the scales to see what my starting weight was. The initial goal I set for myself that night was “15 by 40”…fifteen pounds by my fortieth birthday…which was 6 1/2 weeks away. That goal seemed within the realm of possibility, but it was one that I was going to have to work very hard to achieve. It was clearly going to take a lot of work.

I started eating healthier and exercising daily that week. One week later I started an official diet and exercise program that a coworker (thanks Eric!) had told me about. It sounded like the hokiest fad diet I had ever heard of…the book is even bright pink. But I knew that he had lost a ton of weight fast…which was exactly my goal.

Today is my fortieth birthday. Final result of the last 6 1/2 weeks…I have lost a total of 21.2 pounds! None of my pants fit anymore. My belt is tightened up to the last notch. I’m wearing clothes very comfortably that I haven’t been able to fit into in over two years. Overall I’m feeling fantastic…no back pain…I’m sleeping better…I have more energy. Instead of walking over half of a one mile walk/run, I recently averaged under 9.5 minutes/mile for a three mile run. Not blazing fast by any means…but exciting considering where I was just six weeks ago!

I’m still continuing the diet and exercise. Continuing to burn fat. My eventual goal is to get back to the condition I was in when Marybeth was born…so approximately 14 more pounds to go! One of the very nice things about this particular diet is that it gets you eating healthier. I’ve never eaten so much produce in my life! It also changes how you think about eating so that you don’t gain it all back after you reach your target weight. It’s actually very clear…you will be on a “diet” the rest of your life. If you go back to how you were eating before, you are obviously going to get right back into the same (bad) shape you were in before! It still sounds like a hokey fad diet…but the results don’t lie!

Another cool thing is that my wife and brother both joined me on the same diet and are also seeing awesome results. I’ve thanked her personally…and I’m going to thank her publically now. Julie…thank you for going for that run back on May 16. Don’t know why, but nothing has ever motivated me to exercise like seeing you walk out to go run that day.

June 30, 2011 - Posted by Jarvis | Personal | diet, exercise, weight loss