Making Progress with my Diet

I've been eating better, healthier and less since June of this year. In September of 2009, I quit smoking and subsequently put on even more weight. In April of 2010, when I had my colonoscopy, I weighed close to 320 pounds. I finally reached a point to where I told myself I need to do something.

I changed my eating habits. Fried food and sugar, off the menu. Potatoes, rice and bread also off the menu. As for meat, I decided to not give up red meat completely, but limit it to a once a week type thing. What this left me with is lean meats such as chicken and fish, vegetables and fruits.

Also, I used to eat only 1 large meal a day - dinner. I'd often skip lunch and breakfast and the pig out at dinner time. No more. I've made it a point to be sure I eat throughout the day.

Here is what my typical eating may consist of now. For breakfast either oatmeal or cereal with skim or 1% milk. Coffee w/low fat creamer and Splenda.

Mid morning - either an apple or a banana.

Lunch - A bowl of soup. Most cans of soup only have about 200-300 calories and are low fat. Just watch the sodium.

Mid afternoon - either an apple or banana, whichever I didn't eat in the morning.

Dinner - Fish or chicken either grilled or cooked in a dab of olive oil. Steamed vegetables.

Late night snack - a small bowl of cherries or grapes.

But of course there are hurdles along the way. I knew when I started this that I'd never be able to give up all the things I love, like pizza. It's just not realistic to think you'll never want these foods again and have the willpower to ignore them.

So, you have to allow yourself a treat every once in awhile. For me, I love tacos. So every Tuesday night I go out and get 2 tacos with chips and black beans. I do get chicken tacos instead of beef and luckily I detest sour cream, so even the tacos aren't too bad.

But wait, I've failed to mention the other half of the equation - exercise. Like it or not, you have to get off your ass and move around. By having even a moderate exercising regime, it speeds your bodies metabolism so that you're burning more calories than before, even when you're not doing anything.

Two things have worked brilliantly for me: walking and riding bicycle. I started walking in June of this year, which is when I basically started this whole lifestyle modification. At first, it was just one time around the neighborhood, about 1.5 miles. I did this every night along with the modified eating.

It wasn't long until I started to see the scale move downward and I've been sticking to it ever since. In August, I bought a bicycle and started to go bike riding on the weekends. At first I was doing only a few miles, but it wasn't long that I got to where I could do 10 miles. In September I bought my road bike, and have been riding that on a 15 mile loop every day that I am not working (weekends, my Friday off and holidays). I've put over 500 miles on that bike in 3 months.

So it's been about 6 months now. I've lost almost 70 pounds and am still sticking to it. I'm not sure how far this will take me, but so far it seems to be working well. I'm used to the diet and now feel guilty if I miss a walk. In the last 2 months I've changed my walking loop to increase the length fro 1.5 to 2 miles. Sometimes I even go around twice if I have the time.

In June, I was wearing 46/48 pants and XXXL shirts. I went shopping the other day and bought some new clothes. Size 40 pants, and XL shirts. I haven't been able to shop for off the rack clothes in a long time, and it feels good.

These scale pictures start in September, I don't have any older ones. So this is just showing the progress in the last 2 months or so.

If I can do this, anyone can. I have crap for willpower, but yet in the last 14 months I've been able to quit smoking and loose 70 pounds. I'm pretty proud of that.