I remember the first time I ever stepped on a scale and had it read 327. I was a young man, some 25-26 years ago. 327 pounds!! I had gained almost 70 pounds since graduating high school. I remember walking home that day, feeling how all the excess weight was slowing me down, tiring me. I decided I had to do something about it! And I did! I set out with all the determination a young man could muster, and I succeeded using what we're all told is the only way to lose weight: Eat Less, Exercise More. I had very limited success in the "Eat Less" department, but being young, determined, and in otherwise good health, I went to town on the "Exercise More" half of the equation. Over the months to come I steadily lost weight and got down to my all-time low weight as an adult: 240 pounds. I had lost a whopping 87 pounds! I tried to lose more weight, but no amount of starvation or increased exercise would budge the scale any further. In fact, it was pure torture on both fronts just to keep the scale steady, and eventually I gave in and once again started to gain weight.
This experience laid the foundation for what would become my standard approach to weight loss over the years. When I got "too fat" I'd eat less and exercise more, with heavy emphasis on the exercise. This approach worked with lower levels of success each time I tried it, never matching the 87 pounds I lost on my first attempt.
Some five or six years after that, I was again well into my 300's, I'm quite sure even higher than 327, but I don't recall ever weighing myself then. That approach worked for me again, and again I lost a lot of weight, though this time not nearly as much and I only got down to around 260-270 pounds.
Then again, in my early 30's, I was again well above 327 and again, I exercised my way back down, this time to around 300. By my late 30's I was pushing 390 pounds and I again attempted to lose weight... but by this time my body had started to rebel and after all those years of abusing it with all that excess weight, I was no longer capable of doing the massive amount of exercise required for me to lose weight. I fizzled out at 360.
In my low to mid 400's I tried to do as much exercise as possible, but wasn't capable of doing enough to lose weight. The best I could hope for was to slow the speed at which I gained.
Until now!! This week I've sailed through the 327 pound mark and have lost a total of 160 pounds, almost double of what I lost on that first attempt all those years ago. What's more, exercise is not the major focus, nor is eating less. Moderate exercise coupled with a whole-foods starch-centered, plant-based, no-added-fat diet allows me to say goodbye to the torture of starving myself and of continuous exercise. There will be no torture of trying to maintain my weight once I've lost all I need to, only the continued joy of eating the foods I've learned to love on this journey I'm on! There will be no more 327's in my future! I've passed that mark for the last time! Thank you Dr. McDougall!!
Next Milestone: 300
Happy Eating!
-Norm aka John Smith
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