Sign in

How I Lost Nearly 100 Pounds (and continue to lose weight)

July 20, 2021

I lost 90 lbs in 10 months - Here is how I did it

I have been athletic for most of my life. I played sports all through my youth and into college. After college, I became a runner, a cyclist, and a triathlete. Needless to say, I was always in pretty good shape and exercised every day -- up until 2016. I got busy with business and family life and stopped exercising regularly. My body wasn’t burning the 3000 to 4000 calories a day it was used to. But it forgot to pass that information onto my mouth.

The other issue was that one of my daughters loved to bake. And being the good father I am, I ate what she baked. At the time I did not realize I was a sugar addict. I was burning so many calories a day that I never really analyzed my diet. I was able to just eat whatever I wanted. There were some days that I would ride 40 miles on a bike, swim for an hour, and maybe run 3 miles. On those days, I would treat myself to a full pint of Ben and Jerry’s because I knew it didn’t matter. I probably burned 6,000 + calories.

Then one day, it all catches up to you and you get on the scale, and you can’t believe your eyes.

That is what happened to me. I did not realize just how much weight I gained, and it was all in the diet. As they say, you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet.

In August 2020 I realized how fat I had become and made a decision to turn it around quickly. There were a few key changes I made which had an immediate impact.

Analyzed My Diet

I downloaded an app to my phone and began to log in everything I ate. It took less than a week to see where the problem was. The bulk of my calories were coming from sugars and bad carbohydrates.

I am not against carbs by the way. I love bread and I love pasta. At the right times and in moderation. But when you are really just using carbs to get more sugar in your diet, then it’s a problem. That’s what I was doing. Let’s not forget that fruit, beans, vegetables, and sweet potatoes are all carbs. And they are pretty good for you.

Once I took a look at my diet it was blatantly clear that my biggest issue was refined sugar and simple carbs. So, I started to make immediate changes.

Detoxed From Sugar

I know it is an overused word, detox, but I really needed to cut out the sugar. It was almost all I was eating, just in different forms.

After about a week, I started to feel different. It was at this point that I realized sugar addiction is real. My body started to feel different and work differently. No longer was I having night sweats or waking up with a massive headache. The other change was the highs and lows of my metabolism during the day after eating. I realize now how poorly my body felt with all of that sugar coursing through my veins.

One of the best products we have for detoxing from sugar is our Phyto Superfood Green Drink and lots of water. This helped to flush out my system pretty quickly and gave me a boost of energy.

Exercise

I know we all hear diet and exercise, but it’s true. Your body needs to move. Now, I had gained a significant amount of weight. There was no way I could exercise like I used to. I had to start out slowly to get my body moving.

For the first 2 months, I just walked 4 to 5 miles a day. Sometimes it was broken up. Some walking in the morning and some in the evening. There is something to be said for walking 1 or 2 miles after dinner. I am not a doctor, but I can tell you from the way my body responded that walking right after you eat helps with digestion and burns off more calories than normal.

Here is the thing about diet and exercise. I can sit down and eat a full-size BBQ chicken salad from Panera Bread and that is 500 calories. Takes me about 10 minutes to eat it. But it takes me close to an hour of exercise to burn those 500 calories. Whoever created us got the input and output equation lopsided and unequal. And that is why you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet.

Post exercise I have come to rely on our Plant Power Vegan Protein to replace a meal and give my muscles a shot of good protein to help them recover.

Super Charged My Coffee

First, I got rid of the milk inside the coffee. That was an easy way to reduce some caloric intake.

I absolutely love coffee. But, I wanted it to work harder for me during the day. I heard that mushroom coffee and adaptogens have benefits for mental function and physical health. So, I replaced my regular coffee with our Lean Bean Power Coffee.

For me, the taste and experience are just as satisfying. But it also has several ingredients that aid in weight loss, provide immune protection, and increase mental clarity. This boost helps me stay motivated and jolly so I can continuously perform at my best.

After all of this change to my behavior, over a 10-month period, I lost 90 lbs. I haven’t stopped there. But that was the most dramatic of the weight loss. The thing about weight loss is that the higher weight base you are working with, the easier it is to drop weight in the beginning. So, if you weigh 300 lbs., losing 10 lbs. is not too tough. The rate of loss begins to slow as you lose more weight. The key is to understand this and not get discouraged as your rate of loss slows down. You just need to stick with it and trust the process.

Also, as you exercise more and your body gets into better shape, you use less energy to burn calories. It begins to get harder to burn more calories. When you’re 300 lbs., a 1-mile walk may burn 200 calories. But as you get down to 200, a 1-mile walk may only burn 90 calories. Therefore, managing your diet and exercise as you lose weight is just as important as it was in the beginning. Using less energy is a great thing. It means less stress on the heart and on the body.

I am working on losing another 30 lbs. to get to my target goal weight. But it is taking forever to get there, and I am ok with that. I stopped checking the scale every day because it wasn’t good for me mentally. But I feel better, my clothes fit better, I look better, and the results of my annual physical were incredibly better.