If you haven't read part one of 'Losing Wight', read it here--
Now, onto Part 2.
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225.
This number signifies my weight when I was sixteen.
It is the heaviest I have ever been, and it was my weight at the beginning of Summer
2003, just three months before my Senior year of high school.
Fearing for the well
being of my heart, I changed my eating habits and
increased the amount of physical activity I was doing for the first time in my life.
This is the summer I worked off 35 pounds.
Starting Out With the Basics
Having vowed to not eat any sweets, sodas, or fast foods for
a solid 90 days, I had to look elsewhere for healthier diet staples. I did not have much knowledge of nutritional foods but used the little knowledge I did have to
make better eating selections. It was time to go to the grocery store!
- I traded my super sugary sodas and Kool-aides for Minute Made and Apple Juice.
- My breakfast was a nutritional bowl of cereal (not kids cereal).
- And my “Saturday Morning Special” was weeded down to a few eggs, jellied toast, and a sausage or two with a cup of apple juice.
These changes went a huge way in lowering the amount of
fat, sugars, and extra calories I was consuming. In fact, simply removing all
excess sweets and unhealthy calories went a long way in helping me work off 35
pounds in the summer.
And I disregarded the cries from my sweet tooth when I rid my diet
of pop tarts, candy bars, cakes, soda, and ice cream. To satisfy this sweet
craving, I added Natural Valley granola bars, bananas, and semi-sweet multi-grain cereals to my daily list of eats.
My unhealthy fast food dinners went out
the window and were replaced by either my mother’s home cooking or Smart One’s low
calorie TV dinners. And for the first time in my life, I began eating vegetables by
adding small salads to my fish stick dinners.
My first attempt at eating healthier was good freshmen try (at
best) and worked until I learned more and found something better. The same can
be said for my simple workouts.
No Wrong Way
I always noticed how the media basically tells us (the
viewers) the “right way” or the “only way” to lose weight was with a gym
membership or costly weights and workout programs. Since I did not have the
money to join 24 Hour Fitness or buy a weight room, I used my creativity. I
would not be deterred from working out. My life depended on it.
For free weights, I used empty Minute Made jugs filled
with water to curl and bench press. And contrary to what television told me, it
worked perfectly fine.
This revelation was invaluable—working out is not about
what you use or where you are but about the results. If you can get similar
results using a piece of wood, and if that’s all you could muster, than use the
wood!
I rounded out my weight activity with pushups and dips (sort
of reverse pushups). I even started
drinking a lot of water and energy drinks during my workouts, drastically
increasing my fluid intake. There wasn’t much to my exercise plan but it worked
and I achieved results.
Creative Cardio
I definitely did not feel
secure enough in my own body, form, or shape to go running in public so I decided
to run loops in my bedroom—literally fifteen feet run one way and fifteen feet
back.
Yes, I shed 35 pounds in one summer by changing my diet, doing push ups, lifting Minute Maid jugs, and by running circles in my room.
I did not care what other people or the media thought of my
ways. I had motivation behind me and that was all I needed.
I started off
running ten minutes because that was all my overweight body could handle. When the
weeks went on, that ten minutes became twenty, thirty, and forty five until I
was eventually running for a full hour. And I stuck to this routine, every
other day, for a full ninety days.
There was no way my heart would ever pop again. I was hell
bent on avoiding a premature death. I would be fit. I would be healthy.
Judgment Scale
By the end of the summer, I witnessed my body transformed. The
mirror did not lie nor did the scale. The “225” that would flash back at me
just months prior now was a new number, a number far below of the “200 Club”. A
number I could be proud of. I stepped on the scale and smiled when “190”
looked up at me.
I did it, I thought. All that hard work paid off.
The running, the new eating regime, and the consistency had all
worked. My heart no longer hurt or popped, I had more energy, I was breathing
better, and I needed an entire new set of clothes!
To top it all off, working out and eating healthier no longer
felt like hard work. It was now a way of life for me. A way of life I vowed to continue
for, well, the rest of my life.
After Summer
No one could change me but myself. Three months after
suffering a scary heart event in my Chemistry class, I was 35 pounds lighter,
eating better, with a positive outlook on life.
For me, the dramatic weight loss and knowledge I had gained during that Summer before my Senior year in high school was just the beginning. I had much to learn about a healthy lifestyle going forward, and next week, I’ll share how I continued the momentum into my college years and beyond.
For me, the dramatic weight loss and knowledge I had gained during that Summer before my Senior year in high school was just the beginning. I had much to learn about a healthy lifestyle going forward, and next week, I’ll share how I continued the momentum into my college years and beyond.
Until then, be motivated; be healthy!
(I'm an author of adult and children's books, a positive advocate, and lover of sweets [to my detriment at times]. What you just read is a snip-it of my ever evolving, very malleable philosophy of life based on experience, conversations, and years of studying. If you get anything out of reading my words, I hope it is to think and be positive :)
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