And the new era arrives…

I am fat. Wait, no, scratch that. I am obese. I have been for quite awhile. If you have read this blog before, you might remember the travel post where I was removed from the emergency aisle seat on the final leg to spoil my first-class journey. In that post, I made a declaration of weight loss in response to that humiliating experience. 75 pounds by my birthday, which was in about 5 months from then. Well, I’m proud to announce that I made it! I successfully lost that weight and more.

4 years later, many things have happened (insert list of excuses here) and I find myself almost back where I started. I am back up to 351 pounds. The weight loss inspired by that flight continued down to 265 pounds, a full 133 pounds down from my highest weight. So, I have regained 86 pounds since then, started by an umbilical hernia that took me over a year to get fixed due to a terrible string of changes in insurance, residence, and doctors.

When I was down to 265, I was living in Santa Monica, CA working as a software engineer. I was fortunate enough to live about 12 blocks away from work, and worked 1 block from the 3rd street Promenade, so I walked everywhere. Also, as part of my employment, I had a gym membership at Equinox which was 3 blocks from work. I would go workout on my lunch break, and return to work to finish the day.

At the time, I had been researching a lot about getting healthy and what would work for me. I had gotten to my 299 lbs. goal without going to the gym or working out, but then I started feeling great and wanted to get into the gym to accelerate the loss and tone the body. I was fortunate to have Equinox just 3 blocks from work. But, I also didn’t have a lot of experience working out, only what I had assumed was the healthy thing to do.

I bought a book by Doug McGuff called Body by Science. For Science! That’s my kind of approach. I really enjoyed his book, and he did a wonderful job of explaining the chemistry behind weight gain and how our cells process energy. He has a really great youtube video up that basically puts the medical-ease into easy to understand terms. That link takes you to the Biology-101 explanation, but the whole video is worth watching when you have the time. His YouTube channel bodybyscience has many videos of his workouts (which last approximately 12 minutes) and explanations about why they work.

The other tool I have added to my arsenal is the Ketogenic Diet. I found my body responds really well to a low-carbohydrate intake, perhaps due to the explanation that Doug McGuff gave in the video above. I believe in the chemical science that I have read about the Keto diet and with my own experience, I have been very impressed with the results. And besides… bacon.

I had tried so many other diets: low-fat, grapefruit, oatmeal all the time, a circus peanuts diet (yeah, OK, I knew that one wasn’t going to work) and a number of other fad diets that were designed around the government recommendations of low-fat (except for one where somebody I know lost a lot of weight involving copious amounts of Jagermeister). The paradigm is shifting and we are starting to realize the recommendation was based on flawed observations in the China Study. I will create another blog post about that in the future. I would like to keep this post about the fresh start I’m making.

So, I ordered a book from Amazon, The Coconut Ketogenic Diet to read while I start my weight loss again. Coconut oil has so many beneficial effects, and I’m looking to reduce my caloric intake by taking advantage of the satiating properties of the medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) in Coconut oil. The book explains “how to stop food cravings dead cold” which is exactly what I’m looking for. I read that coconut oil doesn’t suffer the same oxidative effects as other oils at high temperatures, so I’m already using it as my primary cooking oil. I have also used it as a lotion, and for oil pulling and it has always impressed me how versatile coconut oil is. It only makes sense to me that coconut oil could possibly be a primary player in my weight loss diet.

I have the tools I need, I have the desire, I even have the experience having done it successfully before. The hardest part is keeping extended motivation. Yes, remembering the humiliation of the flight I took is a pretty good motivator, but apparently I didn’t remember it frequently enough to keep myself from getting big again. I might have lost the respect of somebody very important to me because I let myself get this big again, and I had been talking on and on about the ketogenic diet the whole time I was getting bigger and bigger. It’s embarrassing to realize what a hypocrite I have been. So, I blew the chance at having somebody in my corner cheering me on. That failure is not my favorite motivator either. However… I do know a couple motivations that I like.

When I look in the mirror, I still see that good-looking, amazing man with the dimples and the big blue eyes. I sometimes think to myself about why I would let myself be big in the first place. I wasn’t always. I really don’t care what the reason is anymore. The psycho-babble about wanting somebody to love me for me has become a pathetic joke. Because who I am really is a much leaner, healthier man. Protecting my heart with layers of fat as some kind of disguise was the dumbest notion ever. What was I thinking? Once I found somebody who truly loved me even though I was fat, I could then say “Surprise! I really am good-looking!” and instantly shed the disgusting body I had built for myself? Sounds pretty sad now that I see it written. Well, here I come. Rising from the ashes of what I have done to myself, the real me is waking up and coming out for good. Let’s hope I haven’t crushed him beyond recognition.

To accomplish this, and keep my motivation en pointe, I have challenged myself… even BET myself that I can do this. I made a wager with myself on HealthyWage.com where I am putting up $70 a month for the next 9 months to bet that I will lose 80 pounds. When I win, I will collect $1996. Almost $2k? Yeah, that’s motivation. Actually, I’m aiming to blow that goal out of the water. For me, it’s extra motivation, but yes, it all comes back to the real motivation. To be healthy, happy, and the best man I can be.

Part of the process is getting my starting weight validated. I went to my doctor today. We discussed my low-carb plans and he was on-board 100%. He’s confident I have nothing standing in the way, and after a few minutes of talking with him, he commented that I seem to know the right things to do. It’s good to know that now I am actually doing it. Anyway, my ‘official’ starting weight is 365.5 pounds, which is 14 pounds more than my scale said this morning, but I’ll take it. Can’t wait until that 3 is a memory and I’m aiming for my target weight. He filled out the form and I emailed it in. Now I’m in for the full shebang. I’m nervous, excited, and damn impatient. Most of all, I’m hopeful to get back something important I think I lost, and my self-respect.

I wish you all the greatest success in 2016. I’ll be blogging about the meals and my strategy during the progress I make on this journey here, so be sure to check in once in awhile.