To be specific....

Sometimes you have to reach a point in life before you make an honest decision to make a change.  New Year's day comes and you make your resolution.  You do it because it's the new year and that's the time to start over, to make that change that you've been putting off all year.
 For the first couple weeks at the gym you see tons of new faces hitting the treadmills or roaming aimlessly around the weight machines.  As time goes by, the gym gets a little less crowded each day and many of those newcomers to the gym, park, or weight watchers class just disappear.

Resolutions were made to be broken.  It's too easy to just go back to the way we were on December 31st.  Whether it's the lack of time, support, or motivation, falling back into the fast food, couch potato, dvr ridden lifestyle is just too easy.  For most people I know, it has taken a far greater catalyst than an expiring calendar to make the decision to truly change the way you live.

I have a very close friend who has reached that point.  An event in their life has motivated them to make a change.  They asked me recently to give them any advice I could to help them on their journey.  I've told most people that portion control and fitness is how I've lost my weight.  Today I sent my friend a lengthy message letting them know pretty much exactly how I did it.  I've decided to post it on my blog so that anyone else trying to make a change in their life might see a tip or two that helps them on their way.

Just so you know, I'm not an expert.  I'm not trained or certified to instruct anyone on how to lose weight.  This may not work for you (especially if you're a woman).  This is just how I did it.  It's been 11 months and I've lost 107 lbs.  I don't take supplements, and I forget to take my vitamins half the time.  I hope this helps:

Hey man,

I honestly feel like I could get you 20-25 lbs in 28 days. Especially at your starting weight...if you just eat the way I did starting out and don't even worry too much about the physical activity side of it, you'd see 15 lbs in a month. If you did slim in 6 phase 1, two times a week for that month you'd probably see 25-30.

The first 65-75 pounds will fly off. The trick is to make it 3 months. If you can make it 3 months without abandoning the change in diet it honestly becomes habit after that. It's just how you eat occasionally.  It's ok to indulge once in awhile.

Get a scale.

Get a food scale.

Each day try to stay around 1200-1500 calories a day.

Try to stay under 20 grams of fat a day

No carbonated drinks

Tea, Coffee or Water. (The 0 calorie pink lemonades is ok but too much sodium will make you retain water and make ya swell up)

Try not to snack in between meals. If you do fresh fruit or raw veggies

Condiments: Mustards, hot sauces, BBQ sauce, fat free ranch/mayonnaise

Starting out Measure and Weigh everything. As time passes you'll be able to eyeball most stuff but weighing your food at the start is crucial because if you're eating 2000 calories of healthy food...you're still eating 2000 calories.

Using raw veggies as extra filler makes it alot easier to handle the hunger side of things. You can have monsterous amounts of lettuce, celery, cucumber, onion etc...and it won't affect your daily caloric intake.

Some of the low fat stuff tastes shitty at first but as time goes by you get used to it and when you go back and taste say regular mayonnaise or a regular soda they will seem too sweet

As a dude your testosterone will do alot of the work for you coming out of the gate. When you hit plateaus where the weight isn't dropping over a few days, spend a couple days working out. It will kick the system back into burning mode and you'll see the number start dropping again.

Try not to eat past 7pm. I don't really have a good health reason for this one outside of the fact that most of my food decisions past 7pm are bad ones. Get the hunger pangs after 7 have a big glass of water or tea and go to bed. Sleep time is burn time!

I rarely drink alcohol. If I do it's usually vodka and a diet soda. Save the beer for days ya wanna indulge.

Once you decide you wanna workout. Pace yourself, do what you can take breaks when you need em. Don't push yourself too much or you'll just burnout.  Working 50% of a phase 1 workout is gonna provide you results. If you overdo it your just gonna either injure yourself or burn yourself out where you don't wanna do it anymore.

I weigh myself daily, once in the morning post-piss and once in the evening before bed. I find I weigh the most at night and the least in the morning. Some people don't like to see or micromanage the numbers like that, but for me even seeing a 2-3 pound change over the course of a week lets me know whether I need to buckle down or if it's ok to ease up.

Anywho, I'm sure supplements help, I personally take a multi and the fish oil and that's if i remember to. I don't think they're a miracle drug and I think if the results were that spectacular more people would know about them.

I've lost 107 lbs in the last 11 months through watching what I eat and working out a little. You need a support system and you need to track your results. Take an underwear picture front and side. Take another every 20 lbs you lose. If you're truly motivated to lose, I know you can do it.

Later this evening I'll send you some of the things I eat. I know figuring out what you can and cannot eat or should not eat can be a pain in the ass and if you get burnt out on what you're eating it's easy to stop. Anywho I'll send food stuff later. I hope this helps I know you can do it.




 I know it's a poorly written message but it's the most specific I've ever been about how I've lost my weight.  I post a blog later about the specific foods.  But for now, I hope this helps.  For all my friends and family that are trying to lose some weight and get healthy:  I'm so proud of all of you, stick to it, it gets easier!


JD