I Lost 30lbs By Eating: Here is My Template
The story, the scripts, and the template to losing 30lbs by changing my diet and in turn, my life…
My Background
I’m a millennial. A 90s kid. I grew up watching Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, and Rocket Power. Ken Griffey Jr was on Wheaties boxes and Michael Jordan was promoting Ball Park Franks. Those were the days..
From a fitness perspective (this is a weight loss piece so let’s get right to it), I was fortunate to grow up in an athletic family. We had the stereotypical mini van and would travel the country for different sporting events. My sister and I loved it. We were energetic kids who always had to be doing something. We both ended up playing sports collegiately thanks to our parents and our dedication.
The activity levels required of me to compete at a high level also allowed me to get away with eating anything that appealed to me; chicken fingers, burgers, and pizza were consistent throughout the week. I was a picky eater and didn’t know how to cook. Stir that up, add a dash of high adolescent metabolism, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Being young, in shape, and active didn’t provide any evidence that I should change something. That all caught up to me 5 years after college.
My MUST Moment
“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.” Joan Didion
We must be on the lookout for that instant.
I moved across the country for a job, spent way more time sitting, and didn’t have the presence of my now fiancé there to nudge me in the right direction. That meant fast food almost every day.
Fast, cheap, and easy. The American Dream, right?
I slowly accumulated over 30 pounds of flab. Definitely the American Dream.
I was on my own for the first time from a fitness standpoint as well. No coaches telling me what to do, nothing to train for, no easily accessible gym.
So, running became my new thing.
I set my sights on a marathon and trained on and off for a couple years. A cycle of heavy training with heavy eating, getting hurt and still eating heavy; then recovering to train again, then getting hurt, while still eating a ton. I took carb loading to the extreme and enjoyed it way too often on my off days. There seemed to be a good reason to eat pasta and I clung to that excuse to the point of plenty of food comas.
Gaining the weight happened without me noticing it. Most weight gain happens gradually without you seeing it until it becomes a mountain of a challenge. You get pushed ever so slightly off course until you wake up one morning and the weight punches you in the face. BOOM!
The reason for my running and constant movement is that I felt like a slob. I began to get lethargic and tired more often than I had in the past. My joints hurt from carrying around more weight than I could handle. My running got tougher and tougher.
One crisp fall morning, I ventured out for a long run, like I did every week. My body felt slow and heavy, like it had for awhile at that point. My achilles had been bothering me for some time and I thought I could just stretch my way through the pain. I came upon a hill that looked like the peaks of Everest. I pushed forward with all my might. Wind was in my face and the gravity of the world felt like it was pushing down on me.
A searing lightning bolt of pain raced up the back of my legs. My achilles couldn’t handle it any more (BOOM!). I stopped and walked the rest of the way. That was it. I was done living in that cycle of pain. Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It was time for the insanity to stop.
That was my “I MUST do something different moment”. I could have wanted to change, I may have thought that I should change something; but until I knew I MUST do something different, I never would have followed through. This was my spark, my catalyst, my final straw. With any major life change you need a wake up call and this was mine.
Start Selfish
When staring at any seemingly insurmountable goal in your life, you must start selfishly. It has to be about you, and that is ok… Find any reasons to succeed that satisfy you and your ego, without these you won’t find the fight to finish.
I had the pain in my joints to overcome, I wanted to get lean enough to have a six pack, and I wanted to be able to cook a meal my fiance would be proud to eat. I wanted to be pain free, look like the picture of health, and have more energy than I knew what to do with. The pleasure I got from seeing this future had to pull me more than the convenience of staying the same. The pain I felt from staying the same had to be more than the pain I would have to go through to get the results I desired.
Start selfish and you will create the momentum you need to manifest change day after day.
Vegetables Go From Foreign to Friend
If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done. I never ate vegetables. Ever. I had to have been the most malnourished college athlete in the country during my playing days. There were sadly no exciting, sexy commercials for broccoli at the time.
It was time for me to make kale great again. Not just by wearing the shirt…
I had to find a way for them to appeal to me. I love the crunchiness of a chip and the warmth of a French fry, so I decided to start my veggie journey through one of the four elements: heat.
I baked, roasted, stir fried, or steamed every veggie I could get my hands on to see what worked for me.
The 14 Day Challenge: Mood Follows Action
You can do anything for 14 days. Hell, you could fast for over 14 days and be good to go. Once I found that I could handle preparing veggies on my own, it was time for a 14 day clean eating challenge.
Veggies, protein, nuts, seeds, and a little fruit; coffee and water. Only real food for 14 days.
It sounds simple, but after decades of eating one way, it’s one of the hardest battles to win. The first week is rough, but after that you become more and more confident and proud of your choices. Remember we are going towards pleasure and running from pain. Our mood follows our action. It began to feel good to make the healthy choice. The more positive choices I made about my food, the happier I got.
Cook 1x, Eat 2x: Systems Over Goals
My goal was to lose 30lbs at the time, I knew I had to eat better, I just didn’t have a system to get there. In walks Scott Adams:
“My problem with goals is that they are limiting. Granted, if you focus on one particular goal, your odds of achieving it are better than if you have no goal. But you also miss out on opportunities that might have been far better than your goal. Systems, however, simply move you from a game with low odds to a game with better odds. With a system you are less likely to miss one opportunity because you were too focused on another. With a system, you are always scanning for any opportunity.”
The hardest meal for me to wrap my hands around was lunch. I was always away from home, in the middle of the day, wanting some form of comfort, sugar, and carbs. This comes in the form of sandwiches and pizza for most people.
To combat this from happening, I used the cook once, eat twice method or eating leftovers. You’ve used this before, the only difference is I did this every day during the week. All you do is cook two portions of dinner, save half, and take that to work the next day.
It saves time and your sanity. You don’t have to create 24 different meals for the entire week, you aren’t left wondering what you’re going to make for lunch in the morning or where you can get a healthy meal.
I credit my entire transformation to this system. Cling to the systems that work for you and they will take you to your goals and beyond.
Want to finally lose those unwanted pounds or make any other major life transformation?
Find your MUST moment: Until you MUST transform, you won’t find the energy to follow through. Where does your motivation come from? What moment fired you up?
Start Selfishly: List all the reasons you will benefit by making this change. Take care of yourself first.
Take Action and Your Feelings Will Follow: The first couple days might suck. Continue to take action and your mood will follow. The better you treat yourself, the better you will feel.
Create Systems to Focus On: Goals only inspire us so much. When we create systems that we can rely on, they will take us all the way.
CALL TO ACTION
It’s my hope that this post brought some value to your day. Please hit the 💚 to help share this post with others. You would make my day!
Want THE TEMPLATE I used to narrow my focus and lose the weight? It became another one of my systems that made the process that much easier. Get it here today!
