My fitness — how this regular Joe loses weight

What has two thumbs and is losing weight consistently? That’s right, me. Joe Schmoe (aka Jeremy Blanchard).

It’s been 2–1/2 weeks since I decided to stop drinking (at least for now), and start exercising. Yep, it’s the cliché “New Year resolution”. But hey, it’s working so far, unlike previous years.

Ever since I started 2–1/2 weeks ago, I have had great success with losing weight. How’d I do it? Well, I have started to eat a bit more moderately, adding more veggies and I quit drinking (at least for now). Some days I forget to eat till noon though. Not on purpose. So don’t freak out thinking that I’m starving myself. I’m not starving myself, and in fact, sometimes I feel that I might have overeaten that day. That is until I step on the scale the next morning and found that I’ve lost a 1/2 lb from the previous day.

Dude, you need this supplement and to start tracking calories

You might be saying to yourself… “You should probably start tracking your calories (input/output) and get more serious about it.” Well, no offense, but no. I won’t and I haven’t. And here’s why… To be totally honest, I’m lazy. There it is, point blank. But the biggest reason I haven’t is because it mentally drains me. When I start thinking about it too seriously it starts to become too much of a burden on me mentally, and then I give up. I’ve done this over and over and over again, with very little success. Also, with eating “Real food, mostly plants” (Quote from a documentary called “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollon) it’s hardly necessary to track my calories, because I’d have to eat a shit-metric-ton of it in order to worry about my calorie intake. So, this time around I decided to do things a bit differently.

My weight still fluctuates, but not nearly as dramatic as it had before when I would drink 2–3 beers a day. It might go up 1–2 lbs during the course of the day. But ever since I first started this journey on the 4th of January 2016, I have lost roughly 8–9 lbs. I started at 207 or 208lbs (ish) and now weight 198.6lbs as of this morning. That’s roughly 4–5 lbs a week give or take a 1/2 lb.

Dude, you’re going to lose a ton of muscle if you only do cardio

Granted, I’m probably losing a little bit of muscle since most of my exercise is coming from cardio (treadmill, snowshoeing, walking, running).

At this point, I don’t really care too much about losing the muscle though. It’s not like my muscles are going to atrophy so much that I can’t walk or anything. And the worst that would happen is that I would get “skinny fat” as Mike Matthews from http://www.muscleforlife.com would say.

I do (very little) heavy lifting like he recommends, but not near as much as his regimen involves. Right now, I’m totally fine with that. At the moment I’m more interested in actually just getting the fat off me than trying to build more muscle. It just adds complication to the weight loss process (at least for me mentally). He would probably argue that building muscle and losing fat at the same time is best. However, I find this way too much to deal with, and to be honest a little overwhelming. Not only to would I have to start eating moderately (this means calories in and calories out) but also workout 5 days a week and do HIIT (High intense Interval Training) cardio 2–3 times a week.

It’s not sustainable

It’s insane to assume that the average Joe (like myself) could sustain that. There are exceptions of people who do this routine, but I’d like to see how they continue to sustain that their entire life. In my opinion, it’s not sustainable without a major sacrifice. Whether it’s financially, mentally, physically or not to mention socially. (Mike has said repeatedly that he rarely goes out with friends because he’s so focused on his job and his body.) To me, that’s not what I want in life. I don’t want to sacrifice my social life or mental and physical capacity just to have a ripped body. Sure, it would be awesome to have a perfectly ripped physique, but definitely not at that cost. Maybe that means I don’t have what it takes to do what is needed? Or do I?

You don’t need chemicals to lose weight

So, my goal is that I want to lose that belly fat. All WITHOUT using chemicals (other than real food) to lose it. No creatine, no whey protein, no pre-workouts. The only thing I will do is eat a little protein after my workout (but with REAL FOOD). This, so that my workout isn’t for nothing. Mike Matthews talks more about why that’s important here.

Obviously, Mike promotes his own supplements. It is a business he’s created after all, and I totally get that. However, that being said there actually is some pretty good advice in his blog writings. You just need to ignore (or… well, you don’t have to I suppose, it’s your decision) the ads and plugs for his supplements.

Want to spend money? Invest in supplements

I went down the supplement road and found that it’s way too expensive to look like him. Eating whey protein, a pre-workout shake, and a post-workout shake and energy boost supplements costs a shit-ton of money every month (not to mention the gym fee). That’s money that I’d rather use on real food and not some engineered bullshit. The supplements *might* be good for building muscle and recovery, but not so good on the wallet. It’s very unsustainable in my opinion, unless you have unlimited resources, of course. Which most people don’t actually have.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not mocking Mike Matthews at all. In fact, I think he has a ton to contribute to how you should build muscle and look like he does. I just think it’s a lot to understand and take in and it makes things a lot more complicated. Then I think to myself… “Gee, I feel a little overwhelmed by all this!” and then quit. Like I did last year.

I “tried” for 3 months last year. I did loose 10lbs, but with just a little muscle gain to show for it. I gave up because of very little results for all that time, money and effort spent.

Okay, so how did you come up with these crackpot ideas

These ideas came from mostly failing at losing weight, and a gradual understanding that what I put in my body is important. Taking my failures and spinning it into something positive. Something I never would have thought about in my childhood. We always ate whatever we could afford. Sadly, that was mostly junk food and soda (or as we Kansan’s say “pop”).

What am I doing now?

I eat moderately. In that documentary I linked earlier for “In Defense of Food” — by Michael Pollan, he shows you exactly what you should be eating. “Eat real food, mostly plants.” is a great way to think about how you should eat. The documentary is free to watch at the link provided.

Yeah, yeah, tell me how successful you are after 3 months…

I know this is really early in my time of no alcohol and “Eating real food”, but I have to say that so far it seems to be working. Eating plants, a little meat, drinking water, tea and coffee isn’t so bad. Best thing about it is, I haven’t tracked a single calorie. I typically walk 2–3 miles a day, 4 or 5 days out of the week. Either on the treadmill or outside at work. That’s it. No workout supplements, in fact, no supplements at all. Just “real food” and no alcohol. I think if you’re serious about weight loss, you should really consider not drinking for at least 6 weeks. Worst case scenario is you miss out on drinking for 6 weeks and you lose some weight. All drinking does is impede your process (and your mind) by drinking extra calories that you don’t need. I’ve found it surprisingly easy to not have 1–2 beers a day, and my wallet has been just a tiny bit heavier too!

Long story short and a recap…

“Eat real food” moderately, don’t drink alcohol, and at walk a minimum of 3–4 times a week for at least a mile, each time. So far, for me (I do a little more walking/running as mentioned earlier), this is all I’ve been doing and I’ve lost 8–9 lbs in 2–1/2 weeks. Oh, and my pants fit slightly better now.

Addendum:

I forgot to mention that you shouldn’t believe all the crap you hear about losing belly fat with a supplement. It’s highly improbable and probably not even 1% true. Worst of all you just wasted your money on an engineered chemical. Which was most likely not good for your body to begin with.

After a bunch of research, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to “get ripped” is to not have as much fat on your body. Shooting for 10–14% body fat. The ONLY way to lose fat is to burn more calories than you’ve consumed. Period. It’s not by doing crunches or building bigger muscles. All that will do is make you look fatter if you have a bunch of fat to lose. Although, that being said, you do need a little muscle. But you don’t need Arnold Schwarzenegger size muscles too look ripped.

For now, that’s all I have to report. Until next time, I hope to report more good news. Have a great day!

— JB