So, at our office we did the typical New Year's thing and had a "biggest loser" competition. But unlike most resolutions, a handful of us actually stuck to it and lost some serious weight. The competition ended last Thursday. It ran for four months and if you've read any of my past posts you know I lost a good amount of weight. Ultimately, enough to win. My prize - a little bit of money, but more importantly I, for the first time in a long time, feel relatively healthy. I am so proud of all the people in my office who stuck with it and really motivated me to keep going. I've tried to lose weight before, but just knowing there were others counting calories and abstaining from the Friday morning donuts was apparently the little extra boost I needed. So my official numbers.
Total number of Weeks: 17
Total Weight Loss: 65.8 lbs.
Total Percentage of body weight lost: 24.2%.
Largest single week weight loss: 12 lbs. (first week)
As weird as it may sound, I was hoping to lose at least another 6 lbs. Don't know if that would have even been possible, but I can dream can't I?
This is a chart I kept during the competition that showed my progress week to week. If you click on it, you should be able to read all the small text.
A lot of people have been asking what my "secret" was. I really didn't have one. I lost the first 50 or so lbs. with very little exercise. It was about 95% diet changes. I really focused on limiting my calories to about 1500 each day. I stopped eating anything after 8:00 p.m. and I stopped drinking any non-diet pop. I cut out all "wasted" calories. I began eating consistently day-to-day. I started every day with 1 cup of GoLean Kashi and 3/4 cup Low-fat Vanilla Soy Milk. As cheesy as it sounds, I ate a lot of Subway for lunch. (thanks Jared). But I learned to say no to the cheese and realized for the first time that 6" of sub was enough for me. For dinner, my wife was marvelous and helped by making Weight Watcher type meals for the family. Snacks were mostly carrots and an early obsession with Low-Fat microwave popcorn which was my filler snack until I learned not to be hungry at night or after lunch.
That's about it. Now, I'm just trying to cut a few more lbs., increase my speed and endurance for soccer season, which started yesterday, and stick with my new favorite obsession - running.
We'll see.
