My Life of fat began at an early age. I was a fat baby, a plump kid, and a portly teenager. When I was a senior in high school I lost weight and had maybe five to six normal size years. When I got married my mother-in-law was a great cook and I was a great eater a match made in heaven. My home life when I was a kid was a life filled with food and it looked like my married life would be the same. When we had no money we would buy the cheapest food which is not always good for you. We always tried to do better and there were times it would take. I lost a good bit of weight when I turned thirty; but then I lost a job and was out of work for six months. Depression and comfort food took me right back to a bigger size than I was before. Since then it has been a race to 300 pounds and beyond. I moved to Savannah and tried to turn over a new leaf it took for a while and then in one weekend of bad behavior I would be right back where I started. So during the fourth of July I watched movie called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”. The juice fast (they did in the movie) got me to thinking about when I had tried juicing before and lost weight, but I never just juiced I always ate at least one meal during the day. But I decided it was time to do something and I have fasted (for religious reasons) in the past for a few days at a time. So as long as I got good nourishment I was going to try fasting long term; to maybe reboot my food habits. So below is a video journal of my progress so far.
This is dedicated to my Wife who has always been the true leader in our family (although we never listened most of the time when she tried to help us make good food choices). And my three amazing sons to whom I was a bad example when it came to healthy eating.
Click on the links below to see the video journals; but be warned they are extremely boring.
Day 2….blah, blah, blah
Day 8….more talk but ten pounds lighter.
Day 16 The Process….or how many times I can say process in one video.
Day 24 Clean up….my shirt is wet because juicing is a messy….dare I say…PROCESS!
Day 29 The End? We will see…. Sunday afternoon was extremely tough. I had two smoothies, grapefruit juice and could not bring myself to juice any veggies. Late in the afternoon after talking to Angie at great length I ended my fast. 29 days of nothing but liquids. I wanted to go on but my brain fog, boredom and the longing to end that empty feeling led me to conclude my body wanted me to stop. As I told Angie I was afraid once I started back eating I would not stop and be right back gaining again. I had a goal of going as long as 40 days and even up until the Labor Day weekend, which would have been 47 days. But I did not make it. What did I eat….well I have been craving pizza so we ordered a veggie pizza from a local place called Upper Crust (not to be confused with my one and only best pizza place ever; it’s nothing like it); they do make a very good, all the veggies you can get on a pizza, veggie pizza. The first taste was disappointing…..had my taste buds left me??? But I ate nonetheless and when I felt full I stopped. I did taste, however, a few of the things I’ve seen Angie fix and/or eat in the last 29 days that I had been lusting after. But it was just a few tastes here and there. This morning, which would have been my thirtieth day, I have not eaten anything so far; I do not feel the need. I drank some left over grapefruit juice and plan on juicing this afternoon and taking it with me for lunch at work. Will I continue to juice and fast some more…..we will see. As I said at the beginning I would take it one day at a time. But I hope I have changed….I want to change. I have come to embrace that empty light feeling that comes with a hungry stomach…..strange, huh. Let's see if it lasts; let’s just see : )
Day 2.2 How to Smoothie
Update: I have decided to go back incognito with my weight loss journey. I hope I have put enough info up for you to decided if you want to make a change. Will power and state of mind are paramount to any change you want to make in your life. I have tried to live by the fact that “all things a possible if you can believe”…the problem is can we believe? I looked at the movie I have talked about and said “what one man can do, so can another man do as well”. I have done 29 day’s I wanted to go longer; but this is not the end so I will not stress on a number I put in my head. The point was to change and that will be seen only in the future. For the last week I have ate some and I have just drank juice for a few days and then eat some more. I’m now just going to try and do what I feel needs to be done to lose down to a comfortable weight for my age and the lifestyle I desire for me and my partner so we can enjoy the time we have left to serve on this earth.
So to whomever is reading I will let you know as I lose weight but other than that you get the idea of how I started the journey; when I reach my goal you will be the first to know. The worst part of any journey is taking the first step the rest is an adventure and we all need a little adventure.
Thanks, Dad for being brave enough to do this. I have watched the movie too and am trying to plan out how I'm going to do it. It is going to be hard for me because my wife has no interest in it and I hate to be selfish and use up most of the grocery money on vegetables when Nikki won't be eating them. But that is something we will have to work through. I am hoping to create a little garden and maybe get some vegetables for juicing out of that. One of the big things I hear when I talk about this is people saying "Why would you do that? Why not just count calories?" Well, I guess I could do that, but like you said my cravings for the processed food would never go away and it would be worse. I would still be unhealthy, just a little skinnier. And I don't want that. I want to enjoy life and feel fresh and not weighed down all the time. It is almost spiritual because God put everything here to take care of our bodies and we see it and figure out how we can make more money out of it and kill our customers. So, like you said, it is going to be a whole life change and I look forward to it and I am looking up to you for guidance (like always) to get started. Thanks Dad!
ReplyDeleteThis is an inspiration. Thanks so much for opening up and letting us be a part of this journey.
ReplyDelete