Yeah, folks, you have to exercise (whether it's on the job or not), and you have to be very reasonable about your diet. I'm 5'9"ish (maybe 5'10", but I don't know). At Thanksgiving, 2005, I weighed about 205. I decided that had to end. I lost about 20 pounds over the next couple months, and I was down to about 165ish by the next Thanksgiving.
I did, in part, it by exercising (a lot) during the week and weekends. I resolved to get SOMETHING done at least five days each week and set weekly time and calorie burning goals (which were set to be about as much as I could manage, and I increased them as I was able to do more). We're talking some hard cardio here, on an elliptical with resistance and upper body work, but nothing dangerous.
Of course, I also did it, in part, by watching my diet. Yep, I had to deny myself some things I wanted, and I had to live with some cravings. I also ate healthfully, with a lot of vegetables and a lot of water. Suppers were reasonable (i.e., I didn't stuff myself), as were lunches. I also, absolutely, eliminated snacking after supper. I had to sit there, hungry, many nights. However, I knew that the "hunger" was more craving and habit that I had to break. I was not actually starving myself, so I did not let myself buy into that "I only crave what my body needs" BS.
However, I was not a constant tyrant over myself, either. I gave myself one weekday lunch, one night, and one weekend day per week to do just about anything I wanted. I could spend those freedoms whenever I wanted, but I could not save them up. As time went on, it became easier to wait until the end of the week to enjoy it or to give up an indulgence over the week.
I also gave myself holidays to enjoy as I liked. However, once I saw how my plan was working, I had less desire to revert back to the old ways. It wasn't a matter of guilt or even fear of screwing up what I had accomplished. More, it was just that I didn't see the value of the excess. It seemed that I was going overboard on certain foods just for the sake of doing so. If I was just as happy with a half sized slice of pie, then why eat a full one? Did I just want to spend another 10 or 15 minutes on the elliptical, busting my ass because of it?
The whole time, though, I absolutely DID NOT make goals about losing a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of time. I didn't know how my body would react to the changes I made, and I wasn't going to set a goal that I wasn't sure I could reach. I knew I could measure, for example, at least five days each week of exercising and estimate burning at least 3000 calories. I knew that I could measure doing 100 crunches per day, three days per week. I also know if I ate reasonably each day. If I could check those boxes off each week, then I knew I was on the right track and that good things would happen. Would I lose two pounds that week, or would I lose 20 pounds by then end of March? I didn't know, and I couldn't hold myself to that. I set daily and weekly BEHAVIOR goals, not results goals. The results fell into place just by behaving properly.
Now that I've reached a point where I'm fairly happy, I've loosened up some of my behavior goals. Mostly, I eat and drink more of what I want when I want. Of course, as I mentioned above, I want less and I want it less often. I've kept up the exercise goals, though, increasing them all along. I now want to burn 5000 calories each week, instead of 3000. I look at it pseudo-economically. That's the amount I need to work to maintain the lifestyle I want. If I want to eat this stuff and drink all this beer, then I need to work that much to make it happen.
Chriso, I understand your dread, and you're right that it will be hard. If you have to, though, start with some smaller changes and then add to it. It's better to take a little longer to reach your goal than not reach it at all.
Good luck, guys! Have fun with this! Believe me, it won't be fun at first. However, when you start to see results, you'll want more.
TL
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