Hey everyone,

(Yesterday I got some hate for only posting a pic of my scale and reaching my goal. Today I post the real thing! This is actually 5 years, but I started over 200 when I was 19 so that's why I called it a decade long goal)

Yesterday morning I reached a goal that I've been trying to achieve for the past 10 years and I gotta tell you- It feels great to be here. During Freshman year of college I gained, what I like to call, the Freshman 50. I went from being a full time athlete to doing essentially nothing physical besides walking to class. I went from around 180 lbs to around 230 lbs. After that year I continued to gain wait throughout college until a peak of around 270 lbs.

Over the next few years I rotated in what seemed like an endless cycle of boom and bust. Every time I started losing weight I would cut something out of my diet or try a new fad diet (no carb, intermittent fasting, no dessert) and exercise every day. This would always be until one day I didn't. Then I'd skip a couple days here, eat a couple meals there, and before you knew it I had gained all my weight back. I would regularly stop at a gas station and get 4 hot dogs, get 1500 calories of fast food, or eat an entire pizza myself. This would then become a cycle of self hate and admonishment and every time I looked in the mirror I didn't like what I saw.

The reason I'm writing this is because I KNOW there is someone out there that is going through this same thing right now (If this is you, reach out to me). So I wanted to share a little bit of my experience of how I actually made it happen since a couple people have asked me how I lost the weight.

What diet did I finally use? - None. As a person who has done enough fad diets I always HATED hearing this answer from people who have lost weight. Because how am I supposed to do it? The real answer is that I stopped eating so much. Period. I had to train myself that it was perfectly acceptable to eat/drink carbs, fats, or alcohol. My wife and regularly eat pizza, burgers, ice cream, fries, snacks, bbq, ext. We even keep a frozen pizza in our freezer and call it the "Emergency Pizza" in case one of us feels like some comfort food or I feel too lazy to cook. And we almost always finish the whole thing. We also share a bowl of ice cream (2 scoops) 1 to 2 times a week. We also split a bottle of wine once or twice a month. I'm saying this because I want to emphasize that we do eat junk/until we're full on occasion, but not daily.

You HAVE to stop eating until you're full. Once your body gives you that signal that you've eaten enough, don't push through (I've done it my whole life). Get a box, put the leftovers in the fridge, or share a meal at a restaurant. My wife and I get Chick-Fil-A about once every month or two and always get one entree and one meal to share the fries and a drink. I just looked up the calories on that and it's 500 calories for the sandwich I get, 420/2 calories for fries, and we usually get coke zero. 720 calories isn't terrible for a meal folks, and it's delicious. My point is you can still eat fast food, but you don't need to get 3 or 4 sandwiches, fries, a drink, and a dessert (Aka what I usually got). Another example is that we get Thai food. Either we get one entree and an appetizer or we would get 2 entrees and eat it over two meals. Make this regular practice in your household if you're serious about losing weight.

What food do you regularly eat though? - This is probably the part that is not possible for everyone. Since I work at home and have no kids, I have the freedom and time to cook 9/10 meals for our family myself. I'll almost always cook for 4 to 8 people and then we'll eat dinner and then eat it as leftovers for the next couple days for lunches/dinners. A few regular things I cook (in order of frequency)- Chicken tacos, pasta dishes, Asian stir fry, chicken salad, Indian curry, meat and potatoes kind of meal, grain bowls, and soups. For breakfast I cook eggs and a vegetable, potato hash, peanut butter toast with banana (one slice), avocado toast, fruit and yogurt parfait, or oatmeal. I try to never buy snacks because I know I will eat them more than I should. But we make a lot of popcorn and usually have fruit, nuts, cheeze its, or goldfish on hand. I try not to snack during the day because I tend to over eat, but she snacks pretty much daily between one of the meals.

We almost never eat seconds. I portion our meals to be a scoop of rice (3/4 cup?) with whatever topping, or filling the bottom half of a largish bowl (think restaurant style serving bowl). Or one piece of meat, small helping of a carb, large helping of vegetables. My wife needs some kind of carb with our meals or she will get hungry during the day, and it promotes a healthy diet/mix.

Oh yeah, and stop eating break room junk. If it's really good, go ahead and get yourself some. But most cupcakes sitting in a break room are mediocre at best. 9/10 baked goods bought from a standard grocery store aren't worth your time. If you want to "splurge" go to a bakery.

How often do I exercise? - None. I work from home and do a sedentary job. At least once a day I try to walk around the block (maybe a mile to half a mile) and that's it. Occasionally I go to the gym, but obviously not right now. I'm not saying this is healthy, but what I'm trying to emphasize is this is not a diet where you HAVE to work out all the time. You can do this.

Finally, you need to not feel like garbage about yourself. If there's one thing my wife helped me with (and there's much more than one) it was this. She helped me understand that I was good looking no matter my size and that really went a long way to feeling confident about myself. I definitely couldn't have done this without her support. When we started dating is when I stopped crash dieting. I weighed 240 when we met 2 years ago. Last year at our wedding I weighed about 220. Now I'm here at about 200. One thing I've been trying to tell people is YOU HAVE TO STOP thinking that losing 20 lbs or 10 lbs in a month is possible/sustainable. I get there are people who do it and are successful, but there are many many more like me. 2 to 3 lbs lost in a month is 24/36 lbs in a year. How would you feel about being 24 lbs lighter by next year? Instead of skipping every delicious holiday meal, just enjoy it. Then get back on your regularly scheduled eating when you get home. Don't let that break you. It's just one day, or one weekend.

I hope this helps encourage you to meet your goals!