In 2002 I decided to go on a diet. I made this decision because I noticed that I was getting physically tired doing simple things like getting dressed, walking from the parking lot to the office, and walking in the grocery store. I am 6�1� and I weighed 260 pounds in August 2002. I would not say that I was extremely fat but I knew that I shouldn�t feel this way so I decided to start a diet recommended by my doctor. The doctor recommended �The Zone� diet which is a balanced diet but heavily balanced towards proteins. I tried following the doctors advice and followed the diet for about 5 months and lost 17 pounds but found the diet to be very difficult stick with. The diet required me to stop eating what I considered to be normal foods such as bread and pasta so I eventually ended up quitting. There had to be a better way.
Dan creates his own diet
In January 2003 I decided to experiment with a different diet that would be easier to follow so I started to research nutrition online and gathered as much information as I could get. Eventually I decided that it would be best to follow the USDA recommended diet and cut back on fats and start exercising daily. After closely monitoring my weight & food intake I settled on a 1600 calorie diet and began walking about 2.5 miles a day 5 days a week during my lunch hour. I also found a FREE web site (www.fitday.com) that allowed me to track my food intake and exercise so I began using it. After using this web site daily I began learning the difference between good and bad foods and after a few months I began to see results by losing about 1.5 pounds a week. Once I started losing weight I decided that I wanted to get in better shape as well and began looking for a good exercise program. I eventually discovered a book by Jorge Cruise called �8 minutes in the morning� that focused on weight training 6 days a week for 8 minutes first thing in the morning. The book is based on the idea that lean muscles burn more calories than flabby muscles and by strength training with light weights you can turn your body in to a fat burning machine. The results were great, I have already lost 65 pounds and am about 15 pounds from my ideal weight. In total I spent about $30 for the book and dumbell set, so much for those expensive diet programs.
Dan feels GREAT!
Now that I have lost so much weight I no longer get tired doing simple things and have started to get in to other things such as cycling. Another benefit of losing weight is that I can do more stuff with my kids and they love it too. I absolutely love road cycling and my longest trip to date was 30 miles with my oldest son. Of course the cycling started as just another exercise to help me loose weight but I ended up getting totally hooked and now I can�t stay off my bike. My only regret is that I didn�t start getting physically fit sooner but I plan to make to most of it now. I hope to pedal 40 to 50 miles next and eventually all the way to 100 miles. I have a little more training before I go that far but I would like to do it within the next couple of years.
I am writing this story to give other encouragement and to let others know that you don�t have to be overweight or feel tired all the time. I hope this has been useful in some way and if you have any questions feel free to drop me an email. [email protected]
Dan.