When I started anew (Sept 2009)

It's been a long time, I realize. I guess I needed to take a break from posting.  That doesn't mean that I should have...

As I mentioned before, things tend to get old (if you let them).  My wife and I were exercising regularly, but our portion sizes did creep back up, and we were taking liberties more regularly.  We treated ourselves to Mary Brown's Fried Chicken once a week, and perhaps pizza too.  It was no small wonder that we weren't losing any weight.  I was at a standstill.  I guess it was good to not be putting on weight, but bad in the sense that I wasn't getting in shape.

After a late August vacation and an early September wedding in Prince Edward Island, we decided that we had had enough.  We had always said "tomorrow we'll start".  Tomorrow came and went over and over again.  September 9th, we had our "last supper", a chinese buffet on our way back to St. John's....it was good, but certainly not reflective of our future!

We actually started the next day, following Weight Watchers and a set exercise routine.  This included a 40-60 minute elliptical, treadmill or bike cardio workout, and also step aerobics and kickboxing 3 times a week.
We made a pact together to get up between 5 and 5:30am and make it to the gym by 6am.  Weigh-in was once a week, and we used the wii as our scale, to track weight losses and gains.

I will continue and post my weight gains and losses that I recorded over the next year.

- Neal

Falling back into bad habits...

Further to my last posting, I managed to "get things together" and get somewhat healthy.  Well, things can get "old" fairly quickly, and without even realizing it, I started to fall back into bad habits.  I convinced myself that eating "bad" foods was okay from time-to-time, and "taking the weekend off" from my meal plan was perfectly acceptable.  It wasn't long after that I was "off the rails" and back eating most of the foods that got me to be a 450 lb diabetic.    The same was true for my activity level.  I easily made excuses for not working out regularly: bad weather, muscle aches, no time, etc..  Thankfully, I had managed to keep some of the good things from my diet: whole grain cereals and breads and  fruits and vegetables.  I did a good job of avoiding most sweets, but other junk foods, especially chips, creeped back into my meal plan.  Therefore, I didn't gain back all of the weight, but I did hover between the 330-350 lb mark.

Next time I'll talk about how my weight fluctuated over the next few years, and then move into my current situation.

When I decided to make a change...

After the doctor "floored" me with his extremely grim diagnosis, I cried as I walked to the bus stop.  I felt as if I only had a short time before I'd "drop dead".  Part of me wanted to eat, my response to pretty much every feeling.  I ate when I was happy, sad, angry, depressed.  That, in addition to being from NL, where food is the centerpiece of every social gathering and occasion.  Thankfully, I didn't immediately resort to eating comfort foods.  In the coming days, after some thoughtful reflection, I decided that I "HAD" to take my life into my own hands, a life that I had taken for granted all my life.  Even now I can remember asking God, "Why did you make me fat?", "Please just make me normal!", among other things.  I now know that I was in a state of denial.  I didn't remain in that stage long, which was a good thing.  I decided not to renew my bus pass and treked an hour to and from MUN every day.  I also began following the Canada Food Guide, eating according to the recommendations of a dietician that worked with Diabetics.

The biggest change would have to be the way and how I ate.  I quickly emptied out my deep fryer and tossed it out.  I stopped eating fried foods (for the time being), added a variety of fruits and vegetables (which was not difficult, as my parents grew their own), and reduced my portion sizes.  In addition, I began a regime of waking up between 6-6:30am and going for a walk, from my house (near Elizabeth Avenue & Torbay Road), around Quidi Vidi Lake and back home.  Sometimes I did this walk several times a day, in the morning and the evening.

The results of my efforts?  In only a few months, I managed to drop a substantial amount of weight. Exactly how much? Well, I went from a 58" to a 48".  As for actual pounds, I will check with my doctor and post it in the coming weeks.

Looking back (part one)

Hi

I thought I'd take a moment to look back to the beginning of my journey.  I'm sure you're all aware of the saying "in order to get where you're going, you have to remember where you've been".  While it is true that this leg of my journey began back on September 9th, 2009, the REAL journey began 7 years prior - in April 2002.  That's the time that I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes by my family doctor.  I can still remember him saying, "If you don't change your lifestyle, you might live to see 40".  Keep in mind, that's only 7 years ago, when I was 23!  Now I'm 30 years old.  That would mean that I have 10 years before I could expect my life to end.  It was that "rude awakening" that shook me back to reality, and began my journey towards a new me.  Check back soon, I'll tell you how I managed to lose my first 100 pounds!

- Neal

My Journey, so far....

Hey! 

I should have set up a blog about my lifestyle change back in September 2009, when I started this journey...that being said, there's no time like the present!  Over the next few weeks, I'll tell you my story: Where I've come from, where I am and where I'm going with respect to my health.  I hope you will gain some insight into my life, and perhaps motivate yourself to retake control of your life.  Your comments and suggests are certainly welcome.

- Neal