October 13, 2003
Carbs Suck
I have jogged on and off for since college. At the beginning of the summer, I decided to move to jogging every day and push up the mileage in an attempt of two goals: 1. weight loss and 2. improved aerobic fitness. I am not fat by any means. But I have those pounds in random places that don't belong there anymore. So I definitely accomplished the fitness goal -- but my weight actually went up! My legs got bigger from what I can tell. That didn't help the weight loss goal at all.
On Labor Day while Kim was away, I decided to move towards a dietary solution. Its so much easier to start and manage a diet when you are on your own. My dietary hero is none other than the late Dr. Atkins. I read his book years ago when he was just a weirdo and nobody liked him. His diet was responsible for my move from the 180s into the 170s a few years ago. Its so funny how for years everything was reduce the fat which in the end only made America fatter over the last decade because the carbohydrate concentration got higher.
So I went into a tight dietary loop. I never eat breakfast. Lunch was pretty much salad -- either my own homemade one or my fast food favorite, the Wendy's Southwest Chicken Caesar with 24 grams of fat in the dressing. Remember, eating fat doesn't make you fat. For dinner, I continued to eat salads and lots of turkey burgers -- no bun. When we went out to dinner, I put the naked/bowl burrito into the mix. After a while, I started really developing an anti-taste for anything with carbs. It really just wasn't worth it because the scale wouldn't move much the next day. The only slight treat I kept up was my mini-Hershey's Dark Chocolate bars. It was encouraging to see all these sugar alcohol products coming into the marketplace. If you really need the taste, these products are pretty good.
So as time went on, the regular daily weigh-ins got very encouraging. I could guess my weight to the 1/2 pound each morning. And through that I knew today would be the magic day. On Labor Day, I weighed in at 174.5 pounds. Today, I am a lot lighter as you can see from the picture below. Its very satisfying to see the results. I am sharing the story because I know of others who struggle with weight and I hope this is encouraging to them. I don't think I am any big inspiration but just another case of "this stuff works" -- especially for those with a carbohydrate addiction like me.
But now, I am not done. 160 was my original goal. But during the process, I came to the realization that I have more to go and can do it. I want to be in the 140s. With my current diet process and a new secret weapon to be announced later, I believe I will be there before Thanksgiving. So mark it down. I will continue to drop the pounds. To be continued...
