From the age of 21 to 31, I gained about 60-70 pounds. That part was easy. Really easy. Going to dinner and eating my food and then half of my wife’s. Running to Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s in the morning for a coffee and getting something (or two) off the dollar menu. All of that is super easy and super simple.
Losing weight is hard. It’s really effing hard! I’ve been trying for a couple of years to lose weight. I’ve had a lot of success, but it hasn’t lasted. I’ll lose 10-15 pounds and feel good and then I travel for a couple of weeks and gain it all back. I stop going to the gym and increasing the carbs, which is a recipe for disaster.
I just got back from PA again after spending the last month or so visiting family again, but this time I went to the gym a few times a week. Thanks to Planet Fitness for opening up in this area in PA!
I was able to maintain my weight, but didn’t lose any while up there because there were a lot of temptations. There are a lot of things to do, friends and family to see, activities we can only do while up here, so the gym ends up getting pushed to the side.
I grew up in PA for the first 3/4 of my life, so I know all the great food places. When I go back there, that’s all I want to do. I just want to eat at all of the great places that I grew up eating and then eating some of mom’s good ole home cooking. That tends to lead to disaster. Big disasters.
My endo appointments are usually right after I get back from these trips. This leads to bad lab results and not a true picture of how my life is the remaining 9 months of the year.
This year, I decided to push my appointment back and force myself to lose weight. This is hard.
Here’s my diet:
Breakfast – 3 egg omelette. Every. Single. Day. I change it up a bit with some cheese one day. Peppers and onions the next. And then some ham the following. By switching this up, it makes me feel like I’m eating different foods and keeping it fresh.
Lunch – Salad every day. This doesn’t bother me because I love salad. I have eaten a salad a day, pretty much almost everyday for the last 15 years. I usually throw some chicken or whatever meat was for dinner the night before in the salad and just mix it all up. Actually, I shake it up. I put it all in a bowl, put a lid over it and shake the hell out of it. Only way to eat a salad. Shout out to my older brother for giving me this tip!
Dinner – Meat and 2 veggies. We eat a lot of chicken. Like, a lot of eat. And ground beef. We use the crockpot 3-4 days a week. We put the chicken in during breakfast, put some veggies in there and some sort of seasoning or oil based marinade and just let it cook all day. We use the ground beef for burgers (with lettuce buns) and tacos (with lettuce wraps).
This sounds delicious and sounds simple. But, damn, it’s not.
Going to the gym consistently is hard for me. I get so caught up in my business that I forget to go to the gym. Then, I don’t want to miss out on family fun time before and after dinner, so I don’t go to the gym then either.
I can’t go to the gym in the morning because I pee a lot throughout the night (even when my BG is perfect), so I wake up in the morning extremely dehydrated.
I don’t like going to the gym shortly after drinking coffee. Well, I always end up getting a cup of coffee right before it should be gym time.
But these are a lot of excuses.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
This should be tough.
This should be tough as hell.
And that’s why I’m going to tackle it. Because I’m getting too old for this extra weight to be hanging out. It’s time to set it free.