Arete Eudaimonia

My Weight Loss Experience

by Jack of Hearts on Jan.06, 2010, under Uncategorized

I never -EVER- thought I would write about this. I had resigned myself to being uncontrollably overweight. I didn’t buy into the hype about overweight being genetic, but I figured that by the time I got the discipline to lose weight, I’d be an old dude and will have spent my whole youth as a fat person.

But it wasn’t hard -at all-. Seriously. I cheated. I cheated so much I thought ‘man, I guess I’ll never lose weight, look at how much I’m cheating.’ But it worked, and I didn’t even notice until a week ago. At the beginning of the year I was 255 lbs, pants size 42. At the time I figured ‘I’m not really that big, not as big as some other big people, so I’m okay!’ But now, after losing 47 lbs in 5 months, and getting down to pants size 36, I realize how big I was.

What worked for me:

I am a strong advocate of the Paleo diet. I’ve linked the Paleo blogs before, but I shall do it again, just for good measure.

PaNu – Getting Started
Whole health source

To summarize what I eat: meat, dairy, fruit, veggies, and nuts. I excluded (as much as possible) grains (yes corn counts as a grain), legumes (beans and stuff) starchy veggies like peas, and sugar. I regulated my Omega 6 fatty acid intake by supplementing with omega 3 cod liver oil pills, and I also took a 4000 IU supplement of vitamin D.

A typical day of eating for me is bacon and eggs for breakfast. (I fry the eggs in the bacon fat, sometimes with cheese and ham in them. Oh delicious.) Sometimes if I didn’t feel like cooking I’d have some whole, fully fatty yogurt and nuts. As snacks I’d have cheese, (real cheese not skim milk cheese) nuts, olives, or slice up some tomato and avocado and put olive oil and salt on top. Then for dinner I have something nice and big like a steak with spinach on the side, roasted chicken, fish, or ground beef. I always ate whenever I was hungry, and sometimes I stuffed myself. The best part (to me): I never exercised. No, really, I barely did any physical activity and maintained my mostly sedentary state.

So here are the before and after pics so far:

This is the beginning of the year, size 42, 255 lbs.

This is the beginning of the year, size 42, 255 lbs.

This is me a few days ago, size 36 pants, I weigh 208.

This is me a few days ago, size 36 pants, I weigh 208.

So there it is. Ask me more about the diet! I love talking about it. And I love talking.

(The paleo diet I am on allows for dairy products. It is not ‘orthodox’ paleo, but it’s worked for me.)


3 Comments for this entry

  • Rhiannon
    January 6th, 2010 on 8:37 pm

    Hey, thanks for posting this! I’ve been reading about this diet it off and on throughout the day after following that first link you shared. I was surprised to read that Harris doesn’t advocate cardio excercise, but if you’re losing weight without working out, then I guess the proof is in the pictures. You’re looking great.

    I’ll look deeper into it. I’ve put on a few unwanted pounds over the holidays and they need to go away. I was going to do Atkins again, but I think I’ll give this a go.

    Well done, Tom!

  • Diana Hsieh
    March 11th, 2010 on 11:08 pm

    Wow, what a huge difference! Congratulations!

  • Kelly Valenzuela
    March 12th, 2010 on 9:19 am

    Fan-fuc*ing-tastic!!! I’m down to 171 from 205 since October. I’m thrilled with the results. I thought I would like to be a size 10 again, but I’m in a 12 right now and think I can lose another 30 lbs. I think that would make me a size 9 or maybe 8. Five years ago, I was wearing a size 20!

    I’ve not started a regular exercise routine yet either. I can imagine I will look and feel even better once I do.

    Is your dad on board yet? ;-)

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