Howdy, I’m Jacob, a 22-year-old Senior, at Texas A&M, pursuing a degree in Political Science. I grew up in San Antonio a place filled with the finest Tex-Mex food in America. I love running, writing and the Minnesota Vikings. This is my story of my weight loss journey.
It was New Year’s Eve 2014; I was 16 years old, standing about 6’2 and I was every bit of 264 lbs. At the time, I was a High School Junior, but I was well aware of my gluttonous ways. I have always prided myself on being self-aware. Every New Year’s Eve, I would sit down and focus on the year I had looking for areas where I could improve. Every year, I would write lose weight in black sharpie on my list and every year I failed to do so. My weight was even starting to spike, with the newfound freedom of owning a car I was able to get food anytime I wanted and eat free of judgment. There are many nights I found myself sitting in my car scarfing down a quick meal before going inside. My brain would sometimes play the part of the hostage negotiator when I bought something to eat, it would try to save me from the sweet grip of those gooey, delicious empty calories, but it was bad negotiator. Mornings when I’d wake up bloated or with my stomach in knots, that pesky brain was always the first to say, I told you so. My education taught me what it takes to eat a nutritious diet and live a healthy life, but I never listened. Every year I would try some erroneous approach to weight loss doomed to fail and give up. In 2014 I recognize the error in my ways which allowed me to put a stop to it.
Going into 2015, I dubbed it the year of the ear, because I was going to start listening to my brain and begin a journey toward winning my life back. I was tired of experiencing life from the sidelines watching people do cool athletic stuff from the TV while I ate and cheered them on. The odds were stacked against me, according to the U.S. News World Report, “the failure rate for New Year’s resolutions is about 80%,” however I would not be deterred. With a background in weight gain and not weight loss, I reached out to friends and family, bought books, as well as used YouTube to jumpstart my journey. My favorite book was, The Biggest Loser Bootcamp. This book was tremendous, it provides you with motivational stories, nutrition knowledge, and 6 different high interval training workouts a week that last no more than an hour. The best part about the book, was that I could complete these workouts from home, there was no costly gym membership necessary. I weighed in weekly, took my body measurements monthly and took pictures of myself at every weigh in. As I persevered through my journey, these were crucial ingredients to keep me motivated. Just one look at the overweight, unhappy eyes of the man in my New Year Day picture helped me carry on. Likewise, every weigh in day had a Christmas morning feeling about it. I could hardly ever sleep the night before. I would just sit there laying in bed recalling all the great meals I ate and workouts I endured thinking about what number might pop up on the scale the next day.
When that wasn’t enough, I would turn to YouTube and listen to Les Brown’s immortal line in his speech, Your Dream is Possible, “when life knocks you down get back up and say it’s not over until I win!” When his thundering voice entered my headphones goosebumps would pierce my entire body. It felt like he was talking directly to me. He believed in me, and that allowed me to start believing in myself. You can also find motivation in the little things. Cheer for yourself when you drop a shirt or pants size, when you get full faster than usual, when you add an extra rep or minute to your workout. The little things matter! At the end of the day you’re talking to yourself more than you’re talking to anyone else, so make sure you’re saying the right things. There is great power in positivity.
In general people say, knowledge is just entertainment unless acted upon. My first chance to act on my years of health classes came at the grocery store. I knew the meaning behind the words on the nutrition label. I started by viewing the servings per container, that’s where they can get you. The nutritional label may seem like it can fit your diet scheme, until you discover it’s for only like 8 chips in a party size bag. Equally important is calories, which shows how much energy you will obtain from food. This is what I focused my attentions on. There are several websites that allow you to input your weight, activity level, and height to get an approximate daily calorie intake goal. From there you can just subtract 3,500 from your net weekly intake and you’re well on your way to losing a pound a week. Nevertheless, I used MyFitnessPal, it allowed me to track my calories, nutrition, water intake, and weight loss; it’s truly an incredible app. I had all my friends download it too because they could see my food and exercise journal and motivate me when it was necessary. As I began to do more research on weight loss, I found that foods with high counts of protein and fiber were incredibly filling, so I gravitated towards these foods. Now, some protein bars can be misleading and in reality, all they are, are glorified candy bars with their high sugar content. I found that Pure Protein bars have the best protein to sugar ratio at 20:2. Over the course of my weight loss journey counting calorie became a way of life. On most occasions it was as simple as scanning a barcode on the app. However, proper counting is imperative, studies show most Americans drastically underestimate calories (Lichtman, S W, et al., 1992). Counting is between you and you, so be honest with yourself because the scale will always be honest with you. I even made sure to count calories on cheat days that way I didn’t get too crazy.
A cheat day wasn’t uncommon either, I believe if you are constantly pushing yourself and never take a moment to enjoy some of your favorite treats it can derail your weight loss plan. Scholars agree, they conclude that cheat meals regulate hormones, help with metabolism, provide a mental break, and motivates us (Trinh, June 2019). A diet should be the beginning of a new life and I don’t want to live in a world where I can’t enjoy a nice ice cream break in the Texas heat. By May 2015, I achieved my goal and entered ‘Onederland’, the mythical realm of the courageous who break out of the 200’s and enter the 100’s; weighing in at 199lbs.
Entering college, I was in the best shape of my life, but the freshmen 15 was more than just an urban legend. Analyst estimate “80% of people who successfully lose weight regain it or end up even larger” (Tabaka, 2019). By the end of my freshmen year I was a mere statistic as I weighed in at 220 lbs. Luckily, I had tools to recant at my deposal. However, it was college a time people say you’re supposed to experiment, so I tried almost every weight loss strategy in the books. Going forward I will be giving you, an insider’s perspective of all of the different approaches to weight loss I have tried. In my next blog I will be sharing my experiences with my first and most used strategy: Fasting.
References
Goodman, Brenda. “Research Sheds Light on Why People Who Lose Weight Gain It Back.” WebMD, WebMD, 14 Oct. 2016, https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20161014/how-your-appetite-can-sabotage-weight-loss#1.
Lichtman, S W, et al. “Discrepancy between Self-Reported and Actual Caloric Intake and Exercise in Obese Subjects.” The New England Journal of Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 31 Dec. 1992, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1454084.
Palsdottir, Hrefna. “15 Foods That Are Incredibly Filling.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 31 July 2016, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/15-incredibly-filling-foods#section2.
Tabaka, Marla. “Most People Fail to Achieve Their New Year’s Resolution. For Success, Choose a Word of the Year Instead.” Inc.com, Inc., 7 Jan. 2019, https://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/why-set-yourself-up-for-failure-ditch-new-years-resolution-do-this-instead.html.
Trinh, Emily. “How Cheat Meals Can Actually Benefit Your Diet.” Aaptiv, Aaptiv, 28 June 2019, https://aaptiv.com/magazine/benefits-of-cheat-meals.