Hey all,

It's been many years since I posted, but I've decided to come back in hopes that I can start to make a positive difference on the world.

Starting weight 325, current weight 200.

https://i.imgur.com/xllIJIw.jpg < Pics

My journey started in February 2011. I had raised my daughter from birth to 6 years old, and she had gone on to live with her mom due to my local school system being terrible. I was alone, overweight, a smoker, and now I was depressed. The year before my mom had lost 100+ pounds through a program called food addicts. Its basically AA for fat people. Eating is an addiction that you can't quit, etc. You get a sponsor, I picked my mom obvs. She was amazing and set me on the right path. In 6 months I dropped to my lowest weight of 175 pounds. I lost a pound a day during that time. Probably not the absolute healthiest way to go, but here we are.

So How did I lose the weight?

Structure meal plans - I weighed and measured everything I ate. I reported it to my sponsor / accountability partner / mom.

Breakfast was 2 eggs, grits, butter. Lunch and dinner was 6 oz chicken, 12 oz veggies. After dinner I would have a piece of fruit. - Thats it. No cheat days, nothing fancy. No counting carbs or protein. Just clean eating. I didn't have any rice, potato, wheat, or corn while losing.

For exercise I did stronglifts for a few years, and just kinda piddled around at the gym. I have a little home gym now. I also rode my bike everywhere, and a lot. I'm sure that helped.

Since then I've been up and I've been down of course. I tried bulking and got up to 230. I'm currently right at 200 and trying to get down to 190. One of my goals is to get down again so I can get all the extra skin off. Fun subject there.... moving on. In the 9 years since I've lost the weight I've consistently not eaten terrible food terribly often. For the first 5 years I had no carby food at all. Now I allow myself cake and cookies as a treat, and the occasional Mexican night. I still bike to work, but I don't bike 20 miles a day after work. I still weigh my food and still talk to my mom about food fairly often. I'm approaching 40 now, and I've hurt my back and healed a few times. I had a bad bike crash and torn a few muscles here and there. I'm definitely using my body for all its worth!

Benefits of the weight loss - I can play with my kids, I can move and run and go! I can still pick up heavy stuff. I feel a bit better. I was pretty happy before the weight loss, I am just happier now. Best perk of all, As soon as I lost all that weight I met my wife. Funny how that works when you start caring about yourself other people care about you too.

Well I hope my story has helped you. I'll be around to answer questions and I'd love your kind feedback. I can't say to everyone to do what I've done, but hey, it worked for me. I wish you all the success in the world.

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