Late May-Late August 1995:
My Goal and Why:
My first weight loss goal after I came home from spring break and rather than my Mom giving me hug when she saw me, her exact words were, “Who the hell knocked you up? I expect my daughter to get pregnant, not my son!” Then instead of giving me a hug she turned her back and walked away. I realized that the weight I was gaining for college football wasn’t muscle at all. About two weeks later I realized it was true as I lost two tenths of a second off my forty yard dash time. I saw the writing on the wall and realized that my college football career was going to have to end. Although I was mad that my playing career was over, I figured I could at least look good enough to be able to go on more dates since I had been on only one my freshman year. So I made the goal to lose thirty pounds over the summer I was at home. I made a goal to lose thirty pounds or get into a pant size with a waist of 32”. It didn’t really matter which one happened first, just so one of them happened and if it was both, awesome.
What I Did to Achieve the Goal:
Regarding nutrition, it was the mid-nineties and the idea was to go low fat so that was what I did. Basically I tried to avoid anything with fat in it. Since I was living at home I also cut the food down to one serving at breakfast, lunch and dinner. As far as exercise I ran three miles/day and did “Abs of Steel” to a VHS video featuring Tamilee Webb. I did this exercise program 5-6 days a week in the evening after I was done working on the farm.
What Was the Result:
I will admit I didn’t use a scale much because the only one I had was a crappy spring scale my Mom had. I was able to use the balance scale at school three or four times that summer when I visited my friend Matt to help him train when I got out of farm work (He was playing football for Northwestern and was home that summer). I was able to weigh in at the beginning (225 lbs) the end (195 lbs) and there was one or two mid points (around 218 once and 210 the other time if I remember right). By accident I also started to use different pants I owned to assess progress. I noticed that they were getting more loose so I figured if I didn’t meet my weight loss goal I would at least meet my jean size goal. My main pair or work jeans were tight when summer started and I was able to pull them past my hips when summer was over. When I got back to college I weighed 195 and bought my first pair of size 32 jeans so both goals were met. Also, in addition to getting some pretty cool compliments from nearly everyone I knew (Most were along the lines of “Holly S***!”) finding dates was now easy. Sorry if that offends you but I have a hard time believing anyone who wants to lose fat but doesn’t have ANY vanity reasons behind it!
Knowing What I Now Know, What Would I Do Different (With What I Had Access to at the Time):
The big thing I know now is low fat WAS NOT the way to go. I was successful because I had tremendous will power as the cravings were bad. It was very much mind over matter. Looking back when I lost weight the second time I learned fat wasn’t bad for weight loss. If I had to do it all over again I would have used more of a mixed diet approach (Dan Duchaine’s Iso Caloric or Barry Sears's Zone or any of the Paleo plans). A second thing that would have been nice would have been resistance training. Even if it was body weight, it would have made a difference as I would have kept more lean mass (Of the thirty pounds, I lost at least ten pounds of muscle).
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