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I have a 12-year-old daughter.

When she was born, in 2005, I weighed 190 lbs.

By late 2007, I weighed 255 lbs.

Yikes.

I had a lot of good times back then, but I never cared about my health.  I sat and played with the baby, never worked out, always ate whatever crap I wanted to (I ate fast food literally every day – at least once and sometimes twice).  So that’s how I ballooned 65 lbs.

By the time we got to about 2011, I was back to a reasonable 215 lbs.  Not great, but I still wasn’t really trying.  That weight loss over 4 years had more to do with not eating and spending all of my time on the run.

But in 2013, I had moved back up to almost 230 lbs.

It was time to change something.

So I went hardcore.

This was my routine every week day for 3 months – from July 2013 until September 2013.

Here’s my schedule/diet Monday through Friday.

6:30 or 6:45am – walking / jogging

8:00 – clock in for work

8:15 – desk workout

8:30 – breakfast: cup of black coffee, 1 boiled egg, 1/2 ruby red grapefruit

9:30 – desk workout

10:00 – mid-morning snack: 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese with 1/5 serving fresh blueberries (you can substitue Greek Yogurt here if you prefer – I like Dannon Light & Fit Greek with blueberries or strawberries)

11:00 – desk workout

12:30 – lunch: 1 can of tuna with 1 tbsp low fat mayo mixed in for flavor, and 1 veggie burger or 1 serving of grilled chicken – then I do a workout, whether it’s the gazelle / eliptical / jogging or weights / benchpress / bowflex for 25 mins – then I stir up a 1-scoop whey protein shake with water and eat 1 tbsp of natural peanut butter

1:45 – eat 1/2 apple or 1 banana

2:30 – desk workout

3:15 – 1/4 cup of soy nuts

3:45 – desk workout

4:30 – desk workout

5:00 – clock out from work

workout, mix up a protein shake, then dinner — grilled chicken and veggies (you can do mixed veggies, green beans, green peas, broccoli, etc.  doesn’t matter).  hot sauce and wing sauce doesn’t have anything other than sodium, and you can neutralize that by drinking a lot of water during the day, which you need to be doing anyway to keep your muscles hydrated.  Make sure you have grapes or an apple or wheat whole grain bread — some good natural carbs after a workout to give your body an insulin spike so it doesn’t start to store fat.

I went from this, in June 2013 (226 lbs), started working out in late July, and transformed to this, in September (192 lbs):

and within a few months, after constantly working out and eating healthy, I transformed to this:

I was down to 180lbs (a little less… lowest I hit was 177 lbs).

That was the smallest I had been since high school.

Back then, I learned so much about weight loss, how the body works, and what makes you lose weight.

I learned all about how building muscles helps you burn fat more quickly (imagine fat is gasoline – more horsepower burns more gas… a 4 cylinder burns nothing), so I couldn’t just be doing cardio to try and lose it.

I learned about hydration, needing to drink about your weight in ounces of water, and how much drinking alcohol or sodas hurts the process.  Alcohol dehydrates your muscles.  If your muscles are dehydrated, they don’t work as fast.  If they are not working, they are not burning fat.

So now, it’s 2018, and I’ve gotten myself in another situation.

My wife is expecting our first son (Lincoln James) at the beginning of May, and I’ve done the same thing all over again.

In May of 2017, I had gotten down to under 200 lbs again.  We found out in August that we were having a baby… and I completely went off the rails.  Sitting around after work with the wife.  Not working out, not eating right.

She’s gained a total of 9 lbs, and she’s 7 months pregnant.

After the Super Bowl, I weighed in at 234 lbs.

Un-freakin-believable.

So, this past weekend, I went and joined a gym that’s close to our new house.  I’ve already been 3 times in 4 days, and I’m sore as who knows what.

I’m going to be fixing my weekly meals, working out, and I will be keeping you guys up to date on what I’m working on and my success.

No, I won’t post every day, but I may post my menus, and my workout plans, and give you some picture updates.

I lost the weight before, and I can do it again.

Hopefully before that kid gets here.