So most of you already know, I joined the Navy earlier this month. And as you also know, if you read that
post, I had to drop some weight to do so. In my journey to weight loss I discovered an ancient secret that I'm about to share with you...a secret that will help you lose any amount of weight you want...
Are you ready?...
That'll be $25 each, please.
I'm bout to market this ish and make a fortune.
Real talk people, the secret to weight loss is simple: you have to burn more calories than you consume. To do that, you have to eat less and move more. Sometimes life really is just that simple.
Now if you've been following this blog you know of my weight loss struggles. You know I tried everything: changing my diet, changing my workout routine, spending $89216 on stupid fitness DVDs *cuts eyes to Insanity*, and nothing worked. I lost maybe 3 lbs doing all of that, and that was over the course of several months. I just lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks. I was literally losing lbs. every other day, trust me, I weighed myself. Four days before MEPS I was 143 lbs. On the day of MEPS I was 138 lbs, and yesss I was eating. Ya'll know how I feel about food. God is good and food is great. And the church says: Amen.
I got the idea for the weight loss from watching this dude on YouTube named Elliott Hulse. He's a professional Strong Man and seems to really know his stuff. I trust no one and he does come offhella arrogant at times, but I encourage you to Google anything he says to vet it - we all know the internet doesn't lie, right... But for reals, I judge people's legitness from their own physique. I'm totally ignoring everything you say if you look worse than me. WTF am I supposed to learn from you?! If you're fit and aren't talking about taking a bunch of pills and whatnot, I'll at least listen to what you have to say. Basically what I'm saying is, Elliott's physical progression (which can be seen over the course of the videos in his channel) is great, therefore I believe him.
What he talks about in the video is intermittent fasting. It's exactly how it sounds: don't eat during the day a couple times a week.
Fasting means you eat in the evening but not during the day, so I would make sure dinner was extra nutrient-packed to make up for the other missed meals. He suggests Mondays and Fridays. What do they have in common: they're near the weekend. By fasting on the day before the weekend, you essentially increase your caloric allotment for the weekend. This allows you to be a little more relaxed about your weekend eating. This does not mean eat like a starving child. It does means you can have those precious chocolate chip pancakes you love to make every Saturday morning *eyes to bag of chocolate chips in cabinet* By fasting on Monday, you can off set the increase in calories by using the extra you accumulated over the weekend for when you're not eating. Tuesday-Thursday is standard eating; small meals, no cakes candies, cookies,joy, or soda. Since he studied nutrition and the like in school, he's able to go into details about how you should divide up your carbs and proteins for the week. But if you're like me and ain't got time for all that math, just don't eat like a fat horse. Veggies, sweet potatoes, chicken, steak - if you're feeling daring, fruit, post workout protein drink, eggs, and spinach, lots of water. Naturally this isn't an all-inclusive list, just some suggestions.
I reduced the number of meals I was eating to 3 a day because I felt like 5 was too much with this program. It wasn't that I was eating bad food, it's that I was consuming a lot of hidden calories trying to get all of the nutrients I felt like I needed. Too much fruit = too many carbs and sugars - although I can't prove it, I feel like that was the guilty culprit. Those of you who drink (insert unacceptable amount of alcohol here), this is where you live; I don't know that they're really anything physically good about consuming alcohol. I'd venture to say it's benefits are purely psychological. I'm not saying don't drink, I'm saying that you're consuming ridic amounts of calories, carbs, and sugar from something that gives you little to no nutritional value in return. Just saying...
I take a multi-vitamin and an omega-3 pill everyday so I figured I'm getting 90% of what I need for the day there, thus making up for whatever I don't physically consume. This main point is eat less. Although I wasn't eating on Mondays and Fridays I was still working out with the same routine as I did when I had eaten. Force yourself to work harder; remember, your mind gets tired long before your body does. On Fridays I motivated myself by thinking of all the d'licious food I was going to be able to eat because of the workout I was doing, and on Mondays I just told myself I was a fat had to be punished for my caloric indiscretions. Whatever floats your boat.
As the date for MEPS neared, I was instructed not to do any type of physical fitness 48 hrs prior to the actual date: apparently it working out puts protein in your urine? Not sure how that happens, but if someone who's been doing this for 198246 yrs tells you not to do something, you don't really question them. MEPS was on a Monday, which meant I couldn't workout after Friday. I decided to make Thursday my last workout just to be on the safe side. Since I couldn't burn a high amount of calories by working out I simply ate less those two days, essentially fasting over the weekend as well.
In my post about joining, I mentioned how I had to make sure I could still eat breakfast without going over the weight requirements. I had a very small dinner at 5:00pm the night before MEPS and a couple of granola bars (which I ate for psychological pleasure). I figured I'd be OK eating these since I really hadn't eaten that much prior to arriving at the hotel that day and the dinner rations were meager at best.
Long story short, I went from 148 in late September to 138 lbs on October 7th. Even moms said she noticed I was getting smaller. Because they also measure you if you don't make the weight requirements, I was also losing weight to make my hip and waist measurements go down. They did:
- Hips: before = 40", after = 37"
- Waist: before = 32", after = 31"
- Neck: before = 14", after = 13"
Not huge changes, but they got the job done. I don't know what those measurements equate to in terms of Naval standards for BMI, but since I was 138 lbs, they didn't have to measure me.
Of course I was. You'd be hungry too if you didn't eat anything for 12 hrs. But I wasn't as hungry as I thought I'd be. I didn't pass out, didn't get light headed or weak. In fact, I was able to do 1.5 - 2 hr workouts on nothing but the dinner from the night before. Before I started fasting I feared hunger pangs; the minute I felt a twinge of one I ate something. With the fasting I had to adjust my mode of thinking: hunger pangs just meant my body was dipping into its tragically plentiful fat supply. I imagined myself physically shrinking and more importantly, making weight.
You're not going to be in pain if you don't eat. Trust me, you'll survive. The human body can go daaays without food and/or water, so a few hours won't kill you. If you're really concerned about going for so long without food, eat a late dinner the night before. It helps. I usually eat on the late side anyway since I don't get home from the gym until 7-8pm. After I shower and cook the food, it's about 9-9:30. You also have the option of having a light snack before gym if you're concerned about working out on an empty stomach. I experimented with a few things and I found greek yogurt works great for this. But you really don't need anything. Here's the thing: if I can hit PRs on the deadlift and run on the treadmill for 15 min, you'll survive. I'm 100% sure the rest of the world isn't as intense as I am at the gym, therefore I'm equally as sure fasting won't kill you.
The main thing I learned from this was that you can survive if you're hungry. The first few times you do it are the worst, but that's because you have to change your thinking. I used to get hungry around times I used to eat before I was fasting. The human mind is highly trainable; the external forces that make you think about eating are called triggers. They're purely psychological. Smokers have triggers that make them want to smoke. Drinkers are the same way. Train yourself to not think about eating and you won't think about it. I occupy my time at work during lunch. I'll run an errand or write these here lovely blogs. Or work on whatever random project I have going on in my life at the moment. I trained myself to not get hungry around meal times and now I don't start getting hungry until I'm fixin' to head to the gym. And when in doubt, don't provide yourself with options: I don't keep food at my desk, nor do I keep change for the vending machine.
So there's this chick in my life who for reals resembles Humpty Dumpty. I won't go into details about who or where I see this girl, but those of you who follow me on the Book will be able to put 2 & 2 together. What pisses me off about her is that she doesn't have to look like that. In my mind, there are only 3 reasons to be that fat:
Granted, there are varying degrees of fat, ranging from plump to complete devastation. This chick is that max level: complete devastation. I say again, it pisses me off because she doesn't have to be. She's a really pretty girl, but at 4'11" you simply cannot be tipping the scales at 200 lbs. Ain't not doctor in the world gon' say that's a healthy weight for that frame, not matter how it fits you. At 23-24 yrs old, that's unacceptable. Your body is suffering: Your intestines are a mess because all you do is eat crap all day - not a veggie in sight, your heart is a mess because the only exercise you get is moving from the couch to the fridge and back again, your arteries are all clogged from the crap you got from said fridge, your teeth are probably a mess from eating unsightly amounts of sugar, your hair and skin are suffering because chances are you're not eating healthy foods to get the essential nutrients to keep them healthy, and your joints/bones are literally slowly dying because of all that excess weight they have to lug around. At 4'11" your knees are not designed to carry 200 lbs around on a daily basis. This type of weight carrying isn't like lifting weights at the gym. I lift heavy for an hour a day, then go back to normal body weight. This chick carries around 200 lbs 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Her joints get no rest. I don't workout on Sundays because like Jesus, my knees also rest on the 7th day. Her muscular-skeletal system never gets to rest. That's a tremendous amount of weight to have on such a small frame, and I get pissssssed every time I look at her. She can barely move her legs to walk and I'm certain she can't touch her toes. In fact, I don't know that she can even see her fer toes...
I know what she does with her body is none of my business, but she keeps her egg-shaped self in my line of sight all the time, so I can't help but notice things, hence the Humpty reference. I know she has trouble finding clothes to fit because if I'm this size and can't find decent pants, you might as well go naked at 4'11" 200 lbs, real talk. I'm sure she doesn't have to be like this. You simply cannot eat crap and sit behind a desk all day long, then go home and eat more crap, sit, then go to bed. If she were a child, I'd blame her parents, but as an adult, I can only blame her. Having jobs that require disrespectfully high amounts of sitting require you to eat less because you're not burning hardly anything sitting on your butt all day long, TRUST ME. Everyone at my job is fat but me. People who started here after me have even gained noticeable amounts of weight. People here are so fat Weight Watchers comes to us to have bi-weekly meetings!! Literally. Now y'all can't tell me that ain't shameful!!
I say again, I'm not saying everyone needs to be a gym crackhead. In fact, you don't even need a gym or a personal trainer (so trainer friends) to be healthy. You can make healthy food choices at the supermarkert and walk/run outside for free. You can do burpees in the comforts of your own home and get a quality sweat on from that. If you're feeling extra daring you can invest in a bike. If you have a little bit of coin you can invest in a gym membership and go 2-3 times a week. You don't have to go to the gym everyday or spend hours there. Real talk, you can get a quality workout in 50 min, 2-3 days a week. If you get a personal trainer, that's they're going to have to come in for sessions for the same amount of time and frequency. Don't be intimidated by my 2 hr sessions; I have no social life, thus the copious amounts time for weights. If you don't know what you're doing, Google it. YouTube anything you're curious about. If you're self-conscious about going tot he gym, buy yourself some weights and check YouTube for some workouts. The internet is a beautiful thing, people. I've been lifting for 13 yrs and I still check YouTube on the daily for ish.
Since MEPS I've allowed myself a little leniency in terms of eating, so I'm about 141 right now. That's right about where I'd like to say that way it won't be too difficult when I need to slim down again.
Are you ready?...
EAT LESS, SWEAT MORE.
That'll be $25 each, please.
I'm bout to market this ish and make a fortune.
Real talk people, the secret to weight loss is simple: you have to burn more calories than you consume. To do that, you have to eat less and move more. Sometimes life really is just that simple.
Now if you've been following this blog you know of my weight loss struggles. You know I tried everything: changing my diet, changing my workout routine, spending $89216 on stupid fitness DVDs *cuts eyes to Insanity*, and nothing worked. I lost maybe 3 lbs doing all of that, and that was over the course of several months. I just lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks. I was literally losing lbs. every other day, trust me, I weighed myself. Four days before MEPS I was 143 lbs. On the day of MEPS I was 138 lbs, and yesss I was eating. Ya'll know how I feel about food. God is good and food is great. And the church says: Amen.
Elliott Hulse
I got the idea for the weight loss from watching this dude on YouTube named Elliott Hulse. He's a professional Strong Man and seems to really know his stuff. I trust no one and he does come off
Fasting & Hunger Pangs
What he talks about in the video is intermittent fasting. It's exactly how it sounds: don't eat during the day a couple times a week.
*SN* Remember when I said I actually gained weight during Insanity? He explains why in the video. Now I know my body isn't weird.
Fasting means you eat in the evening but not during the day, so I would make sure dinner was extra nutrient-packed to make up for the other missed meals. He suggests Mondays and Fridays. What do they have in common: they're near the weekend. By fasting on the day before the weekend, you essentially increase your caloric allotment for the weekend. This allows you to be a little more relaxed about your weekend eating. This does not mean eat like a starving child. It does means you can have those precious chocolate chip pancakes you love to make every Saturday morning *eyes to bag of chocolate chips in cabinet* By fasting on Monday, you can off set the increase in calories by using the extra you accumulated over the weekend for when you're not eating. Tuesday-Thursday is standard eating; small meals, no cakes candies, cookies,
 |
| Starbucks! *gasp* |
 |
| I'd take the chocolate chip biscuits over the beer. But that's just me. |
I take a multi-vitamin and an omega-3 pill everyday so I figured I'm getting 90% of what I need for the day there, thus making up for whatever I don't physically consume. This main point is eat less. Although I wasn't eating on Mondays and Fridays I was still working out with the same routine as I did when I had eaten. Force yourself to work harder; remember, your mind gets tired long before your body does. On Fridays I motivated myself by thinking of all the d'licious food I was going to be able to eat because of the workout I was doing, and on Mondays I just told myself I was a fat had to be punished for my caloric indiscretions. Whatever floats your boat.
Results
As the date for MEPS neared, I was instructed not to do any type of physical fitness 48 hrs prior to the actual date: apparently it working out puts protein in your urine? Not sure how that happens, but if someone who's been doing this for 198246 yrs tells you not to do something, you don't really question them. MEPS was on a Monday, which meant I couldn't workout after Friday. I decided to make Thursday my last workout just to be on the safe side. Since I couldn't burn a high amount of calories by working out I simply ate less those two days, essentially fasting over the weekend as well.
In my post about joining, I mentioned how I had to make sure I could still eat breakfast without going over the weight requirements. I had a very small dinner at 5:00pm the night before MEPS and a couple of granola bars (which I ate for psychological pleasure). I figured I'd be OK eating these since I really hadn't eaten that much prior to arriving at the hotel that day and the dinner rations were meager at best.
Long story short, I went from 148 in late September to 138 lbs on October 7th. Even moms said she noticed I was getting smaller. Because they also measure you if you don't make the weight requirements, I was also losing weight to make my hip and waist measurements go down. They did:
- Hips: before = 40", after = 37"
- Waist: before = 32", after = 31"
- Neck: before = 14", after = 13"
Not huge changes, but they got the job done. I don't know what those measurements equate to in terms of Naval standards for BMI, but since I was 138 lbs, they didn't have to measure me.
Weren't You Hungry??
Of course I was. You'd be hungry too if you didn't eat anything for 12 hrs. But I wasn't as hungry as I thought I'd be. I didn't pass out, didn't get light headed or weak. In fact, I was able to do 1.5 - 2 hr workouts on nothing but the dinner from the night before. Before I started fasting I feared hunger pangs; the minute I felt a twinge of one I ate something. With the fasting I had to adjust my mode of thinking: hunger pangs just meant my body was dipping into its tragically plentiful fat supply. I imagined myself physically shrinking and more importantly, making weight.
You're not going to be in pain if you don't eat. Trust me, you'll survive. The human body can go daaays without food and/or water, so a few hours won't kill you. If you're really concerned about going for so long without food, eat a late dinner the night before. It helps. I usually eat on the late side anyway since I don't get home from the gym until 7-8pm. After I shower and cook the food, it's about 9-9:30. You also have the option of having a light snack before gym if you're concerned about working out on an empty stomach. I experimented with a few things and I found greek yogurt works great for this. But you really don't need anything. Here's the thing: if I can hit PRs on the deadlift and run on the treadmill for 15 min, you'll survive. I'm 100% sure the rest of the world isn't as intense as I am at the gym, therefore I'm equally as sure fasting won't kill you.
What I Learned
Humpty Dumpty
Now let me preface this section with this statement:I have nothing against fat people and I know losing weight if hella difficult for some people. I don't cast judgment on fat people or make fun of them when I see them. Real talk, I'm always hella happy when I see them in the gym because the first step in weight loss is actually trying. I don't think I'm perfect nor do I think everyone should aspire to look like me. I am a gym crackhead. All the peoples in all the world can't be gym crackheads because gyms would be overcrowded and I wouldn't get my turn on the squat rack. Sometimes I feel sorry for big people when I see them. This is not to be confused with pity; I feel sorry for them because I'd like to think no one would willingly choose to be big in a world where small is style. I feel sorry for them because I know many people who actually put forth a great deal of effort, sometimes exceptionally risky effort, to lose the extra lbs. I'm fully aware weight loss isn't as easy as I make it sound, otherwise no one would be fat. When I say "it's simply", part of that is sarcasm. And part of it isn't...
So there's this chick in my life who for reals resembles Humpty Dumpty. I won't go into details about who or where I see this girl, but those of you who follow me on the Book will be able to put 2 & 2 together. What pisses me off about her is that she doesn't have to look like that. In my mind, there are only 3 reasons to be that fat:
- You have a medical condition that makes you gain weight.
- You are taking medication that makes you gain weight.
- Your cognitive functions aren't running at 100%, and I believe you know exactly what I'm hinting at here.
 |
| I wish this were an exaggeration... |
I know what she does with her body is none of my business, but she keeps her egg-shaped self in my line of sight all the time, so I can't help but notice things, hence the Humpty reference. I know she has trouble finding clothes to fit because if I'm this size and can't find decent pants, you might as well go naked at 4'11" 200 lbs, real talk. I'm sure she doesn't have to be like this. You simply cannot eat crap and sit behind a desk all day long, then go home and eat more crap, sit, then go to bed. If she were a child, I'd blame her parents, but as an adult, I can only blame her. Having jobs that require disrespectfully high amounts of sitting require you to eat less because you're not burning hardly anything sitting on your butt all day long, TRUST ME. Everyone at my job is fat but me. People who started here after me have even gained noticeable amounts of weight. People here are so fat Weight Watchers comes to us to have bi-weekly meetings!! Literally. Now y'all can't tell me that ain't shameful!!
I say again, I'm not saying everyone needs to be a gym crackhead. In fact, you don't even need a gym or a personal trainer (so trainer friends) to be healthy. You can make healthy food choices at the supermarkert and walk/run outside for free. You can do burpees in the comforts of your own home and get a quality sweat on from that. If you're feeling extra daring you can invest in a bike. If you have a little bit of coin you can invest in a gym membership and go 2-3 times a week. You don't have to go to the gym everyday or spend hours there. Real talk, you can get a quality workout in 50 min, 2-3 days a week. If you get a personal trainer, that's they're going to have to come in for sessions for the same amount of time and frequency. Don't be intimidated by my 2 hr sessions; I have no social life, thus the copious amounts time for weights. If you don't know what you're doing, Google it. YouTube anything you're curious about. If you're self-conscious about going tot he gym, buy yourself some weights and check YouTube for some workouts. The internet is a beautiful thing, people. I've been lifting for 13 yrs and I still check YouTube on the daily for ish.
Conclusions
I actually like being smaller. In all honesty, I haven't seen the 130s since high school...I've missed them greatly. I like the way my clothes fit at this size. I didn't think it was a visible difference until Milk Dud at the gym said my arms looked incredible and used me to motive one of his clients. I'm glad it's noticeable, but that's not the reason I did it: Aside from the Navy thing I'm gad I was actually able to lose weight for once in my life. I'd been trying for years to get down to this size. I'm actually planning on going down to 130-135 lbs by summer 2014 using this method, so hopefully I'll be able to do it before leaving for boot camp.Since MEPS I've allowed myself a little leniency in terms of eating, so I'm about 141 right now. That's right about where I'd like to say that way it won't be too difficult when I need to slim down again.
