I turned 40 this year.
It didn’t hit me hard, like some people talk about. It didn’t actually bother me that I was growing older (wiser? more distinguished?). What bothered me was what I saw when I looked in the mirror.
I was fat. In my opinion, really fat. I had let myself balloon up to 258 pounds, and I just felt gross. Something had to change.
My mantra became “F*&% 40!” as I made a life change. Over time I decided perhaps a more family friendly #F40 would suffice as my battle cry.
The first #F40 decision I made was to make a radical change to my diet. I know that the main reasons for my weight gain were that I consistently ate far too many calories, I consistently got far too many of those calories from carbohydrates – especially junk carbs like candy and chips, and I was far too sedentary.
My normal mode of operation would have been to tackle all of those problems at once, rush out of the starting gate in a fury, and be burned out and bored within 72 hours. I didn’t want that to happen.
My other usual self-sabotage tactic is to do a ton of research, reading everything I can until I ultimately get distracted by another shiny object and move on. I didn’t want that to happen either.
I had a friend that had shared her great success on a Keto diet. I also know that a podcaster I regularly listened to follows a ketogenic diet. I decided not to do research but just to pick that as a first step and dive in.
I knew if I complicated it too much by tracking calories and micromanaging every little detail I would get frustrated. I kept it simple. I tracked my carbohydrate intake to keep them below 25 grams per day, and I stopped eating when I wasn’t hungry.
Of course, I hadn’t consulted my wife or had a discussion about how my decision would impact family meals. I hadn’t done any pre-planning to ensure our fridge was stocked with foods I could eat. So basically I survived my first few days on packaged lunch meat and cheese slices I found in the fridge.
Things got better, and the point of this story is that I just took action. Enough was enough. I had “had it” and wasn’t going to keep down the same path.
Fast forward a few months and I am down 50 pounds. I feel better. I look better. And I think now it’s time to tackle some of the other things that made me fat in the first place.
I have 30 more pounds I’d like to loose, bringing me to 185 pounds. To get there I need to add exercise into my routine. That’s my next #F40 move – to take up a more active lifestyle. More to come on that.