I'll lose 100 lbs in 1 year, said 42 year old

[VanIslander]

May 1st was my 42nd birthday and I weighed myself that day for the first time in years and was 145 kg (320 lbs) with a 150 cm (59 in.) waist and a height of 183 cm (6'0 ft). I dunno which is the biggest shocker: (a) that I had gained 40 lbs unknowingly in the past year; (b) that I'd gained 140 lbs since college; or, gasp, that (c) I have lost 3 cm and thus 6'1 ft. status sometime in the last 20 years. I am only 6 feet tall? I was at/over 300 lbs? I had the waist size of a heart attack to come? These were real wake ups calls to me the day before my birthday. I have no kids and I haven't been married since I weighed over a hundred pounds less, well over a decade ago. I do hope to get married someday and raise a child or two. It was passed time that I work toward those ends and my physical well being as well as my sense of security.

So, off I went, another optimistic fool with wild ambitions. And guess what? I've lost 36 kg already since May 1st!  And I did it largely by cutting out all sources of sugar to my body (including fructose from fruit, simple carbohydrates from grains) and walking an hour a day. I make sure to eat six or seven meals a day so that my metabolism stays stoked and to have no insulin spikes, more like minimeals. Each meal has one protein (meat or eggs or cheese or nuts) and a heck of a lot of veggies (onions, garlic, hot green peppers, hot red peppers, mini paprika peppers, bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, green onion and once a day at least some leafy greens like spinach, swiss chard or kale. Once a week a red cabbage and asparagus soup. Salmon too. And, oh yeah, I have six squares of dark chocolate every day along with a half or full glass of dark red wine (usually French pinot noir for its lack of sugar and antioxidants).

I have a few more kilograms more to go to have reached my "100 pounds lost" goal (target: 100 kg).

APRIL 25TH UPDATE (6 DAYS TO GO): 99.5 KG This day I have officially lost 100 pounds!!
APRIL 23RD UPDATE (8 DAYS TO GO): 99.8 KG
APRIL 13TH UPDATE (18 DAYS TO GO): 101.0 KG
MARCH 16TH UPDATE (46 DAYS TO GO): 102 KG
MARCH 12TH UPDATE (50TH DAY LEFT IN MY YEAR - TIME TO TRY HARDER): 104 KG
VALENTINE'S DAY UPDATE: 105.0 kg and I dunno waist (misplaced measuring tape)
END OF FIRST WEEK IN NOVEMBER UPDATE: 106.5 kg and 112 waist
LAST WEEK OF OCTOBER UPDATE: 107.9 kg weight and 114 cm waist
(I was off the scale for three weeks in part because the plateau was pissing me off! I took part in a one-month Biggest Loser contest with co-workers and lost 5.9 kg more to get to 109 kg)
END OF WEEK 19 UPDATE: 114.9 kg weight and 118 cm waist
END OF WEEK 18 UPDATE: 115.0 kg weight and 118 cm waist
END OF WEEK 17 UPDATE: 115.5 kg weight and 121 cm waist
END OF WEEK 16 UPDATE: 115.8 kg weight and 119 cm waist
END OF WEEK 15 UPDATE: 118.6 kg weight and 119 cm waist
END OF WEEK 14 UPDATE: 120.3 kg weight and 118 cm waist
END OF WEEK 13 UPDATE: 119.9 kg weight and 119 cm waist
END OF WEEK 12: ON VACATION
END OF WEEK 11 UPDATE: 122.1 kg weight and 119 cm waist
END OF WEEK 10 UPDATE: 125.2 kg weight and 118 cm waist
END OF WEEK 9 UPDATE: 127.1 kg weight and 118 cm waist
END OF WEEK 8 UPDATE: 128.6 kg weight and 119 cm waist
END OF WEEK 7 UPDATE: 129.8 kg weight and 124 cm waist
END OF WEEK 6 UPDATE: 131.0 kg weight and 121 cm waist
END OF WEEK 5 UPDATE: 132.8 kg weight and 124 cm waist
END OF WEEK 4 UPDATE: 134.1 kg weight and 126 cm waist
END OF WEEK 3 UPDATE: 136.9 kg weight and 126 cm waist
END OF WEEK 2 UPDATE: 136.9 kg weight and 129 cm waist
END OF WEEK 1 UPDATE: 138.1 kg weight and 131 cm waist

[TDC troll]

  That's awsome . I need to lose a few myself.
  Keep up the good work ! 

[VanIslander]

I have a "before" picture and I'll post it, but not before I also have the "After" picture! 

[bb]

You did this in Korea? Were you still able to participate in school dinners, that kindof thing or did you have  to isolate yourself a lot? Great job.

[toddc06]

Wow congratulations!!!  Where were you able to find your new clothes??? Keep it up!

[VanIslander]

School dinners? Never been to one of those. Nearly a decade in hagwons and I'll keep it that way. But eating out is EASY because I eat all the meat, cheese, eggs, fish and vegetables I want. Just NO sugar or simple carbohydrates whatsoever. So, samgyupsal no problem, haemultang, mayoontang, gamjatang without the ptatoes, kimchi dzigae without the rice, etc. There are quite a few vegetable and meat based Korean dishes. Believe it or not, noodles and rice aren't central to all Korean food!

As for clothes, the seven tailored suits I wear to work are flopping all over now, really in need of re-tailoring. All my dress pants crunch up at the belt buckle like some old man. I have five belts that are too big for me now and the sixth belt I'm on the last hole. Help! A good problem to have. By the end of the month I'll need to get a new belt. I'm considering trying to find a local tailor for my clothes or else zip up to my ol' tailor in Seoul.

[ch1can3]

you only walk an hour a day?  wow O.O

[VanIslander]

you only walk an hour a day?  wow O.O

1. Some days I miss, so I make it up later (ie., today I walked for three hours because Fri and Sat I was so busy and didn't take the time. Of course, walking here on Jeju involves up and down action half the time, with the coastal Olle trails and the inland Halla mountainside parks.

2. Diet is more important than exercise for significant weight loss; but exercise with diet is the best for long term keeping the weight off. These truths I gleaned from countless examples of people who actually lost 100 pounds (amazing how many blog about it).

Calories in-calories out is a myth. It's all about metabolism! the rate the body uses and keeps energy. Exercise can help metabolism but other things stoke metabolism even more. Not consuming sugar or simple carbs makes your body burn fat to get the energy it needs. Your body prefers glucose if it can get (or make it from carb foods). Eating fat does not make you fat. The human body prefers burning stored fat over converting digested lipids. The key is insulin. If that is kept low then the body won't try to get and save consumed energy sources and instead crap it out. How to keep insulin, the fat-storing hormone low? By not giving your blood (the highway of the body) glucose (sugar and carbs).

I eat a ton of vegetables a day, meat, any block cheese I want, eggs, yogurt and at least three kinds of nuts. I have every vitamin and mineral covered in spades, a highly nutritional way of eating. I also get enough sunshine, vitamin d.

After I reach my total weight loss goal I'll re-introduce milk and fruit into my eating habits, as I won't have any need to keep insulin levels at a minimum any more. I'll also consume some beans and lentils, but will be picky with the grains, especially the empty calories of white rice. Most manufactured breads are pretty empty of nutrition so I'll go light on them. I also haven't had any cheat days, but after I reach my goal I figure I'll have exception-to-habit days, like when travelling (lasagna white flour) or with Koreans (their white rice homemade duk guk).

I am keenly aware of nutrition nowadays and have no interest in junk food or anything that in effect is empty calories for the human body. I used to live to eat, but now eat to live. Taste matters, in fact, I taste foods so much more these days. Before sweet and salty ruled my appetite; now a hundred other tastes do!

[justanotherwaygook]

I have every vitamin and mineral covered in spades, a highly nutritional way of eating.

What does this mean?  Congratulations on your loss! 

[VanIslander]

What does this mean?

It means that I consume considerably more than the recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals by my consumption of superfoods. Take vitamin c for example. Peppers rule in terms of v-c levels and I eat daily five kinds of peppers, both sweet and spicy. Not to mention several fresh lemons squeezed into my many glasses of ice water. Vitamins A and K I get from the vegetables. Swiss chard, spinach, broccoli and kale are chocked full of nutrients. The B vitamins and protein are covered with the daily meat, dairy, eggs and nuts consumption. The ratio of potassium to sodium is what scientists and doctors want, not what modern lifestyles have inflicted upon most people. I get a lot of antioxidants with the green tea, dark chocolate powder, cinnamon, red wine I have every day.

Really, when someone tells you they aren't eating fruit or grains your first impression might be like it is with some: Are you getting enough nutrition?  Oh yeah baby! In spades!

[Harpoinseoul]

Hey Congrats! That is awesome!! I myself eat high fat homemade blueberry yogurt (no sugar.) Need to cut out the simple carbs.
I also like Byron Richard's 5 Rules to the Leptin Diet. Fighting!!

[sunshinefiasco]

 

I have every vitamin and mineral covered in spades, a highly nutritional way of eating.

What does this mean?  Congratulations on your loss! 

to have something in spades=to have a lot of it (spade-fulls of it maybe?)

I think what he's saying here is he's got vitamins in spades/his vitamins are covered.

[VanIslander]

Well, "in spades" is a term from poker, spades being the trump suit. "I have it in spades." The subject of my sentence wasn't vitamins and minerals, as in "I have vitamins and minerals in spades" as I added the expression "I have it covered" with "in spades" used as a means of emphasis. There's nothing wrong grammatically with the sentence, though I wouldn't speak like that to a non-native speaker, and I guess it is possibly an expression not universally known in the English speaking countries, though I thought it was.

[VanIslander]

Thank you all for your support.  Every cheer is remembered and added motivation. It takes a village to rai-, er, lose weight.

The sheer volume of anecdotal evidence supporting a diet rich in animal fats and vegetables is getting to the point where it is crushing any evidence to the contrary. It has certainly put paid to the USDA *and corn lobby) approved food pyramid.

Yeah. Studies are actually finding that nuts and cheese actually are correlated with lower weights, that body fat percentages are lower with the consumption of fat. And - other than starchy potatoes and carrots - adding more vegetables to one's menu is a surefire way to lose weight abd be healthier in a multitude of ways.

And remember: corn is not a vegetable, it's a grain; peanuts are not nuts, they're legumes/beans.

[odie]

First let me say congrats on the weight loss! It takes a lot to do it and it's no small feat. And thank you for posting how you did it too. There's a lot of info out there but it's nice to have it from someone "real".

I have a question for you after reading your diet:

1. What kinds of meals do you make regularly and how do you prepare your vegetables? I'm trying to plan my food and eat healthy. I'm having a difficult time preparing it. I regularly resort to sandwiches but I know the bread isn't good for me.

2. Also, why have you backed off the lentils and beans? I assumed that these were even better to eat than meat but I'd love to hear what you think about them.

Thanks!

[TriKorea]

I just want to say congratulation! That's huge!!! I am a bit of a fitness guru and health nut, and meeting and talking to people who have lost big weight like this just touches my heart! Keep up the amazing work!!! You are awesome!!!

[VanIslander]

What kinds of meals do you make regularly and how do you prepare your vegetables? I'm trying to plan my food and eat healthy. I'm having a difficult time preparing it. I regularly resort to sandwiches but I know the bread isn't good for me.

For breakfast I have what started out as an omlette idea but is 90% veggies so I call it a stirfry. One large or two medium onions, six to eight garlic cloves, three or four long fresh red hot peppers, six to ten short green hot peppers, six minipaprika sweet peppers, orange and yellow usually, three to five button mushrooms, lots of szechuan spice (called 'chinese pepper' in the packaging, biuyght at HomePlus), two egg whites and one egg yolk, sprinkled with Tobasco sauce at the table if I want extra zing.

I substitute green leafy veggies for bread, make WRAPS instead of sandwiches! Pepperoni, cheddar chunk, green onion, sweet red bell pepper all wrapped in a sesame leaf (Korean style like they do with samgyuupsal) or better: swiss chard or kale. Down the hatch! Yum! Easy to prep to take to work for inbetween class snack. I use a lot of of those ziploc baggies.

Finger food snacks to pop into mouth:

1. Broccoli. Not bad. I much prefer using left over water from boiling chicken drumsticks as a broth base and then quick boiling a broccoli soup as a quick lunch, throwing in black pepper and onions. Gawd it's actually so goooood! The good thing about broccoli as a movie watching snack is that it fills you up quite quick. One loses the hunger and munchies, feels content, after a half bowl or less.

2. Cauliflower. Like broccoli but with less taste, in a good way, like popcorn really! I've grown quite used to it and enjoy it immensely. Of course, finding a supply of it when Emart and HomePlus sometimes don't carry it is fru-stra-ting!

3. Green onion. I actually love the atste and texture. Of course I like spicy and it has a bit of bite sometimes. I recommend having it with block cheese (gawd I never eat processed cheese product slices - just REAL cheese) or pepperoni sausage or even that liver with pork sausage ("soondae"). It's a staple of my snack and meal accompaniments.

4. Sweet bell peppers. Because I avoid added sugars and non-veggie, non-dairy carbohydrates, the sweetest thing I eat BY FAR is sweet bell peppers. Red bell peppers have lots of nutrients in them (google them, it's amazing) and it's a sweet, crunchy snack. I quickly slice one up into three or four wedges, cut out any seeds inside (seeds are good for soup but not for snack), wash them and toss them into a ziploc baggie for workplace snack. Forget sugar-laden oranges or apples: bell peppers has them beat for vitamin C among other vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants! And the taste is quite good. NOT green bell peppers though. Green bell peppers I only have in soups or stews as the taste isn't so good raw. Orange and yellow bell peppers I also throw in to add variety, but the red ones are the best nutritionwise so that's my staple.

5. I have a red cabbage and asparagus soup every week (leftovers the next day or two (three to four meals in all). In fact, for lunch today before heading off to work I'm having it. One hour of boiling red cabbage and asparagus with a few bay leafs. Then add a bunch of red and green hot peppers (if you like spicy), a dozen garlic cloves, white onions and later when about done add broccoli or cauliflower, fresh parsley (!) and when minutes left, broken up swiss chard or bok choy. I sometimes throw in some gim (seaweed) when about fifteen minutes left. The whole soup takes an hour and a hlaf or more to cook. Oh yeah, remember: because there is red cabbage, add a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with the cabbage to offset the acidity (balance!). The result is a spicy, flavourful purple color broth to die for! I actually think the soup ingredients are just not bad, but that broth! All the flavours mix in a perfect combination. It realy tastes great and I feel jacked all day, like popeye eatiung spinach or something.

I am always, always interested in new ways and kinds of veggies to include in my weekly menu. I avoid starchy carrots and potatoes. But any other veggies I'm keen on using more often. I strive for a 75% veggie consumption ratio to other food products. I try to make veggies the base of each meal, with a protein source included (meat, eggs, nuts, dairy). I have six minimeals a day instead of three big ones. Why? Because if you research metabolism you'll find that your body burns calories at a higher rate if it never has to go into starvation mode. Don't go without and your body won't try to hold onto things. That's why drinking A LOT of water each day (8+ glasses, one before each meal for sure!) actually results in less water retention after a while, once your body realizes a steady supply of water is coming it stops trying to hold onto the water!!!!! I emphasize this because when I first started drinking more water I felt more bloated but after a week or two I actually found myself peeing it out quickly. Yeah it means more trips to the bathroom. But I bloody well lost 36 kg since May drinking a ton of water, eating a ton of veggies and walking only one hour a day. The recipe is quite simple. Keep that insulin level down. Evenb a single slice of bread (refined grains, simple carbs) spikes the insulin, tells the body to keep everything. Remember your body loves glucose, nature's energy, and sugar and simple carbs provides it in spades, so your body will do everything to keep them.

[odie]

Thank you for the response! I'm printing it out so I can look at it further. Every little bit helps. My weight is good but I lack a ton of health and energy thanks to my "American" diet. I'm doing a bit better in Korea but I'm ready to start making more complete changes.

I really appreciate this!

[cowboy7]

Really great progress VanIslander.  Good luck with the rest. 

[VanIslander]

Good luck with the rest.

Thanks, I might need it! the weight loss has really slowed down in recent months. I did tip the scale at 107.9 kg this morning, going from 109.0 down 1.1 kg in a week or so. I want to maintain that kind of pace: slow but sure.

I woke up this morning and had a cup of plain yogurt with heavy dashes of cinnamon powder (good antioxidant and metabolism booster), then a glass of ice cold water with cubes and a half lemon squeezed into it. An hour later I pan fried a piece of salmon, put a half dozen swiss chard leaves next to it, fried up some onions, mushrooms, hot red peppers and garlic and added the mixture as a sidedish, then ate it all. An hour later I went for a two-hour hike up the foothills of Halla mountain, 20 C and blue skies, working on my leg muscles and arm tan. Now I'm preparing my ziploc foods to take to work (nuts, pepperoni, cheese, veggies galore) and then will probably have a veggie stirfry and a grapefruit for lunch. After work a glass of pinot noir red wine, six squares of 89% dark chocolate, then either just some broccoli as a snack or if I feel like it: a spinach salad with parmesan, lemon and vinegar. A typical day.