How We Lost Nearly 100 Pounds

Diet and exercise. You can either believe me for my word or read on...

After holiday binging, I stepped on the scale on the evening of January 2, 2010 and wasn't overly pleased with the result. I wasn't nearly as close to a perfect game in bowling as I was after we had Matthew a year earlier, but I was still up there. It was then that I decided to make a New Year's resolution...not to lose weight, but to actually keep a resolution.

Since its somewhat related to weight loss, let's go back a year and a half or so to start. After my second kidney stone in November of 2008, I gave up soda...cold turkey. It sucked, but I survived. Short of a mixer in the occasional drink (I can't totally quit you, Korbel) I have drank zero soda. This resulted in losing 10-15 pounds with minimal effort. So for those of you who question whether it works, quitting soda worked for me.

Move forward to October of 2009. While watching The Biggest Loser with Melissa, I decided it was a nice night and I would take a walk. I think I got in about 2 1/2 miles that first night. This started the habit of me walking about 2-3 times a week. This is somewhat related to weight loss since when I started walking, I really saw no difference...but then again, I wasn't really trying either.

The real start came on January 2, 2010. It was at this point that I was going to really try to watch what I ate. Not just watching it all disappear from the fridge and cabinets, but really watch what I ate. I have termed the change "Not Eating Like an Idiot". Long story short, I basically limited my calorie intake. I did no "dieting" in the sense that I ate certain things or didn't eat other things. I just limited calories. I kept myself around 1,500 calories a day, which I know is probably lower than most people recommend, but I tried it to see what happened.

When I say "eating like an idiot", I really meant that I ate like an idiot. One of my favorite snacks was something I termed a cheese sandwich. This was two slices of American cheese holding a large knife-ful of PB. So delicious and only about 300 calories down the hatch in 3-4 bites.

Shortly after I started, Melissa decided to come along for the ride. This was probably one of the things that made things so much easier. We had talked in the past about doing something similar, but usually soon after we started, one of us (we are both guilty I admit) would talk the other into a trip to Culver's or some other deliciousness. This time I was determined to cut back though.

In no particular order, here are some of the things we did:

1. We ate out less.

I can't say we totally stopped, but we made a conscious effort to not eat out at much. Also, when we did, we made an effort to learn which things are better for you than others at fast food restaurants. We spent some time looking at the nutritional information of things we normally ordered then looked at some "better" options. Who knew that a bacon cheeseburger, cheese curds, fries, and a custard from Culver's is more calories that I try to eat in an entire day? I know now. We found things at every fast food joint that were not that bad and stuck to those. We also ate at healthier places like Subway. We started getting 6" subs instead of the foot long Subway Feast.

2. We drank more water

Under orders from my kidney stone doctor, I started pounding water. After doing a 24 hour urine test (which involves peeing in a bucket for 24 hours and sending a vial of pee to a lab in Chicago...fun) i learned that my urine output was"piss poor"...yes my doc really said that. He told me to shoot for 2 liters of water intake a day. I upped that to a goal of a gallon a day, which led to no kidney stones (yet) and having to wake up 1-2 times a night to pee. Sometimes I have to fight Anna for a spot at the toilet. I had already learned that this helps me with weight loss, but I learned it also helps with hunger. It also helps that I was put on two daily meds for my stones, which led to the inspired Christmas gift of an economy sized weekly pill dispenser and a case of water bottles...thanks "Santa"! Instead of getting a snack from the snack machine at work (which generally consists of expired bags of chips that we can't sell to the public) I drank some water...and it worked. Melissa followed my lead, and even though she hates water, I think she is happy with the results.

3. We stopped eating ground beef

Even the extra lean stuff. We started subbing ground turkey in recipes and we still have yet to find something that makes the meal worse. I know it is out there somewhere still, but it definitely has not been in lasagna, chili, hamburger helper, sloppy joes, or tacos. We have made all with turkey and it is hard to tell the difference at times. We have even eaten turkey burgers on a few occasions...including opening day...and have not been struck down yet as far as I know.

4. I played around with recipes

Two major things I did were play with ingredients and make less.

You know those casseroles (hot dishes for you up north folks) that call for a stick of butter. Guess what? You don't really need that stick of butter. That butter may make things delicious, but I bet you would be equally pleased if you only used a tablespoon of butter...or (gasp!) none at all.

I also started making half of things. Instead of making a full recipe and having leftovers for two days, I only made what we would eat. Half a box of pasta. Half a package of chicken and rice. One pound of chili instead of three. You don't realize how much these things add up at lunch until you actually add them up.

5. We started making lunches daily

Melissa has always been good at making her own lunch since she is generally stuck in the building for lunch, but I was horrible. Since my job involves driving from Wauwatosa to the northwest side of Milwaukee to the south side of Milwaukee in no particular order on a daily basis, I could plan my day around my lunch stop. There were even days when I would stop twice since the first stop didn't fill me up. Since the start of the year, I have only ate out for lunch a few times (not counting when Ed and Shaun are so kind as to buy me tacos on Tuesday) and each of those times generally involved a trip to Subway for the aforementioned 6" sub...preferably buffalo chicken which the Subway on 76th and Good Hope has all the time!

6. I ate breakfast and Melissa changed her breakfast

My normal breakfast was nothing. Melissa's normal breakfast was a bagel loaded with PB. We both seemed to have found a happy medium. My normal breakfast is either a yogurt or a granola bar and string cheese and Melissa has found turkey sausage patties on an english muffin to be quite delicious.

7. We still eat treats

We just changed what they are. Instead of the ritual trip to Culver's for concrete shakes and sundaes, we have found some "healthier" options. Personal favorites include cookie dough frozen yogurt (120 calories in a 1/2 cup serving...one farily large scoop) and Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches (140-160 calories in a fairly sizable sandwich). We also had some delicious root beer floats the other night that I would guess were less than 150 calories. They included vanilla frozen yogurt and Sprecher low-cal root beer. I thought they were excellent.

8. We weigh ourselves

In the past we prided ourselves on not owning a scale. I now weigh myself on a daily basis (in the evening when I am my fattest) and Melissa checks in weekly. It is also fun to weigh yourself before and after you pee or poop. I have had some solid weight loss due to either (or both) of those...no pun intended.

9. We cut down / stopped eating PB

Melissa still hits the bottle once in a while (I think...though Anna can polish an entire jar off herself) but I have completely given it up. There is no easier snack in the world than digging a knife into a jar of PB. I miss it dearly, but I know it is for the better. This is something that Melissa has proven can be enjoyed in moderation, but I don't know whether I could moderate PB consumption.

There are other things that we did, but it is getting too late to keep going. may add them as I remember them.

As for exercise, I have become a runner. For those who know me well, please get up off the floor. We signed up to do the Brewers 5k run in July, so we decided to actually do it. I tried running for a month or so starting in January, but my lungs would give out after 1 1/2 miles or so. In February I started swimming. This helped my immensely. At my peak, I was running 3 times a week and swimming 3 times a week. Since work got busy, I have cut out the swimming, but I am still running 3-4 times a week for a total of 12-15 miles a week...including a beastly 5 mile run up KK Ave. in 85 degree sun the other day. Melissa was starting a program to build her up to running the 5k, but a nasty sickness knocked her on her ass and took away all the work that she put into it. Still plenty of time (nearly 2 months) before we knock out that 5k though.

That is how we did it. Since we started I have lost right around 60 pounds and Melissa has lost about 30 or so (sorry if you didn't want the world to know...at least I didn't give actual figures!!). Neither of us have a real goal in mind, but I know at some point we will have to stop so we don;t slide through the cracks in our hardwood floors.

I will add things as I remember them, but in the meantime, feel free to post anything that worked for you in the comments. It really isn't that hard...especially when you have someone helping you out along the way.