Ryan’s 150-Pound Weight Loss

Ryan’s 150-Pound Weight Loss: ‘Take It Slow and Go at Your Own Pace’

Ryan Footit is 40, 5’8”, and weighs 180 pounds. But just last year, he weighed 330 pounds. This is the story of his weight-loss journey. 

The Turning Point

A year ago, in June 2014, I turned 40 and weighed in at 330 pounds. I knew that if I didn’t do something about my weight, I was going to die an early, painful death loaded with medicines and procedures. Around that time, a Planet Fitness gym opened less than a half-mile from my condo. The day it opened, June 29, 2014, I started my journey. I set a goal to participate in the Music City Half Marathon the following April. I was ready to change my life. 

The Changes

I knew from the start that I wanted to lose weight on my own — no weight-loss drugs, no surgeries, no fad diets, or gimmicks. If I was going to lose the weight, I wanted the gratification of doing it 100 percent by myself. Plus, I think all the pills and gimmicks make for temporary weight loss. If you do not stay on the pills, the potions, or the diets forever, you will gain the weight back. I didn’t want that. I needed to modify my lifestyle to allow for continued success that would last the rest of my life.  

Since that very first day, my process of losing weight has been evolving. At first, I simply cut out wheat and dairy products from my diet. But over the last 10 months, my diet has changed to one that’s primarily focused on raw fruits and vegetables. I didn’t (and don’t) count calories or carbs or fat. Instead, I spent time every single day researching the healthiest things to eat and then eating them. Now, I always ask myself, “Is this food going to provide maximum nutrients to my body?” If the answer is “yes,” I eat it. I do not like restrictions or thinking I cannot eat anything. If I want to eat it, I will. With that said, I also know how many calories I burn per hour and I look at eating “bad things” as a time debt. I say to myself, “If I eat this cake or cookie I am wasting, say, 30 minutes of my treadmill time this morning.” I could have slept an extra 30 minutes or watched my favorite television show or listened to my favorite music with those extra 30 minutes — rather than working off a piece of cake. Most of the time, when I frame the food this way, the answer of whether or not the food is worth it becomes a “NO”! Of course, sometimes there are weddings, birthdays, or special events when the food is worth it, and on those occasions, I indulge. 

Since I started my journey a year ago, I stopped eating anything processed or anything microwaved. With my hectic work schedule, I have not found a great way to incorporate meat into my diet and I really don’t miss it too much. I also eat chocolate every single day. I buy any dark chocolate bars that are 72 percent or higher in cacao content. One large bar will last me a full week.

When I started exercising, I logged just 30 minutes on the treadmill and each week after, I would add 10 minutes. For several months, I was up at 3 a.m. to work out because that was what I needed to do to get a workout in before work. Now, I’m 15 pounds away from my goal weight. In the past year of losing weight, I probably only missed a workout five times. Even when I travel, I will find a Planet Fitness nearby or I will walk outside or in malls. Where there is a will, there is a way! When people tell me they do not have time to go to the gym, I tell them that we all have a 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. — what we do with that time is up to us. 

The After

Sometimes I run into people who I haven’t seen in a while and they say “I did not recognize you!” I love that. I feel like a completely different person. I have not been this light since high school in the late 1980s. 

I was shocked at how quickly I went through clothing. I was dropping sizes before I even knew I could fit in them. Goodwill has received about 15 bags of clothes that I can no longer wear. I wanted to get rid of them so I wouldn’t have any comfort zone to gain any weight back. If I have no clothing that will fit if I gain weight back, it will keep me motivated to keep the weight off. Before, I wore a XXXL shirt and size 46 pants. Now I wear a size MEDIUM shirt and size 34 pants.

I have documented my weight-loss journey on Facebook and having people reach out to me and tell me that I have inspired them to lose weight is so meaningful. Knowing that I have done something to help someone else’s life is the ultimate reward.

Today, I know that I will be around longer to spend time with my kids and, someday, grandkids. Being able to do things I never thought I could — like running and participating in the Music City Half Marathon (which I completed in a little over three hours) — has made all the challenges along the way worthwhile. 

The Maintenance

As a general practice, I find that I do best when I graze all day on veggies, some fruits, and a serving of nuts. Doing this means that I am never really hungry and that helps to prevent overeating. 

To stay on track, I plan all my meals and snacks. Preparing raw veggies can be time-consuming. I spend four to five hours a week washing, drying, and putting my meals together. Even when traveling, I always have a bag of apples, bananas, and nuts to snack on or eat as a meal. 

When I do have to eat out or don’t have great healthy options available, I follow the Dolly Parton diet. Dolly once said that she lost her weight by cutting her portions in half. She would eat half, she said, and leave the other half for her angels. It is purely psychological, but if you want to start eating the other half it makes you think twice about stealing from your angels. Splitting meals also works if you have someone you can do it with when eating out. One day, I hope to meet Dolly and take a picture of myself alongside her. I’d love to share with her that she made a difference in my journey!

The Struggles

My biggest struggle is forcing myself to spend less time in the gym. I still have 15 pounds to go to hit my goal of losing 165 pounds. When I reach that goal, I will also weigh 165 pounds, meaning I will have lost half of my body weight. I anticipate that when I hit my goal I will eliminate my evening workout routine. 

When it comes to dealing with richer, heavier foods, I try to follow a two-bite rule. My partner loves to order dessert when we eat out. I’ll eat two bites of whatever he has (assuming I like it) and that will both satisfy my sweet tooth and allow me to still feel like I am normal person enjoying some of life’s pleasures — without guilt or excessive calories. I love that.

One down side is that my life partner and I do not get to eat together as much as we used to. I work 10 a..m to 7 p.m. and don’t like eating dinner past 7 p.m., so I always eat at work. Unless it’s one of my days off, we usually eat on our own. When we do enjoy a meal together, my partner — who cooks like Paula Deen — has begun making healthier meals for us. It was hard at first, but now he uses less butter and gets creative with seasonings for vegetables. 

 See: Weight Loss with Green Smoothies 

Advice

Stop making excuses for why you can’t and figure out how you can. No single diet or exercise routine is going to work for everyone. You have to eat, so eat things that are healthy and that you enjoy. You need to work out so find routines you enjoy doing. 

You cannot just simply eat less, you must modify your life to a new style that you are willing and able to live with for the rest of your life. Over time, your diet will evolve — let it. You likely can’t give up everything at one time, so gradually make your changes. 

It’s important to recognize that once you achieve your weight-loss goal, you will need to maintain that by doing what you have done to get to that point. For me, getting to my goal does not mean that I can suddenly start eating chocolate cake and drinking soda for breakfast. Those of us who have struggled with our weight know that maintenance is a lifetime compromise. 

Take it slow and go at your own pace. If you start out running a marathon, you will spend the next two weeks unable to move. Push yourself a little bit today, but not to the point that you want to give up or to a degree where you hurt so bad that you can’t work out tomorrow. At the beginning of my journey, I said to myself, “You have been fat for 40 years. If it takes you two years to be successful while going slow, that’s better than being too aggressive, giving up, and being fat for another 40 years.’ 

Every pound is a victory and you should be proud of your accomplishments. Some days you may fail. We all have those days. Once you recognize that you screwed up, fix it immediately. Never, ever give up. You can do it! Above all, love and respect yourself no matter how big or how small you are. Know that you are a beautiful person inside and out because having a positive self-image helps in every aspect of your life — including your weight-loss journey. There is a skinny you inside that is just dying to get out! 

See Also:

 Lisa lampanelli weight loss 

 John Goodman Weight Loss 

 5 Simple Steps to Lose 20 Pounds 

Source: Yahoo!

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Read: 

Can eating Chili peppers help you lose weight ?

5 Simple Steps to Lose 20 Pounds 

5 Best Exercises For Weight Loss 

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Lose Your Belly In 14 Days With 14 Ways

Lose Your Belly In 14 Days With 14 Ways

“Every year, I starve myself for months, I lose maybe five pounds, and by springtime it all comes back,” she complained. “What’s the point? I’m just destined to be overweight.”

I understood how she felt. Obesity shortened my own father’s life, and for most of my childhood I struggled with an extra 25 pounds as well. I figured it was my genetic destiny to be fat, too.

But then I got sick and tired of being sick and tired, and since then, I’ve made it my life’s work to learn everything there is to know about belly fat. 

“What would you say if I told you that you didn’t need to go on a diet for months or even weeks?” I asked Kim. “What if you could lose much of that belly in just 14 days?”

That’s exactly what happened when last summer I shared Zero Belly Diet with a test panel of more than 500 people, some of whom lost as much as 16 pounds in just 14 days, and up to 3 inches off their waist.

The secret to Zero Belly Diet is the new science of nutritional genetics, the study of how our genes are turned on and off by the foods we eat. Simply making a handful of tweaks to your diet and lifestyle can help improve your gut health, dampen inflammation, turn off your fat genes and start your body shedding fat in particular, belly fat almost automatically.

14 Take a brisk walk before breakfast

Zero Belly Diet panelist Martha Chesler did just this as part of her Zero Belly program, and the results were astonishing. “I saw changes immediately,” she reports. In less than six weeks on the program, Martha dropped over 20 pounds and an astonishing 7 inches from her middle by combining the Zero Belly Foods with a pre-breakfast walk.

This easy a.m. ritual works on two levels. First, a recent study found that exposure to sunlight in between the hours of 8 am and noon reduced your risk of weight gain regardless of activity level, caloric intake, or age. Researchers speculate that the morning light synchronizes your metabolism and undercuts your fat genes. And burning calories before you eat means you’re exercising in a fasted state the energy you burn comes right from your fat stores, instead of the food you ate. But what really stunned Martha was the improvement in her heart health. Before starting Zero Belly Diet, Martha’s heart rate would typically soar to 112 beats per minute (bpm) within moments of starting her exercise bike workout. “After the first week and a half I could not raise my heart rate over 96 bpm with the same workout. It was great to see change in the mirror, and even better to know good things were happening that I couldn’t even see.”

13 Start with some oatmeal

Naturally sweet oatmeal recipes in Zero Belly Diet were the key to test panelist Isabel Fiolek’s dramatic 13-pound weight loss. “I happen to have a big sugar addiction,” Isabel admits, “But the recipes have been surprisingly satisfying for my sweet tooth.” Isabel also made dramatic health strides: A checkup after her six weeks on Zero Belly Diet revealed she’d dropped her total cholesterol by 25 percent and her blood glucose level by 10 percent.

So cook up some oatmeal and top it with some fruit. What’s so magical about this combination? Each provides insoluble fiber that helps reduce blood cholesterol and feeds the healthy bacteria in your gut. By doing so, you trigger your gut to produce butyrate, a fatty acid that reduces fat-causing inflammation throughout your body. In a Canadian study, researchers discovered that those whose diets were supplemented with insoluble fiber had higher levels of ghrelin a hormone that controls hunger.

12 Choose red fruit over green

That means Pink Lady over Granny Smith, watermelon over honeydew, red grapes over green ones. The higher levels of nutrients called flavonoids particularly anthocyanins, compounds that give red fruits their color calm the action of fat-storage genes. In fact, red-bellied stone fruits like plums boast phenolic compounds that have been shown to modulate the expression of fat genes.

11 Make some guacamole

For test panelist June Caron, incorporating fresh produce like avocados was a life-changing lesson from Zero Belly Diet. The 55 year-old lost 6 pounds in the first week on the program. “Learning to eat real, chemical free, fresh foods has been the best thing that ever happened to me. I am never hungry. And the weight just keeps coming off!” Glowing skin, healthy nails and better sleep were Zero Belly bonuses, June said. “I’m well on my way to getting my sexy back. Everyone says I look much younger!”

Avocados are a double-whammy to belly fat. First, they’re packed with heart-healthy monounsaturated fats that dim your hunger switches; a study in Nutrition Journal found that participants who ate half a fresh avocado with lunch reported a 40 percent decreased desire to eat for hours afterwards. Second, unsaturated fats like those found in avocados seem to prevent the storage of belly fat.

10 Mix up a plant-protein smoothie

Test panelist Bryan Wilson, a 29-year-old accountant, lost 19 pounds and an astounding 6 inches from his waist in just six weeks on the program, and he attributes his success to the Zero Belly shake recipes in the program. "I love the shakes. I added them to my diet, and almost immediately I lost the bloat,” Bryan said. "I'm a sweet craver, and the shakes were an awesome alternative to bowls and bowls of ice cream I would have had."

Protein drinks are great ways to get a monster dose of belly-busting nutrition into a delicious, simple snack. But most commercial drinks are filled with unpronounceable chemicals that can upset our gut health and cause inflammation and bloat. And the high doses of whey used to boost protein levels can amplify the belly-bloating effect. The Zero Belly solution: Try vegan protein, which will give you the same fat-burning, hunger-squelching, muscle-building benefits, without the bloat.

9 Power up with eggs

You’ll find lean, satiating protein in every single bite you take on Zero Belly Diet. The muscle-building macronutrient is fundamental to the plan, and eggs happen to be one of the easiest and most versatile delivery systems in the universe. Not only that, they’re also the number-one dietary source of a nutrient called choline. Choline, which is found also in lean meats, seafood and collard greens, attacks the gene mechanism that triggers your body to store fat around your liver. One Zero Belly Diet recipe a breakfast hash with sweet potatoes and fresh farm eggs became test panelist Morgan Minor’s go-to breakfast, and after just 3 weeks on the program, the female firefighter lost 11 pounds and 4 inches from her waist! The more eggs you eat, the less egg-shaped you get.

8 Mix up a magic elixir

Start each day by making a large pitcher of “spa water” that’s water filled with sliced whole lemons, oranges or grapefruits and make a point of sipping your way through at least 8 glasses before bedtime. Citrus fruits are rich in the antioxidant delimonene, a powerful compound found in the peel that stimulates liver enzymes to help flush toxins from the body and gives sluggish bowels a kick, according to the World Health Organization.

7 Make your own trail mix

The three major ingredients of a perfect Zero Belly meal or snack are protein, fiber and healthy fats, and all three can be found in abundance in a good trail mix. Sadly, most commercial mixes are made with extra oils, salt, and sugar. Mix up your own from a selection of nuts, seeds, unsweetened dried fruit, and dark chocolate pieces. Make sure to include peanuts: they’re a top source of both genistein and resveratrol, two nutrients that help diminish the action of your fat-storage genes.

6 Snaxercise

The biggest reason we can’t stick to our workouts? No time. Trying to squeeze a trip to the gym, with a shower and change of clothes, into a hectic schedule especially around the holidays can make even the most dedicated fitness buff into someone, well, less buff. But scientists in New Zealand recently found that men and women who engaged in three 10-minute exercise “hors d’oeuvres” before breakfast, lunch and dinner saw lowered blood glucose levels a fat-busting benefit these folks showed all day long!

The short circuits in Zero Belly Diet offer a variety exercises that blast your core without relying on traditional sit-ups easy enough to squeeze in before dinner in the comfort of your living room. Within six weeks of incorporating the mini circuits, test panelist Krista Powell lost 25 pounds and she was finally able to dress in a way that reflected her true sense of style: “I’d avoided wearing high heels because the extra weight made my knees hurt so bad. I can actually wear my heels with confidence and without pain!”

5 Rethink your supplements

If you’re taking lots of vitamins and probiotics each day, you may want to reevaluate your strategy. Increased levels of B vitamins have long been associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes, perhaps because megadosing triggers our fat genes. A daily multivitamin is probably fine, but don’t try to convince yourself that more is better. And a recent study by ConsumerLab.com found that most commercial probiotics have far less healthy bacteria than they claim. Your better bet is to focus on the Zero Belly foods to ensure your belly is getting plenty of love and your fat genes are being cut off at the pass.

4 Have dark chocolate & berries for dessert

Indulging in delicious food is a core principle of Zero Belly Diet. It was the balanced, “zero sacrifice” approach that helped test panelist Jennie Joshi finally lose her pregnancy weight. In just over a month on Zero Belly Diet, Jennie lost 11 pounds, “and the pregnancy pooch is leaving!” she said. “I couldn’t believe I was indulging in dark chocolate and finally getting results! It’s a lifestyle, not a diet. It’s easy to stick with, and it makes sense.”

It makes scientific sense, also: A recent study found that antioxidants in cocoa prevented laboratory mice from gaining excess weight and actually lowered their blood sugar levels. And another study at Louisiana State University found that gut microbes in our stomach ferment chocolate into heart-healthy, anti-inflammatory compounds that shut down genes linked to insulin resistance and inflammation. Why the berries? The fruit speeds up the fermentation process, leading to an even greater reduction in inflammation and weight.

3 Swap farmed salmon for wild salmon

Lean protein like fish is a great way to fight fat and boost your metabolism. But the salmon you get at the local market might not be the best bet for your belly. The cold-water fish has a well-deserved reputation for packing plenty of heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids 1,253 mg of the good stuff, and just 114 mg of inflammatory, belly-busting omega 6s. But the farmed variety and 90 percent of what we eat today is farmed has a very different story to tell. It packs a whopping 1,900 mg of unhealthy omega-6s.

2 Eat a better peanut butter

Real peanut butter is made with two ingredients: peanuts, and maybe some salt. You already know that peanuts give you belly-slimming monounsaturated fats, tummy-filling fiber, and metabolism-boosting protein. But peanuts have a hidden weapon in their weight-loss utility belt: Genistein, a compound that acts directly on the genes for obesity, helping to turn them down and reduce your body’s ability to store fat. (Beans and lentils have the same magic ingredient, albeit in slightly less delicious form.) But be careful of the brand you buy: if you see ingredients like sugar, palm oil, or anything you can’t pronounce, put it back. They’ll undermine any good the peanuts might do.

1 Pre-game lunch and dinner with greens

High-volume, low-calorie greens will fill you up, without filling you out. Test panelist Kyle Cambridge says regular salads turbocharged his success: “My wife Stacie and I decided to add salad to each meal, and the pounds started melting off.” Kyle lost 25 pounds and four inches in just six weeks on the program. “I even had to buy a new belt!" he said. "But the best was when Stacie came up to me in the kitchen, and gave me a hug. She laughed and smiled and said 'I can wrap my hands around you again.'"

Leafy greens like collard greens, watercress, kale, and arugula may not be on your everyday list, but they all contain a compound called sulforaphane. This nutrient has been shown to act directly on the genes that determine “adipocyte differentiation” basically, turning a stem cell into a fat cell. A healthier intake of the compound means a healthier body weight for you. And just a scant teaspoon of vinaigrette will help your body absorb the fat-soluble nutrients.

LOSE UP TO 16 POUNDS IN 14 DAYS with Zero Belly Diet the New York Times bestselling book from Eat This, Not That! author David Zinczenko. ORDER NOW

via EatThis