In order to put my health transition into perspective, I feel like I need to give you a bit of backdrop to the story. I’ve never been a healthy, overly active person. Ever. I was always active with student council-type activities, but never with physically demanding workouts. From an eating perspective, let me explain my diet during my High School/University years:
In High School, breakfast rarely existed. It would mean losing an extra 10 minutes sleep, so forget breakfast. Lunch was probably Kraft Dinner (Mac & Cheese for you Americans) and dinner was probably fish sticks and fries, hot dogs, pizza or A LOT of McDonalds Quarter Pounder combos. I had been sick with stomach viruses in my last year of High School and somehow, despite my horrendous diet, I spent most of the year hovering at around 105 lbs. Yes, that’s right, I was underweight for a girl.
In University, all alone at Western and with a massive meal card to play with, I ate a burger and fries combo every single day. Not 5 days a week or 6…no, every single day! Every 2 days I had a personal pan pizza and every week I would split a large Dominoes pepperoni pizza with 1 of 3 people. That was my diet. Have you vomited yet?
I don’t mention these items to brag about what a sexy metabolism I had but merely to illustrate the point that health and healthy living was about as far off the radar as Jack and Kate and the Island on Lost. By the time my 1st year at Western was done I had surpassed the Frosh-15 and was up to 135 lbs.
As my University years progressed, I began adding some health to the meals. I was eating my world-famous GCP (Grilled-Chicken Pasta with veggies, no sauce) almost every night of the week and was only having burger combos once to twice a week. Still though, the overall health of what I was eating was not great and I still was getting little exercise (walking to and from campus about 15 mins. each way).
Since my graduation in 2004, my weight had fluctuated between 140 to 145 and I never seemed to be able to do enough to bring it down. I had made strides to change my diet more dramatically over the last year, introducing salmon, shrimp and tilapia as replacements for beef, ribs and even chicken on occasion. My bagels and bread became whole grain instead of white and an apple became an almost regular part of my lunch. Despite these changes (which as you can imagine, are HUGE for someone with a ridiculous diet like I once had), I still couldn’t drop the weight. This was due mostly to still snacking with cookies, ice cream and of course….MCDONALDS!
As I had been feeling my age of late, realizing I’m closer to 30 than I am to 20, this year brought some personal self-image concerns. I wasn’t pleased with the extra spare-tire I was lugging around, how tired I was after speeches and travel, my inability to get through a 60 minute squash game without huffing and puffing and seeing stars. For a couple months I had been saying to myself, I’ve got to do some more dramatic, impactful changes. I’m a Motivational Speaker for crying out loud!!!! MOTIVATE YOURSELF!
My breaking point came when I went to wear a new pair of pants I bought during my last speaking road trip in the U.S. I bought a pair of pants that fit fine when I bought them in early May. They were…comfortable. The first week of July I had a birthday party to attend and I decided it was time to bust out these sexy new pants and show em off. I could barely close the button. When I did, my gut hung over it like Homer Simpson in a bathing suit. Enough was enough.
The next day I decided it was time to take positive steps forward towards my goal of weight loss instead of taking negative steps backwards. I wasn’t going to diet, drop meals from my diet or be unhealthy. I was going to for once, take care of my body and turn it into the system of health it deserves to be. So what did I do? I thought about each facet of my life where destructive steps backwards could be replaced with positive forward steps. I began working out. That’s right. Me. David Major. No really. I ran. I actually got on a treadmill and ran!
I ran 20 minutes a day (not including warm-up/cool down) every other day. Within 3 weeks I was up to running 30 minutes a day and had even increased my speed. I was running on average 3.5 miles per day or close to a marathon every 2 weeks. With each workout I was burning 300-400 calories plus firing my metabolism up for hours following the workout. Because I was trying to target my gut, following each workout I would also do between 150-200 ab exercises to really focus on toning the area. Between prepping for the workout and showering the sweat off, the whole process takes 60-75 minutes. Well, well worth it.
My diet barely changed. The key difference was cutting out the extras and limiting the type of snacking I was doing. When my transition began, we had 2 boxes of cookies in the house. 10 weeks later, we still have 2 full boxes of cookies! My caloric intake for the day is supposed to be 2100-2200 calories. I found myself eating closer to 1300-1400 calories/day. Not because I was starving myself, but I was actually eating MORE!! AND more often! The difference was WHAT I was eating. My bagels and bread switched to flax instead of whole grain or the dreaded white (cue evil music). Pasta dinners were reduced to once per week instead of the 2-3 previously and were replaced with an extra fish dinner usually served with couscous or quinoa (ever heard of Quinoa? Neither had I. Google it! It’s a superfood). My McD/Harveys/Burger King trips were cut down to 1 every 2 weeks or so; pizza is almost completely out and hot dogs have been twice since the summer began. No ribs (I miss my ribs) and only 1 steak. The cookies stayed in their box because the biggest change was the introduction of a massive amount of fruit into the diet. Whereas previously in the house we may have apples and bananas, we now had those plus watermelon, strawberries, canteloupe and blueberries. Ice cream was replaced with fruit smoothies. Mmmmm smoothies!
My goal at the start of the summer was to drop 5 pounds. 8 weeks later and I’m down 10-11 pounds having hit 130 on the scale this morning. My pants don’t fit…at all. I’ve had to add another hole into my belt and my pants still fall down. If you see me on tour giving a speech, you may notice my sport coats look 2 sizes too big and that my pants look like they’re falling off me…they are (and they are). So I suppose the only disadvantage is that I now need to replace my wardrobe. Of course though, it is a well worthwhile sacrifice of $$$ for health and fitness.
The most important aspect of all this is to keep in mind that I don’t consider what I’ve done to be a diet, I consider it a lifestyle change. I’ve decided for once to take control of my body and my health. I’m in the best shape of my life with my resting heart rate hovering somewhere in the 51-54 beats per minute range and I feel like I have more energy than ever. I also personally feel so much better about myself. When you feel comfortable looking in the mirror, you feel good about yourself. However, even if you look good, you may not be HEALTHY. Putting the right food in your body and spending the right amount of time working out are vital not just to your health but your own personal perception of sense of worth. Feelings of worth are often linked with your own physical appearance and so I encourage all readers in blog land to take ownership of your own bodies.
So what does this all mean? Well, over the months to come, I hope to hear from all of you about workouts, foods, etc. that you use to keep yourself in shape. What works for you? What doesn’t? What motivational problems do you have with healthy living? Do you find it easy to MOTIVATE YOURSELF to workout? If so, what’s your secret? Etc., etc.
Like I said, I’ve made a lifestyle transition and my hope is that this blog can do the same for others!
