As they sometimes say, “When life gives you lemons make Lemonade.” This is a recount of my experience after finding myself divorced in my mid/late 30’s as a single father.
As a 36 year old man it can be very unsettling to go through a divorce. This was the time in my life when I truly was focused on career growth and securing financial freedom for my family and myself. When my wife decided she would be better off without it me it truly threw me for a loop.
Without getting into all the details I ended up with custody of our 10 year old son, I was a retail manager and sadly I had allowed myself to get very overweight. Being middle aged and suddenly without a partner was a little shocking for me, I considered myself a decent catch I knew that I had let myself go in order to focus on other areas of my life. After much soul searching I decided that I deserved to be happy and phase one of my happiness plan was to become social again and mingle with the opposite sex and what you are about to read is going to explain how I lost fat quickly, put on muscle and really helped my confidence so that I can start to play the field again after more than 10 years of being on the bench. This journey is what I called the “Someone Might See Me Naked Diet”.
The someone might see me naked diet is exactly what it sounds like. I have already mentioned that I allowed myself to gain quite a bit of weight and although I had other parts of my life in order I had lost some confidence in my appearance, especially when it came to taking of my shirt in front of women. One thing about me however is that I am no quitter, I would rather find a solution to my situation than sit around and do nothing so I came up with a plan.
I had spent hours researching different diets such as the Atkins diet and the
hcg diet as well as researched suggestions by fitness guru’s and medical doctors, I researched how the body digests and metabolizes food and I also scoured the bodybuilding forums to find out what people who were already training were doing. After compiling my notes I made some decisions but I also wanted to create some rules for myself so that I would ensure success.
Rule 1- Make no Excuses. This is a very basic principle, but one that is very easy to break. I understood that some days I would not want to follow my diet, that I may want to skip the gym or that I might struggle at some points during this journey. The thing is I convinced myself that I would not make any excuses and that I would see this through until I reached my goal.
Rule 2- Have Fun. This rule was probably the most important rule of all. I knew without having some incremental way to reward myself or some time just to not think about my plan that I would likely fail. I gave myself this rule to keep my sanity and motivation throughout the process.
Rule 3- No More Rules. That was it, the rules I had were to make no excuses and to have fun, I felt that this short set of rules would make it simple for me to carry out my plan. I guess at this point you are wondering what my plan was right?
The Plan-
The plan was based around several findings after hours upon hours of research. While I am going to briefly discuss what I did, I am not going to dive into the science behind it all. I am no doctor, but I know what worked for me.
Calories- I decided to limit my calories to 10 times my goal weight. Upon starting I was close to 220 pounds, my goal weight was 190 lbs so therefore I committed to keeping my calories to 1900 per day. One of the most basic principles of weight loss, dating back 50 years, is take in less calories than you use.
Protein- I did not want to just lose weight, I wanted to either retain or gain muscle while I followed my plan and to do this I decided increasing my protein intake would be very important. I made sure that any protein source I ate had 20 grams of protein per serving minimum.
Frequency- I also found that eating more often was helpful. I committed to eating 5-6 daily in order to fuel my body and increase my metabolism.
Go Brown- I switched completely from white processed carbs to whole grain or brown carbs. This included sweeteners, bread, pastas and rice.
Workout- I knew that I would speed up the weight loss if I went to the gym. I made sure that I would visit the gym 4 days every week, always during the weekdays.
Cheat- That’s right cheat! Based on my #2 rules, have fun, I knew in order to sustain the plan long term I had to satisfy my cravings so I would follow my diet and program every day until 5:00 Friday until noon on Sunday. The time in between those hours I did whatever I wanted and ate or drank whatever I wanted.
The result-
The result was that I dropped my pants size from a 43 to a 32 in 3 months, I lost 34 pounds and I even put on 5 pounds of muscle. In reality I lost 39 pounds of fat when you consider the additional muscle that I put on. As a result my confidence increased with women and so did my success. The ability to create this plan and stick with it has been the key in changing my life both personally and professionally.
I learned discipline, planning and most of all self worth and success. I DESERVED to be happy just like you DESERVE to be happy. If you ever find yourself in a situation similar to mine, it is ok to sulk and worry for a bit, but after you get that out of your system, TAKE ACTION! If an average Joe like myself can do it, so can you! I wish you all the best.
• Disclaimer- I am not a Doctor nor am I advising for or against this method. This is simply a documentation of a method I used that worked for me. Please consult a medical professional before starting a weight loss or fitness regimen.