Step 1 - Changing My Diet

I skipped a night already, and TCU didn't even win. I had great intentions to run and then write last night, but I watched the game, felt guilty about not working out so I ordered the P90X series and went to bed. I have heard incredible things about this workout, so Laura and I are going to get started in the next 7-10 days when it arrives.

I wanted to breakdown the whole lifestyle change in separate posts, so tonight will be diet, tomorrow night exercise and the following I will talk about all of the small changes that worked together to make a big difference.

When you play any sport at a high level, you eat all the time. You have to maintain your energy level to balance the amount of work you are putting in on the field and in the weight room, but nobody ever talked to me about maintaining that energy level with proper nutrition and healthy foods, they just wanted me to hit 300. (I will give you a typical daily intake from my college days through now in just a few lines). I would literally eat everything in front of me and drink as much as I could afford or someone would give to me. At one point in college, I was going through 1 large pizza a day and could put down a case of beer at night. When I graduated, the football program said goodbye and I was suddenly a 300lbs kid on my own without a structured exercise program to keep me honest.

I immediately came back to Dallas and found my group of friends to hang out with. We would all work during the day (eat fast food for breakfast and lunch) then we would meet up for happy hour and drink all night. I would usually hit the local Whataburger on my way home and eat a double cheeseburger around 2am. I didn't do this everyday, but I did it 5 days a week, so you can imagine how my body would start fighting back. I was dipping tobacco and I was a guy like so many that smoked when he drank. Well, when you drink that much 5 nights a week, you are smoking 5 nights a week as well. I thought for sure this would all change when I met Laura.

Laura and I got married 7 years ago, and honestly my life gets better everyday with her. Early in our relationship and marriage Laura was running all the time. She ran the Chicago Marathon and New York Marathon's and she could eat an entire bowl of spaghetti and lose weight, so we had some big challenges. Laura loves pasta and rice, and so do I, but I was doing nothing to get rid of the carbs. When Laura would make a big old pot of rice or noodles, I felt like I had to eat them all, I didn't want to have leftovers. I was so happy not going out all the time and spending my time with Laura, but cutting out the beer wasn't enough for me to lose weight, I had increased my calories by eating bowl after bowl of carbs.

Looking back, I remember sitting in our new apartment in Austin, just moved all of our stuff in and I was by myself eating an etire box of Hagen Daas ice cream bars. Who does that? It was that night that I felt the pain in my chest and the next day that I made the decision to change my life.

Here is a quick look at a menu from my college days as well as my first few years before this change.

College:

Breakfast:
Chick Fila - 2 chicken biscuits w/honey and large Dr. Pepper

Lunch:
2 Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwhiches, 1/2 Gallon of Whole Milk and chips

Dinner:
Entire bowl of what was being served in the mess hall, 1/2 Gallon of Whole Milk

Late Night Snack:
Large Pizza

Weekends:
Same as above with at least 1 case of beer on Friday and Saturday night

After College, but before Laura:
Breakfast:
2 McDonald's Breakfast Sandwhiches, large DP

Lunch:
Double Cheeseburger, 2 orders of Fries, large DP

Dinner:
Queso, Chips, Salsa, Beer

Late Night:
Double Cheeseburger, 2 fries, large DP

After I met Laura:
Breakfast and Lunch were the same

Dinner:
Pasta, Pasta, Pasta


I hope I didn't make anyone sick with the menu's above, but that is the honest truth. Ask my bank account and my Dr., they both hated me for the years of abuse.

I am very lucky to work with a few guys that are extremely healthy. They have worked for years to find the proper diets, but not lose the ability to eat what you enjoy. The morning my life changed, I called them and started to ask questions regarding my diet. They all gave me great advice that would truly serve a purpose down the road, but at this point I needed something a little more in your face. My trainer introduced me to the Body Bugg from 24hr fitness. This is an arm band that you wear to monitor your calories burned throughout the day, but it is also designed to work with a program that monitors your calories in. It was so easy, you type in exaclty what you ate, and it tells you the calories you consumed, I was able to compare that to the calories burned and I knew what I had accomplished during the day and I knew if I needed to go for another walk with the dogs before I went to bed. The Body Bugg was a great tool, but I had to creat my own "diet" to make sure I lost the weight. Here is what I did.

1. I started to eat egg whites and egg beaters for all of my morning proteins. For anyone that says they can taste the difference b/w beaters and real eggs, you are full of it.

2. I took the self control issue out of going out to eat. I would order food and ask the waiter to only send out 1/2 of the meal. If the food wasn't there, I couldn't eat it.

3. I forced myself to like veggies. At first, I didn't branch out to far, but I created fun ways to cook the few veggies I actually like. I used Laura's homemade salsa as a dressing for every veggie I would eat. It added flavor without calories.

4. For the first 6 months, I flat out quit drinking anything. No wine, beer, margaritas, or liquor. NOTHING!!! I don't drink very often, but in my head, I knew if I could totally take out one of my biggest adult life temptations, I would be making a big sacrifice and huge step in the proper direction.

5. I never gave up dessert. My daughter Natalie and I would share a small blue bell cup of ice cream every night. In each of our 1/2 cups we would put a 1/2 a small bag of mini m&m's. This was a great way to get my favorite thing, share with my daughter and not sacrifice a bunch of calories late at night.

6. NEVER EAT AFTER 7pm. This is the hardest thing to do, but it does make a big difference. A good friend of mine from high school told me that was his secret and I decided to try it.

7. Finally I tried to follow this model. Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Queen and dinner like a peasant. Portions sizes should get smaller as the day goes on. Breakfast should always be your biggest meal.

8. I also forced myself to eat 5 times a day. To this day one of the biggest challenges, but something you have to do to keep your metabolism up.

This lifestyle change worked wonders throughout the first 18 months and is still the basis of what I do today. I have fallen off the wagon some, but that is because Texas Monthly came out with an article that described the top 50 Burgers in the state of Texas, and I have decided I want to try them all. I think I have hit almost 20 of them.

This change was easy after the first 2 weeks, and combined with the exercise, really made the difference. My next post will be the routine I got into for my exercise and why I think it made such a big difference.

Hopefully these won't be as long once I am done with the history on the change.