YMI Doing This

I’ve always been a bigger guy, topping out in the 260-270 range. My problem? I love to eat! Now that’s not all bad if you throw regular exercise in the mix, but for years I didn’t. I knew for a long time that I needed to lose weight, always thinking that if I didn’t do something about it now, I’m going to have bigger problems later. Diabetes runs in my family as well, so being overweight at all was something I knew could lead to other, more severe issues later on in life. Fortunately for me, I got a little help that taught me something very important.

I had been working with a company for a couple years when someone in the office decided it would be fun to have our very own ‘biggest loser’ contest. Each participant was required to pay $50 into the pot which made up the winner’s prize. In addition to the contestants though, the owners of the company were also kind enough to add to the pot, bringing the grand total up to about $1000. Now I had the motivation I needed to get serious about this!

At the time of this contest, my initial weigh in had me at 265 pounds. In addition to the weight, I was very out of shape when it came to exercise. In fact, I recall that for the first couple weeks of exercise, it was all I could do to even walk slowly on my treadmill for 5-10 minutes! Out of breath and buckets of sweat from a short, slow walk was a frustrating feeling for sure, but I was determined to at least get close to that grand prize!

Day after day, week after week, I stuck to my system of walking 5-6 days out of the week, gradually increasing my speed and the amount of time spent exercising. In addition to walking, I incorporated two very specific rules regarding my eating habits. First, I knew that going on a major diet would not be my answer long term, so I instead chose to live the law of moderation, allowing myself to continue eating like I always had, just in smaller portions. The second rule I followed was to simply stop eating after dinner, which I tried to have as early as possible. If cravings became unbearable later in the evening, I used water and vegetables as my snack. It was very tough at first, but as each week passed with a 3-5 pound loss, my clothes fitting better and my energy levels increasing, the sacrifices were paying off and completely worth it!

Finally, after several months of harsh competition, it came down to myself and one other competitor for the grand prize. At the final weigh in, I took the first place spot by a very narrow margin and walked away $1000 richer and over 50 pounds lighter!

Several years later, I’ve continued to fight the battle of trying to keep the weight off. While I’ve not been 100% successful in this ongoing battle, having put a little weight back on, I do have a strategy that I know works. I also know that if I can master the lifestyle change that I made during this competition, daily exercise, eating in moderation (basically keeping portions small) and eliminating ALL after dinner snacking, I believe that in the end, I will come out the victor in this battle for my health!

Ron Schrader

Ron Schrader has been writing for years now, going all the way back to grade school. Toward the end of 2012, Ron decided to take his writing seriously, and published two short stories in the Amazon Kindle store. One of the stories, Tri System’s Edge: Paradise Unraveled, is the prelude to his novel in progress that will be published sometime this year. Ron is excited to share his novel, Tri System’s Edge: Kalla Zar, and is planning on a late summer release!

To connect with Ron and learn more about what he’s working on, visit WrittenByRon.com