HalfMan's giving 100% to weight loss and healthy living

Half Man

-City & country: Michigan, USA
-Age: 38
-Weight before diet: 380 lbs.
-Weight now: 295.4
-Target weight: 190 lbs.

Deciding to follow his common sense, not fad diets, works best for HalfMan. Here he shares some of the techniques he's been using for the past seven months that helped him lose almost 100 pounds, his motivations, and his tips for adapting to a healthy and fit lifestyle.

-What finally made you decide to start with a weight loss program?
Fear of diabetes, fear of a gastric bypass, and fear of dying young
Desire to give my children a good example and to actively play with them
Desire to look good for my wife
Desire to be fit, healthy, and participate in activities

-What type of weight loss program are you following?
I eat low fat, high fiber foods and I snack on healthy foods all day.  My wife tells me I am on the hobbit diet.  I have breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, etc...  I do eat throughout the day, but the in between meals are very small, and my meals are small too.  Pretty much this keeps me from getting very hungry, and gets my stomach used to being full on small amounts of food.  I try to eat my food slowly, but eating fast is a hard habit to break.  Finally, the key to my program is exercise including weight training and cardio.  I weight train 4 days a week and I do a cardio activity 6 days a week. 

-Why did you choose this weight loss program?
I had been on a few different diets like Weight Watchers and a few others.  When I began this latest journey toward fitness, my wife and I started with the South Beach diet.  We couldn't even finish the first two weeks.  It made us irritable and unhappy.  I wondered why I got caught up in a fad diet to begin with.  That's not me.  I told myself that I knew what I needed to do.  I just decided to follow what common sense told me.

-How long have you been on your weight loss program?
7 months

-What kinds of physical activities do you like doing to help you lose weight and stay fit?
Aerobics videos, ski machine, bike riding, weight lifting.  Lately, I have started jogging.

-What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome or are still overcoming?
For me, there was a HUGE mental battle to get started and stick with it.  There was always a desire to get on track with diet and exercise, but I easily pushed it off until tomorrow, or the next week, or some day.  I was waiting for some magical motivation or burst of energy, but it never came.  I finally just started.  The motivation slowly came.  Now, I am highly motivated, but I am still scared to death that I will fall back into old habits.

-How do you keep yourself motivated?
Seeing the benefits of being able to do things I could not do a year ago like wearing smaller clothes, having the energy to play with the kids, being able to bike a long distance, and being able to run.

-Do you have any weight loss tips for our readers?
I have 2 tips.
1) Make fitness your goal rather than weight loss.  If you can't walk 1 mile, make that your first goal.  If you don't exercise, make it your goal to walk 30 minutes 3 days a week.  If your eating habits are sabotaging your fitness then make a few changes.  Cut out the soda pop, don't eat for the 3 hours before you go to bed.  Eat a healthy breakfast.  Weight loss is a by-product of living fit.  Living fit is a life long goal.
2) Respect yourself.  Before you eat that pint of Ben & Jerry's, or chow down a large pizza, remember that you cannot force others to respect you.  Only you can respect yourself.  Are you showing yourself respect by following the Conehead diet (eating mass quantities)?  Are you respecting yourself by eating that bag of chocolates?  Eat like you respect yourself.  You are worth it.

-Do you think it will be easy to fall back into your old lifestyle pattern?
I think it would be way too easy to fall back into those patterns.

-How do you prevent this from happening?
Looking at my wife and kids.  Considering how far I have come.  Not sweating it, if I eat unhealthy or skip exercising now and then.  I can't change the past.  I can only move forward.  I hope that as my fitness improves, I will be able to start doing more healthy activities where I will meet people who are committed to living healthy.  I think that hanging around healthy people will influence me to continue to live fit.

-Do you have a favorite Web site or blog that helps or inspires you to lose weight?
I hate to just put a couple of blogs here because there are so many bloggers that have inspired and encouraged me. 

My blog is http://journeyoffitness.blogspot.com.

The president's challenge has inspired me: http://www.presidentschallenge.org

There is a fun calculator at this site: http://www.naturalphysiques.com/howmanypounds