Six months ago, on May 11, 2011, I started my journey to a healthier lifestyle with the AdvoCare 24-Day Challenge. You can read more about my results from that challenge here. In some ways it is hard to believe six months have passed already. I can remember when I first started this journey I wanted to lose a pound or two a week. “Only a pound or two a week!,” I would frustratingly think. But I couldn’t be more thankful for the slow, steady, and healthy way in which I have been losing weight. I have tried the quick fix diets only to be back to my starting weight, if not heavier, within days of stopping the diet. Being able to change my eating habits and getting regular exercise has allowed me to be smart about my weight loss.

As of this morning I have lost sixty-six pounds and thirty-nine total inches. When I stop and think about that I just shake my head. I have always wanted to lose weight, but was never able to imagine myself losing any significant amount of weight. Honestly, if you would have told me I would be down sixty-plus pounds in six months, I would have figured you too be a very optimistic person. But, man, I am here. Crazy!

Measurements
(Beginning/Today)

Biceps: 20″ / 15″
Neck: 20″ / 18″
Chest: 62″ / 54″
Waist: 54″ / 44″
Hip: 56″ / 49.5″
Thigh: 32.5″ / 27″
Calf: 18.5″ / 16.5″
Total: 263″ / 224″

As people started to physically see a difference in my appearance, they would ask me how I have been able to lose the weight. So I thought I would share some of the changes I have made in my life to help in the weight loss. I will give a brief look at each of these with plans to write a more in-depth blog post for each soon.

AdvoCare 24-Day Challenge. It all began here. The weight I lost in those 24 days was the catalyst I needed to continue on my journey. I can’t say enough about the challenge or AdvoCare products. The other products from AdvoCare I use are: Catalyst, Omegaplex, Meal Replacement Shake, LeptiLean, MNS Max E, and Spark!

H2O. This is 95% of what I drink. Literally. I never thought I would be able to say that, ever. I have always needed something to drink with flavor whenever I ate a meal. Not anymore. Truthfully, as weird as this sounds, I actually crave water.

Nutrition. This is a massive part of my changes. They say in weight loss its 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. I used to have it the other way around thinking I could work off of super-sized fries and double-cheese burger. Not so. In past if I was eating something green it was probably a candy of some sort. Now, just about every meal I have has a green vegetable in it. Recently I have been concentrating my nutrition around a Paleo diet. I would say I am eating Paleo roughly 85-90% of the time.

Exercise. This has been key in my weight loss. I have had weeks where I would eat well, but didn’t exercise and I won’t lose much weight, if any at all. I try to do a cardio workout at least six days a week with muscle development workouts mixed in.

LoseIt! I have never been a fan of journaling my food intake. But for some reason I love using the LoseIt! app on my phone and web to track what I eat. You can invite friends to join in and track each others progress. It has been a good motivator when I start to crave something unhealthy. Knowing it will show up on daily and weekly tracker has discouraged some food choices on more then one occasion.

Holy Spirit. I am no fool to think that I could do any of this without the power of holy spirit within me. Left to my own vices I would keep eating how I have been without a care in the world. But I knew that my previous eating and health habits were only hindering me and my quality of life. I have much more to say on this in a later post.

Thank you all for your encouragement along the way and for the road ahead, it never gets old.

Greg.