In the beginning.

In the Beginning

I have lost 46 pounds in 3 months. My lovely wife has lost 23 pounds in 2.5 months.
I never had considered posting a Blog before but a lot of people have encouraged me to share how I got to where I am. When people see you lose weight they get encouraged to do the same. I generally do not like to talk about myself and Blogs seem to be mostly narcissistic ramblings. But if people read this and are encouraged or it gives them information that helps them then it is worth the effort I put in.  That being said, I will try to post recipes I used and general guidelines I follow to lose my weight.

My Background-
For those that do not know me, I am by trade a chemist. I manage an R&D group for a very large scientific instrument company. I am 47 years old, married, and have two almost grown sons. I am a born again Christian and an elder at a local church. I also am the worship leader at this church. I love science and enjoy talking about science and chemistry. I have also taught nutrition and cooking for high schoolers.  A lot of nutrition is chemistry, so my goal here is to inform and blend the science stuff with personal experience. I am not an expert on nutrition, some things might just be my opinion.

The Start -
On March 3rd, 2013 I decided enough was enough. I was 6’2” 260 lbs.  I had high blood pressure an was on medication.  I snored every night. Generally I did not feel good and had low energy. It was time to make a change. 20 years prior I had lost 30 lbs. by exercising more and eating less.  Since that time, I had gained 60 lbs.  I am not going to go into all my reasoning here because I plan to post some blogs that explain the science behind nutrition and energy more thoroughly in a separate post but I went with what worked before; I would eat less and exercise more.   Initially I stopped my “soda a day” habit and no longer ate dessert. No fast food or processed snack foods and I would limit portion sizes.  I was committed to riding a stationary bike for 1 hour 4-5 times per week. Within 2 weeks I had lost 10 lbs.

Teamwork helps -
Once my wife noticed the changes she decided she needed to get on this bandwagon also. She suggested we go for walks.  As a scientist I like to know all the details and data so I can form theory and develop guidelines and rules that work. I started using the App mapmywalk so I could calculate the distance of our walks. It also tells you the calories you burn. I noticed that you could also log in the food you ate. After a week of using this I switched to Calorie Count. Patty uses myfitnesspal.com.  As soon as I hit my target I will try myfitnesspal and give a detailed analysis of both. I’m sure both are good and Calorie count works for me.   Patty will also be posting on this Blog some of her thought from time to time.

So people ask, “How did you lose your weight?”  I ate less and exercised more. I measured the amount of food I ate and use the App Calorie count to verify I was eating less than what I was burning. Obviously there is more detail and that is the point of this Blog.

In the future I plan to go into more detail and create short posts because none of us have time to read a 10 page post on thermodynamics.  I do plan on posting subjects such as:
• Favorite recipes and calories per serving
• What is a serving size?
• Can I have dessert?
• Thermodynamics (this is not a joke I want to explain as simply as I can the science behind energy, diet, and nutrition)
• Biochemistry
• Vitamins and minerals
• How much weight should I lose?
• Why there is no quick easy way to lose weight.