My Story and The Plan

Hi, my name is J Brian (group responds HI J BRIAN). I am FAT. I have been for most of my adult life.

I will be A Fat Boy No More.

Three years ago I started a journey to become A Fat Boy No More. And since September 2007 I have been publishing my success and failures. This Blog follows me from the day I first started my weight loss journey and it focuses on the everyday struggles that people with weight problems have.

Prepare yourself for a very real and very challenging event in my life. I commit to being as honest and as clear as I can be in the webpage to chronicle my ongoing battle with my weight. The pictures can be explicit.

After 12 years of being bigger than I should be... ok lets just be honest. I was not big I was fat. I have been over weight and muscular for most of my adult life. But the muscular part has been over shadowed by a large layer of fat on my body. I've eaten too much and I lived a sedentary life. In December 2006 I weighed 320 pounds. The morning I weighed myself and saw that I was over 300 pounds I essentially went into a deep depression that day and I am sure that I ate another 5 pounds worth of food. But that night I decided that enough was enough. My weight problem had become more than just an appearance problem it became a health problem, a self esteem problem and it was starting to affect my business and income. I had to do something. And I had to be held accountable. Technology is a good thing. I decided I had to put it out there. I started texting everyone in cell phone saying "Officially a fat ass now I weigh 300". I had been lying forever and telling people that I was 250. And no one questioned it.

The first step I took was to hit the gym and cut my calories. I looked on webmd and found out how many calories there where in a pound (3500) and decided to create this formula to determine how many calories and how much extra exercise I had to do to lose 60 pounds by May 27th. My annual trip to Key West Florida. By February I had lost 25 pounds. On a plan that was essentially the same thing that Weight Watchers teaches you. Then life hit me. After being so good I just got tired of it. I had no real support structure. And so I just relapsed because I was on a diet. Not a life change. But between March and August I essentially maintained my weight loss. In April I got a part time job working in a restaurant as a bartender. Everyone thinks I was crazy to do that but the truth is I just needed something to make me active. I needed to get off my lazy fat ass and be active. I gave up sweet tea and I stopped eating beef for the most part. I chose bison. Which taste so similar and has a familiar texture but had half the calories. Nothing else really changed.

But I did not lose the weight I wanted. When I was in Key West I looked like a beached whale and I felt horrible. I have a picture from that trip that show the folds of fat on my back. I was so depressed after that trip. So I essentially just maintained until late July when my best friend Michelle told me that a guy we both worked with a few years back had lost a lot of weight thru some medical weight loss plan.

I kinda brushed it off. I was looking into Lap Band or some other surgery. Then another friend of mine saw Brad as well and said Brad has lost a lot of weight. So I called Brad and he told me about the plan thru Emory Hospital. I went to an info session on the plan and decided to enroll.

Before you consider any type of surgery please look into medically managed weight loss. IT WORKS. Your doctor or the Bariatrics department of your local university hospital can direct you. Too many of my friends had surgery and lost a lot of weight and regained it. Even with a smaller stomach you can eat ice cream all the time and gain it back. I have a friend that just did that.

So this is what I did initially. Follow my blog posts from the beginning and see the transformation.

Remember

Don't give up today because you fucked up yesterday.

30 October 2009

OctoberFast is complete and the results are Awesome

After fighting so hard to keep my diet and weight in check... and falling off the wagon on occasion. I took the last month to "correct" my weight.

At initial weigh-in on September 29 I had reached a heart breaking 255.5 pounds.  If you go back you will see that in December 2007 I had achieved a weight of 227.  Shortly after, my weight floated in the 230-240 range.  And I was perfectly ok with that.  However in the first 10 months of this year I slowly gained 15 to 20 pounds.  After 30 days of a very strict (with a few exceptions) I have lost 25.3 pounds.

Today I weigh 230.2.

This was not by starvation.  This was by determination-- increased activity and tight control of my diet.

I'm in the middle of publishing the details of my OctoberFast Plan.  Look for them in the next day or so.

I'm taking a few days to allow my body to relax and enjoy a few of the items I essentially forbid myself to have in the last month.  Cheesecake is definitely in order.  And Monday I'll be continuing with a modified version of my last OctoberFast... my new eating plan... ok we'll make it Tuesday.

thanks for your support.



jbriancrawford.blogspot.com


26 October 2009

Three days left in OctoberFast.

My goal for OctoberFast was 20 pounds.  I've reached 22.5 pounds down.  

My Reward for my success is a big ole piece of cheesecake with Chocolate and Caramel Syrup.  YUMMMMMMMMM

So Thursday at Midnight I'm taking my happy self to Taco Mac and having a draught Guinness and cheese cake.  I'm taking the weekend off of tracking to enjoy halloween.  And I'm going on my next program starting November 2nd.  

I'll  publish total results for OctoberFast along with the actual detailed plan and sample menus this weekend as well as announce my next set of goals.

Thanks for your support especially to my Facebook friends.

Jbriancrawford.blogspot.com

24 October 2009

7 days left in OctoberFast

And I could not be happier.  I have trimmed 21 pounds off in 23 days.  This is much more than expected and I have moved to a completely solid diet.  I'm never hungry and I eat like a king.  A smart king but a king nonetheless.  My diet includes a breakfast of grits and cheese eggs and some Activia Yogurt.  My lunch could be pork triple lindy Streaker from Moes.  And my dinner is an 8 ounce beef filet with a sweet potato and another veggie. And Its all less than 1500 calories.

I'm going to post my 1500 calorie diet plan with a weeks sample eating plan once I've completed OctoberFast.

17 October 2009

OctoberFast has reached it's half way point.

My highest hopes for OctoberFast was to lose 20 pounds in a month.  At the half way point I have trimmed off 15 solid pounds of fat.

12 October 2009

Week 6 is finally complete...

This last week has been hell to actually get in all of my running. Life gets in the way, but its no more than a minor delay. The first 6 weeks are baby steps compared to the last three weeks. But I will get thru them. I have before.

My OctoberFast eating plan is going well. Yesterday (sunday) I did an all solid day but still limited my caloric intake to 1500 calories.

For breakfast I had a two egg scramble with some veggies and a sweet potato. This was a big breakfast for me because it was nearly 400 calories. I would usually use three egg whites and one actual egg to save calories but I only had two eggs (grocery time).

For lunch, I had salad with grilled chicken and lots of good veggies in it. NO CHEESE or BACON.

And for dinner I had bison, some tomatoes and cottage cheese and a sweet potato. I was stuffed.

I am looking for ways to expand the food in the plan but still using key components. My meal replacement drinks and sweet potatoes are the keys to success here.

Thursday is the mid point in OctoberFast. I'll post some results then, but let's just say this 30 day cleanse is working very well.

jbriancrawford.blogspot.com

10 October 2009

A few updates

OctoberFast is still going quite well. I'm in the middle of week 6 of my c25k plan. I completed week 5 without comment and will complete day 2 of week six today.

My biggest success with OctoberFast has been due to the inclusion of Sweet Potatoes in my diet. Some days I eat 2 and everyday I eat one. Sometimes as a meal, sometimes as a side and the other times as a snack.

Look into different ways to incorporate sweet potato in your diet.

07 October 2009

Day seven of OctoberFAST is complete.

OctoberFast has been very effective. I posted that I would give details about my OctoberFast Diet.

I am essentially cutting my Caloric intake to no more than 1500 Calories per day. I am Eating Small Meals thru-out the day. I am eating lots of vegetables. Sweet Potatos, Tomatoes, Onions, Broccoli, Green Beans, Carrots, Asparagus, and Squash. Others are allowed of course. I am using Liquid Meal Replacements as Breakfast and Snacks. A minimum of one and maximum of three. Each of these are 170-180 Calories. So they can take up some of your daily calories but they can be a god send as well as they can are perfect sweet treats.

I have two full meals. The meals consist of either a bison patty or a chicken breast along with two or three veggies. Essentially I can eat whatever I like but its easiest to if I use my calories to fill myself up. One of the keys to the plan has been Sweet Potatoes. They have about 170 Calories for the large ones. And they fill you up.

So here is an example of a day on OctoberFast.

Breakfast
Liquid Meal Replacement- 170 Calories

Lunch
Chicken Breast- 270 Calories
Veggies 2 Cups - 100

Afternoon
Liquid Meal Replacement- 170 Calories

Dinner
8 oz Bison Patty- 340 Calories
Sweet potato 170 Calories

You'll Notice that this is only 1220 calories and I believe that you must at least consume 1300 to 1500. So this gives you a little play. Maybe you want a small salad with dressing. Maybe you want another shake. maybe you want some guacamole or even a small amount of cheese. Or some cottage cheese or sour cream. The main idea is to use VEGGIES as much as you can. Especially Sweet Potatoes and Carrots. They are filling.

Drink a lot of water.

In my next post I'll discuss the activity portion of OctoberFast.


01 October 2009

Welcome to OctoberFast

I've often referred to Weight Management as a really good Menage a Trois. Three parts that are very important and it only works well if each part is not left out. The three players are Amount of Food (Calories) consumed, Weight Training, and Cardio work.

For the last two years I have been able to be consistent with my weight training and I have been on and off with my love hate relationship with cardio. But when it comes to Food, she can be a bitch. I LOVE food. I love Beer. I love Cheesecake. (OK I have to stop).

Five weeks ago I restarted my c25k plan for cardio and it's going well. My weight training has never been better and now its time to make love to the third partner. And in this case its less not more. Yesterday, I started a very structured eating plan that I plan to use essentially untouched for thirty days. I'll give you the outline in tomorrow's Blog. I am calling this plan OctoberFast. This is not a long term diet eating plan its a plan to correct a few problems I've been having.

Thanks for your support.

Jbriancrawford.blogspot.com