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.

28 January 2011

January has been exciting... now on to February

But wait!!! January is not finished.

No its not but to set goals you need to have a clear picture of where you are going before you leave.

Imagine yourself leaving on a road trip. You decide to "go west young man". As a biker I traveled to Sturgis South Dakota for the Annual Bike Rally. We planned for 8 months. Budgeting and planning our route. We knew how we were getting there and we knew just how long it should take.

The trip was a comedy of errors. All the planning we thought we had done along did not prepare us for all the mishaps we encountered. We made it to Sturgis 24 hours after we were supposed to. Breakdowns, flat tires and general disagreement was a bit much... but we made it.

I had the time of my life but I learned some very valuable lessons.

To a healthy mind, mistakes are opportunities to learn and refine what we do. January has been that for me. I laid out what my goals were for the month. I tested a new workout regime, which is working well... I am tweaking it but it's essentially the plan I laid out in my mid month post.

In my career I have made a big decision to return to the industry that I love with a passion. In 2007 I left Real Estate Finance, I sold most of my properties between 05 and 07 and I considered myself out of the market. This was due to my health ( the purpose for this blog) and my opinion at the time (proven correct) that there was a correction on the horizon.

In 2009 I decided to start planning my return. In 2010 I laid out a plan that changed a hundred times but solidified in the last three months. Together with two business associates and close friends... We have launched Common Ground Real Estate affiliated with Keller Williams Metro Atlanta. And the last month has been awesome. Business is lining up and I am able to focus on me, my friends, my health and my business.

And now to February, It's a short month. "you got's ta do more inna shor time".

Friends and Family- Thanks for your support it is what I survived on for so long.

Health- Cut the crap out- I've been building muscle and building muscle sometimes adds fat (extra calories you know). The crap needs to go. Office life can be hell. Get those cookies away from me.

Business-Execute and tweak the systems in place. Maggie and Barb you are the best.

ME- Make time for me. NOVEL idea.
afatboynomore.com

14 January 2011

'11 has started with a bang...

My New Year's post laid out the tone for my life. It was about my dreams and desires this is the practical application.

In the next week I will announce a new business venture that I am excited to be a part of. I have set a goal to finally get my weight to the final level of 210-215 versus 235-240.

Four weeks ago I started testing a new workout plan that I adapted from a few other workouts.

The results have been VERY successful so far. The plan calls for working each body part once in a 7 day period. Initially it was a 5 day plan but the fifth day had only one body part and I found that after two weeks it seemed silly to waste a day doing 4 exercises.

Workout One is Chest and Triceps-
Workout Two is Back including shoulder shrugs-
Workout Three is Quads and Calves and Hamstrings -
Workout Four is Shoulders and Biceps-

Each body part has 3 to 4 exercises, and this is spread out over a 7 day cycle.

My chest, back and quads have seen a significant pump-I hate to say gain but it looks like they have increased slightly in three weeks. My biceps show a significant increase in size. My plan is to incorporate a running plan into the workout by week 6.

Today I walk 6 miles each day and two days of the week, I take longer walks which are as long as 14 miles (usually 10-12). My intention is to create a full-body week long workout plan that includes three days of running no more than 35 minutes. I really do not enjoy running but the affects running has on body fat are pretty convincing. Fat Runners do not exist...not for long.

My plan will look like this...
Monday Workout One Run Thirty Minutes
Tuesday Workout Two Walk 6 miles
Wednesday Run Thirty Minutes
Thursday- NOT A DAMN THING
Friday Workout Three Run Thirty Minutes
Saturday Workout 4 Ten mile walk
Sunday Ten Mile+ Walk






afatboynomore.com