About Me

History 

I was born outside of Nashville, TN on April 19th 1981. At the age of 6, my father got a job in Washington, D.C. He handled the gardens of a private home in Georgetown. I lived there from 1987 through 2007. After 20 years in DC we had to move back to Tennessee because the private home was being sold. It was sudden and we really had no plans other than to get to Tennessee and get situated. By this time my weight was getting out of control.

The only healthy thing I had done was quit smoking. At the time of the move I was probably around 215 lbs. I had been mostly playing World of Warcraft for 8+ hours a day since 2004. I was eating and drinking whatever I wanted. I also suffered from Severe Social Anxiety and Panic Attack Disorder. World of Warcraft was helping with the Social Anxiety a little but it was aiding in my laziness. All of this was my fault, you can be healthy and play World of Warcraft of course.

The Diet 

So years go by and I just keep gaining weight and barely moving. I did quit drinking alcohol shortly after the move. By 2012 I was fast approaching 250 lbs. I had no energy, constantly drinking energy drinks for the short bursts of energy. Sometime around my 31st birthday in April 2012 I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was researching diet options when I came across something that would greatly change the way I think about healthy eating.

To get healthy you need to change the way you eat forever, not just a year or two while you lose weight. The lifestyle was the Paleo(Caveman) Diet. It's very simple, only eat what your body was made to eat.

A Paleo diet, also known as paleolithic diet or caveman diet, is all about natural foods to help achieve great health and a perfect physique. The human body evolved for more than 2 million years with the food found in nature: game meat, fish, vegetables, wild fruits, eggs and nuts. The human race was thriving on this diet high in animal fat and proteins and low in carbohydrates, but things changed when we introduced unnatural foods to our bodies.
More information here!


Now at first I slowly adjusted to everything. For the first month I peppered in days in which I would eat this way. Overall though I stopped all processed foods and sugar products. I allowed myself one day per week to cheat. Usually it was bread.

I noticed results that first week! I had horrible acid reflux, to the point that I would have trouble swallowing when eating certain foods. First week eating healthy, the acid reflux was gone. The weight was also coming off. On the exercise side I started slow, 10min walks, then eventually 30mins a month later. Did this once per day, 3 days a week.

By August of 2012 I had lost 20 lbs and was eating strict paleo at least 5 days a week. Walking 30mins a day, 5 days a week, and doing Yoga and Strength training 3 days a week. October came and I had lost another 10, but there I would stay....

So my goal was to not gain weight during the holidays and winter. For the most part I did accomplish this. I gained less than 5 lbs from October to February. I shelled a lot of raw nuts that winter! Not good when you are trying to lose weight but hey it was still healthy. So by February 2013 I was 215-220 lbs.

At this point I decided to step it up. NO Gluten. NO Dairy( I was eating cheese still at this point). Very Limited Nuts. More exercise. Well I think I lost maybe 10 lbs from February to April. It was feeling like I hit a wall. I was not losing much weight. So somehow during my Internet surfing I found Juice fasting. Now I know Juice fasting is not something you should do often, but I think it has benefits when you need to get your system back to what it should be(Reboot it).

So I decided on a 5 day Juice Fast paired with a Colon Cleanse. Details here. It was a decent experience overall and had planned to do a longer one a year later. So at this point I weigh 205 lbs, which means total I lost around 40 lbs just by changing my diet and to be honest, little exercise. But it became obvious I am going to need to do more from now on. I am going to need to walk every day for at least an hour per day. Ab workouts, Strength training, Yoga and more at least 5 times a week. At the end of the 5 day Juice fast I was just under 200 lbs. A couple of weeks later I was on my way back to 205 lbs. At the end of July my sister visited with my new niece and her fiance. At the end of that visit I was 207 lbs( I cheated a couple times!).

The 10 day fast and Beyond

I really felt like I was behind the 200 lbs mark wall now. Something needed to change and I felt like I needed a swift boot to my system. So I went back to the juice fast, the best way I know if you need to boot your system. The 5 day wasn't enough. Now it was time for a 10 day Juice fast without a colon cleanse.
Details Here. So this time it seemed to work. Lots of weight lost and it stayed off. Today is August 27, 2013 and I am hovering between 194 and 195. I am actually walking an average of 5 miles a day(with sprints) and doing yoga workouts, ab workouts, and strength training. I am on a custom diet with Paleo as a guideline. I'll eat some beans from time to time, same with corn, and very rare gluten bread when something special happens like Pretzel Bread! I cut my calories down to around 1500 per day. Cheese is rare now, and usually hard cheese like Parm/Romano. I start my days with Green Smoothies, everyday.


I am confident this diet and fitness plan will shed some more pounds, and am looking forward to reaching a place where I can start maintaining and not having to worry about weight loss!