Ed

My name is Ed, and at 5’8″ and 315 pounds I’ve been on the fast track to a heart attack and an early death. Until Monday.

Sunday, January 10, 2010: I was lying in bed watching my wife sleep, and all I could think about was what would happen when I died. My wife has told me repeatedly that she is afraid I will die before I’m 50. I have promised countless times that I won’t die young, that she has nothing to worry about. But although I was reluctant to admit it, the truth is that her fears are entirely justified.

That day while she slept, I finally admitted to myself that it was time to stop pretending and face the facts. I am morbidly obese. I have asthma, diabetes, and borderline high cholesterol. If I don’t do something soon, all the denial in the world won’t prevent an early death.

I want to live a long life. I want to see my son grow up into a man. I want to have more children with my wife. I want to know our grandkids. I want to celebrate our 50th anniversary. I have an entire life to live, and I don’t want to live the rest of it as an obese, unhealthy person.

So I started this blog. I need to be accountable – to myself, to my wife, my son, my family and friends. I need to publicly commit to losing this extra weight, and I need to make it happen.

I’ve tried dieting in the past, albeit half heartedly. I don’t want a quick fix this time, I want a permanent fix. I’m not doing any of the fad diets, infomercial products, packaged meal plans, etc. I’m going to do it the old-fashioned way: eat less, move more. And I’m going to track my efforts here. Here’s what I plan to accomplish:

I weigh 315 pounds.

My goal weight is 170 pounds.

To get there I need to lose 145 pounds.

My goal is to lose those 145 pounds in one year. 145 pounds divided into 52 weeks means a loss of 2.75 pounds per week.
I did some research about calories, weight loss, etc. to prepare myself. I discovered that in order to maintain my current weight of 315 pounds, I would need to eat 3,200 calories per day (which I have obviously been doing, since I’ve been maintaining that weight for a long time). In order to lose, I plan to restrict my diet to approximately 1800 to 2000 calories per day, which gives me a calorie deficit of 1200-1400 per day, allowing me to lose between 2.4 and 2.8 pounds per week (3500 calories equals about a pound of fat).

Along with changing my eating habits, I will also be hitting the gym. I plan on going to the gym every day for 30 minutes to an hour. I will update with the exact workout regimen that I will be using later. Right now I’m just looking to start moving and burning a few extra calories per day.

Sunday, January 10 – the day of decision – turned into Monday, January 11 – day 1 of making it happen.