My Weight Loss Story

I wasn’t always overweight. It wasn’t until I hit my 30’s that I started packing on the pounds. I watched it happen too. Everything I ate was crap. Everything I drank was crap. Somewhere inside me I knew that one day I’d pay for all the garbage I put inside me. It happened the day my doctor looked at me and said, not so unlike one of those cheap infomercials you’d see on television, “Wayne, you have high-cholesterol and you need to do something about it before something bad happens”.

I was only 38 then.

My diet back then consisted of your standard computer programmer’s fare. Frozen burritos, frozen pizzas, Cocoa Puffs, about 4 sodas a day, and sometimes more was a daily part of my food and drink intake. I’d eat at all the fast food restaurants, and normally would over-indulge myself until I couldn’t eat anymore. I went from weighing 180 pounds in high school, to 220 by my mid twenties, and topped off at 255 by age 38. Things obviously weren’t improving, and I became very ashamed of the way I looked. It affected every aspect of my life in many ways.

I never took off my shirt if I could help it. I felt embarrassed with myself and the way I looked. I was self-conscious by the lack of respect that I had shown my body over the years. I felt ugly and fat, and my self-esteem was right there in the muck of those low, negative feelings.

This wasn’t how I wanted to live my life, and I needed to make a change.

The one saving grace I had going for me were a few spurts of exercise and attempts at changing the future I was heading towards. I had the aim to lose weight and get in shape, but I always seemed to burn out eventually and return to my old ways. I’m lucky that I wasn’t any heavier than I had already made myself with that type of yo-yo commitment.

Can you relate to this at all?

I always knew I had to make change in my life. My doctor was telling me to do so, and deep inside of me I knew that I wanted to do it, I just hadn’t found the will power to make those changes. Whenever I did find the motivation, it didn’t seem to last long.

So what happened to change my life?

I found a spark of energy, and the will to hop on the elliptical that I had purchased over a year prior and never used once. I hopped on and winded myself in about 5 minutes. I felt so out of shape and partly defeated, and I had only just begun.

I pushed myself to get on again the next day, and the next, and the next. I had to focus all my will-power to push myself onto that hamster wheel and grind out as much time on it that I could.

I set a goal for myself to be able to use the elliptical for 30 minutes.

After the first week, I was up to about 10-15 minutes. Each day was a little different for me too. Some days I just wasn’t feeling the energy to continue, and I’d stop. I’m not one to torture myself with something I just don’t want to do. Other days I’d find that energy and be able to hit a new record time. Some days I’d rest because the prior effort proved to be a bit much for a body that was more used to being sedentary. I recouperated often, but not without keeping my mind on my goals.

Those days were the best as they would help me feel like I’m making progress. We need that, it drives us even further.

Getting a good cardio workout was my focus, as that would help me reduce my cholesterol levels.

Reaching that 30 minute point was important to me, so each day I continued to push myself, but not so much that I would kill myself and the workout the next day. I’d give myself the weekend to relax and recover, but my own personal goal was to workout 5 days a week.

I began to strengthen and tone my muscles

Now, doing cardio each and every day was good, but I also didn’t want to lose all this weight and have my skin hanging all over me. I needed some muscle to help support my skin, so I introduced a new workout into my routine.

I didn’t want to buy a weight bench, and I didn’t need nor want to become Arnold Schwarzenegger either. I just wanted to tone my body up. Building muscle and keeping it tone, I knew, would also help me burn more calories during the day.

I went out and purchased 2 DVD’s, 8 Minute Workouts. The 8 Minute Workouts were perfect for me and would help to tone and trim my body. They contain 5 routines that I still use today: Stretch, Abs, Arms, Buns and Legs. Each one is only 8 minutes long. I recently found that they finally combined the two DVD’s into one DVD. Here’s where you can find it on Amazon if you’re interested in it too. Remember, it’s easy to do these every day and they’re very effective, that’s why I use these: 8 Minute Workouts: Arms / Abs / Buns / Legs

I started with the stretch. Stretching your muscles helps to keep you limber and flexible, something that’s good for everyone. After the stretching routine, I’d pick the abs, arms, legs or buns, depending upon what I already did the prior time. My goal with these videos was to be able to do all 5 routines in a single workout.

After dying half-way through the abs workout, I knew that I’d need to allow myself time to build up to that goal. I certainly couldn’t do it immediately, and not only that, but the workouts I could do would affect me so much that I’d have to recuperate the next day.

My routine became cardio, cardio, 8 minute workouts, cardio, cardio, and then relax on the weekends.

This went on for about a year, and I had lost some weight too. I found myself at 230 pounds a year later, and was now able to do 30 minutes on the elliptical, as well as perform all 5 of the 8 Minute workouts in a single session. I had built up enough strength and endurance to meet my initial goals, so it was time to set new goals.

Looking at what I had accomplished and feeling the proud emotions of having actually achieved my initial goals, I now wanted to up the ante and push myself to new heights. It was time for new goals.

I decided that I wanted to weigh in at 200 pounds, and also have wash-board abs. I’m a pretty big guy, so 200 pounds and wash-board abs probably isn’t that much of a stretch and possibly quite do-able for me.

Exercise is great, but nutrition is required for greatness

But what happened was that I found my efforts were no longer having an impact. I had plateaued at 230. I was lacking proper nutrition. It was time for me to take a serious look at my nutrition. Perhaps that is something I should have done from the start, but I’ve always been one to take small steps, and make small changes, and try my best to be patient. I wanted the changes that I was making to stick and be part of my life and the way I live, and not just some passing fancy.

Like I mentioned above, I was never one to really pay attention to what I would feed myself. My stomach would grumble, and I’d toss something at it, whatever was convenient and sounded good to my palate. The problem though is that I’d never make the right decisions about the food I ate. I was still consuming many more calories per day than I really needed, and I didn’t even know it.

It wasn’t until I met an Herbalife Health Coach.  She told me that I could shed the remaining pounds easily if I followed her advice and held myself accountable to her and myself.

I went for it. She performed a Wellness Profile on me and recommended a set of Herbalife products for me to use. I couldn’t wait to start! She promised all these big things like increased energy, easy weight loss, and I wouldn’t feel hungry while working the Herbalife program. She also stated that I could shed those remaining pounds in just a few months time.

She was absolutely correct!

When I started Herbalife, I immediately began to see and feel improvements. I instantly had more energy, I wasn’t hungry either when before I would snack on bad stuff. I became more aware of the foods I was eating and began to slowly make better decisions for myself. I was very conscious of everything I put into my mouth as a result of working with my health coach.

After a few weeks of using the Herbalife products, I felt healthier than ever. My energy was going through the roof each day, and I accomplished more each day than I had before using Herbalife. Most importantly to me though, I began to see significant weight loss.

Today, as I sit here writing this, I weigh in at 200. I’ve met my second weight goal, and I feel incredible about that. I feel that I’ve achieved something that has alluded me for far too long. I don’t feel ashamed of my body anymore, and the remarks I hear from people only confirm that I am looking so much better than before. It’s an awesome feeling, and has filled me with a lot of self-confidence.

I was highly impressed with Herbalife and my health coach. To me, claims were lofty dreams, but I found all the claims that were made to be entirely accurate. I had the energy, the weight loss, improved nutrition, I’m looking good and feeling great!

I decided that Herbalife is for me, and will be part of my nutrition for life. I’m getting all the great nutrients and minerals I need every day, and I’m actually saving money on my grocery bill. I don’t need to nor want to return to my old way of living. I’ve found a new, better way to live and I’m sticking to it.

Are you ready to be awesome?

I’m now an Herbalife Health Coach and found that I really enjoy helping others achieve their own goals. Without my own personal health coach in my life, I would have never understood how much nutrition impacts the body’s ability to burn fat and simply improve our overall wellness.

If you are like I was and just waiting for something to happen, forget it.  You have to make the first move to change your life, but you can do it and I can help you for free!

Contact me today to learn more, or your can start by filling out my wellness evaluation form and providing me the insight I require to best help you out.  I’ll do for you what my health coach has done for me.

Be prepared to be awesome and achieve your goals!