How I Did It - Part 1: What I Ate & How I Exercised to Lose Over 150 Pounds

The first thing everyone asks is how I did it.  

They want the practical, how-can-I-duplicate-your-steps answer. Of course, it was so much more than just what I ate and how I exercised, but these are simpler questions to answer, so I'll tackle them first. :)

Before jumping into what finally worked for me, I want to back up and review the things that did NOT work for me. I have tried many, many different ways of eating and exercising in literally decades of dieting.  And a couple did give me successful results, at least for a while, but then ultimately ended up in the plans-that-don't-work pile. 

Like that famous diet plan with the commercials with the famous people and the weekly meetings... not naming names, but I counted and banked points to the tune of 77 pounds lost in a year. That plan taught me how to game the system, and put me into a cycle of undereating and overexercising in order to "earn" a binge.

Not a great plan for a food addict like me. 

Here's why: I planned those weekly binges so meticulously... All week long, I would shave calories wherever I could and gleefully record them so I could put them towards my weekly foodfest. Would it be an Italian-style feast this week? A huge bag of take-out Chinese food? How many forms of chocolate could I include in one dessert?

That kind of cycle is guaranteed disaster for a binge eater. 

The best way I can explain the addiction is this: After my twins were born, I was on a post-c-section morphine drip. It was on a timer, so no matter how many times I pressed the button, it would only dispense a dose every 6 minutes. Of course I pressed the button more often than that, but the machine made me wait at least 6 minutes between fixes.

Applying that mindset to my weekly binges, there was no machine keeping me in check. Binge eating has always been my morphine, and eventually I just needed to hit that button more than once weekly. In retrospect, it was almost kind of amazing that I lasted a year before succumbing completely to my old habits.

And all the lost weight returned, with interest.

After that experience, a couple of years passed before I was ready to try again. I decided to go seriously hardcore. I had given a great deal of thought to the concept of addiction, and designed an eating and exercise plan with that in mind. How could I make my addictive personality work for me, instead of against me?

I thought of AA, where alcoholics have to quit cold turkey. There's no weekly bar night as a reward for staying sober the rest of the week. And while I couldn't quit eating, I could quit using food as a drug. I could stop eating for pleasure.

Food was to be viewed only as fuel. No treats. Very low fat. Dry whole grains. Absolutely no dairy. I have no idea how many calories I was eating during that time, but I am certain that it was dangerously low.

Part 2 of this brilliant plan was to actively replace my food addiction with an exercise addiction. Intense cardio every day, for several hours a day. At least twice a day, sometimes 3 times. And in addition to that, every time I wanted to eat for pleasure, I would do some kind of physical exercise instead. Walk around the block. Run up and down the stairs.

I was a machine, with only one purpose - to lose fat.

And lose fat, I did. I lost 100 pounds in under 10 months. And while it didn't technically kill me, there did come a day when I literally could not do it anymore. The machine broke down.  Everything just collapsed. I went back to food, I stopped exercising... I did make a few half-hearted attempts to revive my efforts, but couldn't last more than a few days before relapsing. And I put on so much weight, so quickly. 

I gained 135 pounds before I found the strength to try again.

The reasons this kept happening - why nothing had ever worked and nothing could ever work - will be addressed in the Part 2 of this How I Did It series. But for now we're talking nutrition and exercise, so I'll continue with that piece of the story.

The Part You've Been Waiting For: How I Did It The Time That It Actually Worked

When I began this most recent attempt on March 21, 2011, I just did what I had done the last time. Low calorie, low fat, whole grains, lots of cardio. Hey, I knew it would work, and I had gotten so huge, I just needed something to work.

I focused on the math of weight loss. I had downloaded MyFitnessPal, an app for my phone for tracking my meals, and I soon realized that there was a full site associated - MyFitnessPal.com, with blogs and message boards, and I started using those resources as well.

I'm not going to lie - I lost weight pretty quickly by exploiting that math. Steep caloric deficit, multiple daily high intensity cardio sessions... That'll take a lot of fat off of a severely overweight body.

I lasted almost 3 months before I felt myself start to break down. I had lost almost 50 pounds, but I knew that I couldn't keep it up much longer. And I was scared. I didn't want to fail again.

I was clicking around the message boards on MyFitnessPal on the evening of June 14, 2011, and I came across a post that mentioned "eating Primal". The author of the post mentioned that this way of eating is based around controlling one's insulin response, and is helping a lot of people who have insulin resistance-related issues, like diabetes and metabolic syndrome and PCOS.

This immediately got my attention - I was dignosed with PCOS in my 20s, my father is a diabetic, and I had been told years earlier that I was pre-diabetic as well. And with my huge round belly shape, I was pretty much a textbook picture of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

Left, the actual textbook picture. Right, a very "centrally obese" (and shamefully headless) me.

The post referenced marksdailyapple.com - run by Mark Sisson, who wrote a book called The Primal Blueprint. So I headed straight to that site. It's really well-organized, and I just devoured the information presented. What I loved immediately is that the entire lifestyle is addressed. There are nutritional and exercise components, of course, and also other important aspects, like play and rest.

Side note: Primal is really a variant of Paleo... Primal is a bit more permissive, including some dairy, and dark chocolate, for instance. 

Anyway, I spent hours clicking around marksdailyapple that night, and the more I read, the more it resonated with me. I made myself a deal - 30 days, perfectly Primal, and then on day 31, I would reassess.

As it turned out, I didn't need 30 days. I knew almost instantly that I had found something that would work for me.

Yes, I had eliminated specific categories of food from my diet, but there were so many delicious things that were completely sanctioned. I ate steak, and burgers. and bacon and eggs. I cooked my veggies in butter. I drank my coffee with cream. And I had dark chocolate every single night.

I didn't feel deprived, and so I didn't feel driven to binge. 

I was similarly in love with the Primal exercise plan. In simple terms, it recommends 2-3 days of strength training, a sprint or internal training session once every week to 10 days, and at least 3-5 hours a week of low intensity steady state cardio, like a moderately paced walk, or easy bike ride.

I felt amazing, I was eating delicious food, and the weight was literally melting off of me. In the first 6 months of living a Primal lifestyle, I lost 73 pounds.

I learned how to make Primal/Paleo versions of pizza, brownies, cookies, pancakes for occasional treats made with healthier ingredients that still tasted great, and wouldn't make me feel awful.

All Paleo or Primal - all made by me with recipes I found on Pinterest - all super-yummy

So how long did I stick with it? 

Well, for the entire first year, I stuck to Primal eating. Completely. No days off. I honestly didn't feel driven to do so, because I was so happy with how I was eating and how I felt.

I started having occasional non-Primal treats after that first year. Not all the time, and not on a schedule, but just when there was something that I knew I would savor and enjoy.

What's amazing, though, is that most of the foods I'd once thought I could never live without - no longer interest me at all. Potato chips, for example. Or pasta. I don't even understand the draw of pasta at all anymore. It's just a delivery device for the other flavors on the plate, so who needs it, really?

So it's now been over 4 years since I found marksdailyapple and began my Primal/Paleo ways, and I'm still happily on board. In this time I've gone back and forth through the nutritional landscape - sometimes I cut dairy for a while and skew more towards "Paleo", and I've done the Whole30 three times, which is VERY strict Paleo. Mostly I'm Primal, as I do like a bit of dairy and dark chocolate. And sometimes I eat pizza and ice cream. Not super-often, but not once-in-a-blue-moon rarely, either.

The thing is - I just feel better when I eat healthy. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. So for the majority of the time, that's what I choose to do.

And that brings me to date on the nutrition piece of "How I Did It".

On the exercise side of things, I've switched that around along the way as well.

At the very beginning, all I could do was walk, or use an elliptical machine. I was too heavy for my joints to handle anything more. But I was working to the best of my ability at the time, and it was enough to keep the weight dropping.

Slowly but surely, I got lighter and stronger.

Confession: For the first 6 months of my Primal lifestyle, I didn't really keep up with the 2-3 times of weekly strength training. I didn't like it - I preferred a brisk walk, so that's what I did.

Once I got a little smaller, I started jogging. Through MyFitnessPal, I learned about a popular program called Couch to 5K, and I followed that program to increase my jogging distance.

Within a couple of months, I ran my first 5K race, and enjoyed that experience enough to sign up for a race series which would culminate in a 10K.

But I knew that I was missing the strength training piece, and it bothered me. So, never one to do anything halfway, I joined a Crossfit gym.

It was a great "box", as they're called. I had never done any Olympic weightlifting before, so I was really out of my depth, but I was determined and the coaches there were really excellent. Plus it was such a warm and welcoming community. (Shout out to Crossfit Merrick!!) I spent 6 months there, during the same time that I was training for that 10K.

Once I ran the 10K, I decided to aim for a half-marathon, and I left the Crossfit box to focus on that. My plan was to train for and run the half-marathon, and then rejoin Crossfit.

I ran the Diva Half on October 7, 2012.

It was an incredible experience, and an amazing accomplishment. And I never wanted to do it again.

Look, I wanted to run because I wanted to love running... but I don't. And I had learned by then that I would never succeed by doing things that I didn't want to do.

The plan had been to go back to Crossfit, but I had joined another local gym to train for the half, and I still had a few months left on that membership. I didn't want to pay for two memberships at the same time, but neither do I like to waste time. So I started looking for a strength training program to follow until my membership expired.

Enter Fitocracy.com. Fitocracy is a site and an app for fitness tracking, and like MyFitnessPal, it has a community aspect that was very informative and supportive. 

I had just discovered the site, and the timing proved sublime, as they were just launching their online group fitness programs, one of which focused on strength training for fat loss. It was 4 months in length - which just happened to be the exact amount of time I had left on my gym membership. Perfect.

That Group Fitness Program was called "Sixteen Weeks to Sexy", and it was led by John Romaniello. The group was moderated on a daily basis by Roman's right-hand bro at the time, one Mike Vacanti. 

The program itself was incredible. The workouts were well-designed, and I saw results right away. And I loved the online group fitness concept, which provided accountability and community support, but still allowed me to do the workouts on the days and times most convenient to my life, without tying me to a class schedule. 

That community introduced me to people who have become my Fitness Gurus. Roman and Mike, of course (more on Mike in a minute), but also, Roman happens to be married to the beautifully kind and inspiring Neghar Fonooni, from whom I learned the graceful badassery of kettlebell work, while encouraged to grow my mindset of self-love and gratitude. From following Neghar, I found Jen Sinkler - who, when asked what she does for cardio, famously answered, "I lift weights faster." 

Yes, the plan had been to go back to Crossfit, but plans change, and I believe strongly that success requires being open to change when new information is presented. 

By the time that 16-week program ended, I had truly fallen in love with the weight room. I loved what it did for my shape - I was leaner than I had been when I was running all the time - but more than that, I loved how it felt. Such POWER. I wanted to continue with that work.

The end of that program was right before my birthday that year, and so I decided that as a present to myself, I would schedule 4 personal training sessions with Mike Vacanti, who lives and works in nearby New York City. It turned out to be the best present of my life, because Mike Vacanti is THE BEST. As a fitness trainer, as a health coach, and as a human being. 

I love Mike for his mind, not his shirtless Instagram selfies.

Soon after, I started online coaching with Mike. We still had an occasional in-person training sessions - to which I would bring him homemade meals. Soon after, he started training my son, Max, too. I respect the hell out of him, and am so grateful to have him as my coach and friend. (And I'm beyond honored that he recently published an article I wrote on his site.) 

I am lucky enough that I still get to work out with Mike once in a while, but as for programs, I've been working through some others recently. I did Neghar's Lean & Lovely Kettlebell program, which is fantastic, and right now I'm in the middle of Super Heroine Fitness, which was written by Neghar & Roman together, which I'm also loving. I'm thinking once that's done, I'd like to tackle Roman's Omega Program. It's already on my shelf, ready to go.

And that's the story on what I've done for exercise.

Both sides of this story - both nutrition and exercise - have a couple of common threads, which I think have been key to making and maintaing a lifestyle transformation.

Key #1: The quickest way to get taller is to stand on the shoulders of giants. 

All along, I have been seeking out communities through which I could learn new things. Through MyFitnessPal, I discovered marksdailyapple and Couch to 5K.  The group coaching program through Fitocracy introduced me to an entirely new world of fitness teachers and inspirations. 

I follow dozens of workout and recipe blogs, I collect meal and workout ideas on Pinterest, and I found so many like-minded and inspirational folks through social media sites like Instagram. Podcasts, and YouTube subscriptions. So many people out there, with similar goals, and knowledge to share - all there for the taking.

Key #2: Trust your gut, and be open to changing course based on those instincts. 

I once thought that butter and bacon could never be a part of a healthy lifestyle. I once thought that the only effective exercise for weight loss was hours of daily cardio. Had I stuck blindly to those ideas, I surely would have failed again. 

I had to keep trying until I found what worked for me. I had to be okay with changing my plans - and accept that "switching course" doesn't equate to "quitting". I'll never maintain something if I hate doing it.

And "what works for me" is sometimes a moving target, so that willingness to switch things up can never expire. To this day, I experiment with different macro ratios and meal timings. I change my workout programs to reflect evolving fitness goals.

"How I Did It" is still how I do it. I keep learning and trying new things, ditching the stuff that's not working, and pursuing that which serves my strong, healthy, happy life.

Coming soon: How I Did It - Part 2: How I Addressed the Mental and Emotional Issues to Lose Over 150 Pounds