For as long as I’ve known, I’ve been overweight. For just about as long as this, I’ve had fleeting attempts to lose weight. I absolutely love food: cooking, eating, and even sometimes grocery shopping (sometimes). This is compounded by my laziness, which has me preferring to watch Netflix of play board games over going for a run.
Current Situation
I feel it is important to preface this with a look at my overall health. I’ve hardly ever been to the doctor for anything more than a general checkup. I entered college in 2008 weighing somewhere around 215 lbs. Shortly afterward, a lack of self control and access to cereal and chocolate milk at every meal saw me at around 315 lbs by the time I completed my Bachelor’s degree in 2012. When I came back to Illinois after my ACUHO-I internship at Texas Tech in August of 2013, I saw I was down to around 285 lbs. Since then, I have been hovering somewhere between 275 and 285 lbs. After the holidays, I’m currently sitting at the upper end of this range.
Diabetes runs in my family, both Type I and Type II, which is a main motivator for me to become healthier. In looking forward, I want to be in a place where I am living an active lifestyle while Lauryn and I are raising kids (which will happen somewhere down the line). I want to be able to play with them, run around outside, and have them see me engaging in physical activities for fun. I think this is important in instilling the idea that being active is essential to living life. I have few metrics that I want to hit when it comes to becoming healthier. I would love to get back under 250 lbs and even more so to be back at 215 or under 200. I would also love to be able to run for an extended period of time without being winded. I don’t care about running a marathon, half-marathon, or even a 5k. Simply being able to run for a full mile will be an accomplishment.
The Plan
Lauryn and I have devised a bit of a plan that we will experiment with for as long as possible. We have identified healthy behaviors/goals we would like to achieve, as well as harmful behaviors we would like to reduce or eliminate. As an example, here are my goals (which are subject to change as I progress through this program):
- Healthy Behaviors
- 190 minutes of exercise every week.
- Eat healthy meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.
- Drink at least 4 large bottles of water every day.
- Take over 7000 steps every day.
- Harmful Behaviors
- Eat out less.
- Drink less soda and/or sugary beverages.
- Eat fewer sugary snacks and desserts.
- Drink less alcohol.
So, every day, I will be keeping track of the degree to which I accomplish these tasks. During the week, I plan to alternate between Couch-to-5K runs and weight exercises. The weekends will have lighter, 20-minute exercises, which may just be going on walks. Lauryn and I have been using a meal plan service called CookSmarts, which should help us eat healthier meals while eating out less (I plan to do a post about this service later, but you should go sign up now).
The Catch
While this seems to be a good plan, I wanted to give it a bit of teeth. Lauryn and I put a portion of our pay into personal accounts for spending on whatever we want. Under my workout plan, I will instead only put a small portion of this money into my account and will put the rest into our savings. So, instead of getting $100, I would put $20 in my personal account and $80 in savings. If I do healthy behaviors, I get more of that $80 back into my personal account. If I do unhealthy behaviors, I get less of this money back. Now, eating a bowl of ice cream can potentially cost me either several dollars (well above the actual cost of the ice cream) or several minutes of working out (which would be needed anyway to work off the calories gained from the ice cream). As a side benefit, this lets me contribute a little more to our savings account, which can never be a bad thing!
Final Thoughts
Will this plan work? I’m not sure. I am the most stable now than I ever have been, though. I have a good job, a great wife, and relatively stable finances. There are relatively few roadblocks or distractions that should stand in my way, so I’m hopeful that this attempt will be successful. Stay tuned, as I’ll likely post some updates here as I go along.
Note: If anyone is interested in the actual mechanics that drive this plan, I will be happy to share. I will be using a Google Form to enter in my behaviors every day, and will use the Google Sheet of responses to calculate how much money I should receive on each paycheck.
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