Me on Fat2Fit Podcast!

2009/05/04 at 8:50 pm | Posted in Exercise, Life, lifestyle change, Motivation, weight loss, weight loss blog | 2 Comments
Tags: diets don't work, Exercise, fat2fit podcast, lifestyle change, weight loss, weight loss blog

Well, it’s not actually me speaking but I am mentioned in Episode 63!

I am a regular listener of the Fat2Fit podcasts and hosts Jeff and Russ often read e-mails from their listeners, whether questions or success stories. I sent an e-mail to them over a month ago explaining how I lost over 100 lbs. and lo and behold, today it finally made the podcast.

You can give it a listen at their site or download it from iTunes. They begin reading my e-mail at about 7:12 but hey, don’t just listen for me. The podcast is fantastic and one of the few I subscribe to (in addition to Leo Laporte’s Tech Guy podcast). If you’re trying to lose some weight, Fat2Fit really does the job by speaking of weight loss in plain English, not some mumbo-jumbo.

Thanks to Jeff and Russ for reading my note and for giving my weight loss blog some notes. I appreciate everything and keep up the great work!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention this. In the podcast, you hear me mention that I take the train to work and walk during my lunch hour. Well, the job that afforded me such privileges has since laid me off so I no longer take walks while at work. This isn’t entirely a bad thing–I can ride my bike to my new job which is about 5 miles away by bike trail (or 3 miles by street). I plan on doing it every other day at first then possibly every day later. Staying fit while saving gas. Now there’s a winning combination if I’ve ever heard one!

And when I say “a case of diet soda” I meant a 12-pack, not a flat of 24 cans. Juft FYI.

The original e-mail transcript is after the break. Enjoy!

First off, I would like to thank you for the fantastic podcast you put together for your listening audience. I discovered it while roaming through iTunes for a weight loss podcast that spoke to me as a person and not a brain or someone who needed spiritual enlightenment to shed pounds. I’ve tried many and none of them ever got me to subscribe, but Fat2Fit hits the nail on the head and does it well.

Second, a special thanks to host (and fellow Long Beach resident) Russ Turley for stopping my weight loss blog, www.200by40.com, and leaving a kind comment on a post in which I gave the Fat2Fit podcast some kind words.

I know you and your listeners like to hear weight loss success stories and inspiration from real people, not cardboard cut-outs in storefronts or on TV commercials. Well, that’s the reason I started my blog: to show people that anybody–even Joe Average–can truly lose the weight they want if they simply try hard enough and put their minds to it.

My motivation for doing so was simple: my family. They are whom I live for and whom I need to look after and at a weight of nearly 300 lbs. in 2006, my life with them was certain to be either cut short or be plagued with health problems. Once my doctor indicated to me that my weight had shot up since my last visit, that was all I needed to hear.

I had made a simple goal, which was to be at 200 lbs. by my 40th birthday in 2009. That gave me a good 3 years to reach it.

By my doctor’s recommendation I began following the Weight Watchers Points program and stuck to it. In addition to counting Points, I also began to educate myself on nutrition and started to exercise by walking a little each day and lengthening the distance as I saw fit. Being that I take the train to work and the area surrounding my office is very pedestrian, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to walk during my lunch hour, otherwise I’d probably be sitting at my desk checking e-mails or surfing the Web.

Before I knew it I was walking nearly 2 miles during my lunch. I also began to take the stairs rather than ride the elevator (and still do). Eventually I got my hands on a Wii Fit in order to add something different to my routine, which by then included doing between 50-100 sit-ups at night. I have since graduated to jogging on a treadmill for 30-60 minutes each night in the comfort of my home.

On the food front, I decided to change my lifestyle completely: I exchanged red meat for chicken, milk for almond-, rice- and soy-based alternatives, started eating more veggies and gave up diet sodas cold turkey. In fact, I was going through a case of diet sodas every two days at the height of my “addiction”! I now drink green tea or or water and will have an occasional diet soda with dinner, but I do not buy it [by the case] anymore. 

The result of all of this was a loss of just over 100 lbs. in a little under 3 years, which I have kept off for nearly 6 months. But to say that all of this was easy, even though it took years to shed, is an understatement. Believe me, there were times in my 230s when I thought I had plateaued and couldn’t go any further. But despite it all, not once during my weight loss program did I ever lose sight of my goal or tell myself that I couldn’t do this. It was at those difficult times when I really shined by telling myself that nobody was to blame for letting my body get the way it did. I got mad at myself and worked even harder to lose the weight because nobody was going to lose it for me. I turned the switch on, took no excuses and made no regrets. I moved on whenever times got tough and worked right through them.

Now, am I some kind of fitness nut that thinks he now knows it all? No, I’m far from that. I still have an occasional slice of pizza or a donut but in moderation (which is the key to success). I’m just a guy that was tired of being fat and decided to do something about it rather than sit around and mope about how his size 48 pants and XXL shirts were getting more snug. (By the way, I now wear size 36 pants and L shirts!)

I am now training to run in the Disneyland 5k this September and feel better than I have in years. I have since abandoned counting Points and simply keep track of the calories I take in and what I expend–it’s as simple as that. Food is no longer my enemy; it is the fuel I need to survive.

Believe me when I say that if somebody like me can change their lifestyle and lose the weight, I have no doubt that any of your listeners can, too. I will gladly share my experience with anybody that’s willing to listen in the hopes that they will find their own inspiration and make the change from fat to fit. The road is by no means easy but the reward is definitely waiting for you at the journey’s end.

Thanks again, and keep up the great work! And best of luck to you, Russ, with your program. I know you will reach your goal 🙂

Regards,
David A. Moreno

P.S. My new goal is 190 lbs. which I will get to. But for now, I’m enjoying what I’ve accomplished thus far!

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