gillingitdotcom

I’m a husband and father (and many other things). Like many, I got wrapped up in work and my own, little world, and I let myself go. When I got married, I was in excellent shape. I ran five miles every single day and lifted weights a few times a week. Over time, I stopped running and gave up the weights altogether.

As everyone knows, if you are taking in more calories than you are burning, the fat will come. And come, it did. Up until a few months ago, I was carrying around an extra 50 pounds that were not there when my wife and I started dating.

Here I was when we got married:

And, here I was a few months ago:

Time and again, my wife and I had conversations about exercise and weight loss. It became a much bigger issue in April of 2014, when she lost her father to a heart attack. It was then that I started trying. Honestly, I tried for a few months and then gave up again, like I had in 2013…and 2012.

I would lose weight and gain it again. I tried everything from limiting my caloric intake to three “juices” a day consisting of about 50 calories each to Atkins, Southbeach and anything else I could find. Clearly, none of those are long-term solutions, but it sure did feel good to lose 20 pounds in a few weeks! Too bad I gained 25 back every time.

I joined a gym and did cardio, lifted weights and even tried Crossfit. When none of those worked, I went back to my old tried-and-true basement gym. I ran, walked and lifted weights as much as I could…which was every day at first and then dwindled to almost never.

Two months ago, we had a long, intense discussion about how she wanted me to be around for our kids to grow up and how much more fun I was back then. It’s not that I wasn’t fun any more at all, it’s just that I was always tired, and I was only active for a couple of hours a day. I mainly used my energy for work.

She didn’t just direct the conversation at me. She included herself. I would argue, to this day, that she is absolutely perfect, but to show me how serious she was, she pointed out her own flaws and agreed to do everything I did for the two months while I began my transformation back to my ideal weight. I’m not going to go into the details of my diet plan. Everyone needs to find something that works for them. I will say this, it was hard.

To stay firm, I weighed myself every day, and measured myself many times. I also watched videos of me playing with my kids ever morning and every time I wanted to break my diet.

I lost a total of 40 pounds and still have a bit to go. I’ve tapered off the intense part of the diet and have altered it to work better with my day-to-day schedule. While I am happy that my appearance has changed for the better and my clothes fit better every day, that’s not what is important to me.

Here I was this past weekend:

I realize that I’ve only lost the weight and kept it off for a couple of weeks now, but this is the first time I have ever looked at food differently. I never, ever counted calories before. It seems like a lot of work, but after a couple of months of it, I can pretty much tell how many calories (within a hundred, or so) I am eating by just looking. That is, when we are eating at home.

Every day now (when I’m not traveling), I take my kids to the golf course behind my house to run and play. We run up and down the steep hills over and over and then play their version of soccer and football. That usually entails them throwing or kicking one of their many Disney or Avenger balls and me chasing it so they can try to beat me to the ball or tackle me when I get there first. When my wife joins us, it really gets crazy! We’ll all have those memories forever.

That’s the way I now get my exercise. I not only love burning the calories, I love the time I am spending with my family. After about 60-90 minutes of sprinting and laughing, we are all beat red and covered in sweat…and happy. You can keep your gyms, your treadmills, your weights and your Crossfit. I’ll take chasing my little energy-filled children and my beautiful, athletic wife around the golf course any day of the week!