After struggling for quite some time with my eating, I’m finally starting to make some measurable progress w/r/t my body composition. The highest weight I had reached was a disgusting 292 pounds, a weight that was not serving any of my ambitions whatsoever.
As a professional firefighter/EMT and someone who loves the martial arts, this was getting to be very limiting. I have always loved to lift, but at some point I stopped being a “big guy”, and crossed over into “fat guy”.
So, on May 1st I was talked into competing in a Biggest Loser style of weight loss contest that the township I work for was doing. At first I was hesitant, but was eventually talked into it with two of the other firemen on my department. We were definitely a hefty crew, weighing in at a combined weight of 910 lbs!
I started this adventure at 287.5 lbs and managed, in two months, to trim down to 260 lbs. This was enough to make me the “biggest loser” with a weight loss of 27.5 lbs. Our team had won the team portion as well by losing a combined weight of 70.5 lbs. I’m wearing clothes that I haven’t worn in quite a while, I’m a better firefighter, I’m definitely sparring better, and feeling better all around.
It’s crazy, the psychological games that go hand in hand with weight management. Once I wrapped my head around portion control, it wasn’t all that hard. I’m going to go get my bodyfat tested so that I’ll have a better yardstick than just my weight and intend to get my bodyfat below 20%.
I’m planning on ramping up my lifting with a focus on total body lifting sessions and still making it to the dojo to train 3-4 days a week. I think as long as I can stay motivated and in the right state of mind, I’ll keep progressing. Getting below 250 lbs would certainly put me at a weight I haven’t seen since around '94.
For the first time ever, I truly believe that I’ll get where I want to go, which is a BF level lower than 15%.
Any advice from some of the FFB’s?