Randy Holloway| Peak weight: Approximately 265| Current weight: 260.2| Goal weight: 199

I’m inspired by Jason to share my weight loss goal as well.

First, some background. I’ve gained and lost a lot of weight over the past 10 years. When my wife and I first met back in 1994, I weighed about 165 lbs. That was a bit low for me; 175 lbs was a good healthy weight. Over the years though, I started gaining weight steadily. At first it used to be 20 lbs here and there that I would gain and then lose pretty quickly. Once Donna and I had kids it was 30 lbs up and down every year or two. I remember the first time I hit the scale at 200 lbs. That seemed like a huge milestone. Now I’d love to be 200 lbs again. Five years later, the milestone was 250 lbs. Now I’ve been hovering around 250 for long enough that I know I have to do something drastic if I want to get back to a healthier state.

The core of my weight problem is that I don’t exercise and I eat way too much. I also tend to skip breakfast and eat most of my calories late in the day. When I’m stressed out or needing to decompress, I go for fast food or other “empty calories”. While I know that I’ll never quit eating that kind of food, I do need to do a better job of managing how I consume food. Food consumption is to fuel my body, not a recreational pursuit. I need to focus on that.

My solution to start getting healthier is simple:

1. I’ve hired a personal trainer to help me put together a program to get started for the first 6 weeks. This gives me an accountability partner and some added motivation. For those that can’t go this route there are other options, but for me this was necessary. I’m starting with cardio for 3-4 hours per week and adding weights to my program in the near future.
2. I’ve started tracking my food intake at MyFoodDiary.com. The tools are easy to use and they have a great database of food for people that eat out. I know that you can do this kind of tracking without any supporting tools, but this makes it very easy and that’s what I need as I’m getting started.
3. I’m drinking tons of water. A minimum of 64 oz per day. Today’s intake was about 80 oz.
4. Get on the scale every day. Although “weight loss” isn’t really the primary goal (its about getting healthier), weight is something I can track every day. If I’m gaining weight that’s moving in the wrong direction. Getting on the scale is a good measure to hold myself accountable. Over the long-term, converting my body fat to muscle mass and improving my physical fitness are the key goals.

While my ultimate goal is to be under 200 lbs again, my main focus is improving my health and having more energy. I’m treating my “saved” calories like a bank account. I need to “save” about 220,000 calories. So far this week, I’ve saved about 1100. MyFoodDiary.com keeps track of this data and helps me to log my food intake, exercise patterns, and other useful data. I’m sure there are other free tools that you can try, but this one seemed easy and it was recommended by a friend.

My experience tells me that a long-term solution is in order. Short-term diets can be a quick fix, but they tend not to provide lasting results. I’ve done the Atkins diet twice and each time I’ve lost more than 40 lbs. And each time I’ve done it, within 24 months my weight is higher than when I started the diet previously. But I’m confident that I can reach my goals if I take my time and hold myself accountable on a daily basis. I’m looking forward to this journey.