My first 4.5 months

I Lost 40 Pounds In 4.5 Months
And I got my life back!

It is not that losing that amount of weight in that amount of time is so eventful for the human race. No, it's the revelations for me on the path to losing that amount of weight. You see, I didn't go on a diet, so I guess you can say I used the NO-NO DIET Plan. I didn't go on a diet; I went on a lifestyle-changing mission! I ate what I wanted; in fact, I had more meals than I usually do.

It all started when I finally had the realization and was willing to face the fact that I was over weight and it was only going to get worse unless I did something about it. Weight gain and denial are such insidious and destructive partners in preventing you from taking action. So, in July about the 15th of the month, I went in and met with Mike McKinnis, of Fitness Plus and we worked out a plan. I was difficult, because I have signed up for fitness programs before and I didn't want anyone to have access to my checking account, and believe me, I have been a member of many Spas and Fitness Centers across the United States. Mike was smart enough solve the problem and I paid for my membership in one lump payment. I viewed it as extra motivational insurance, if I paid for it all at once then I would mentally be forced to use it.

Well, so much for that thought, I didn't start going until August 15th. And then, I only used the Steam Room, Jacuzzi and one of the three pools (I use it like a cold plunge, to cool down). I had a myriad of excuses: my back hurt (it will if your dragging 315 Lbs around), I was on the road too much, I got back into town too late, etc, etc. You know how it goes; you can substitute your own excuses.

I just couldn't figure out why I was so tired and sleeping so late, all the time and finally in late August, after about three or four months of fighting it, I went to my family physician. The test results were conclusive; I had Type Two Diabetes and an A1C blood average of 8.5. Wow, I never thought of myself being afflicted with such a life threatening disease. Now, I really was motivated to pay attention and get my health straightened out. I did not want this disease to define my life or me.

How I lost 40 pounds

Every action we take starts in the brain, my first realization was that I needed to change my thinking. And I knew I needed help. To win this weight and health battle, I started with my brain. I enlisted the help of a Clinical Hypnotist that I was familiar with from Denver. I bought the weight CD's from Dr. Cody Horton, Ph.D for weight loss and I listened faithfully, everyday at first and now maybe two to three times a week when I get ready to go to sleep. It has helped with my motivation by instilling the vision of me as a thinner person (just as the Pro Athletes do it) and it has helped re-program my mind about my food intake, my bad habits and the way I relate to food. The re-programming also addressed the emotional relationship we all seem to have with food. This was one tool, which helped me develop the motivation and the habit of going to Fitness Plus five days a week. I believe this is the one step that has allowed me to find the answer to my weight loss. It's about control, control over your life and re-programming over 40 years of bad habits, and it requires professional help. It's a simple fact change your thoughts, change your eating!

Beliefs, Motivation and Actions

Re-programming myself was important to me. I don't underestimate the power of the human brain, as I have been in sales training for over 35 years. I know that as human beings we are programmable and that you can change. I have programmed myself with the wrong beliefs since childhood, so I knew this wasn't going to be easy. The Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) practioners believe that focusing on changing an individuals thoughts will change his or her behavior and emotional state. The illustration below is the model for how beliefs, feelings (emotions), and behaviors (actions) interact.

Simply put, your beliefs, whether concious or subconcious, determine your emotions and actions. Change your beliefs, and new feelings and behaviors follow right behind them, in lock step. The fastest method to change your thoughts is thru your sub-conscious. This is why Hypnosis works so well with the issue of weight-loss. It is not a silver bullet, but with an experienced Clinical Hypnotist working with the right script, I know it has worked for me. And, I had never been hypnotized before. It is possible with HypnotizeMyselfThin.com to re-program yourself and succeed at keeping those New Years Resolutions to lose weight.

Body in Motion: Why you want Fitness Plus in your Weight-loss Toolbox

I knew that in addition to rethinking my emotional ties and habits of consuming food that I would need to get my body moving. I checked out every fitness program available in my area, and then I chose the best: Fitness Plus. The reason is that Fitness Plus is one of the most professionally run gyms, I have ever seen. And, I say that having joined or worked out at the best in Phoenix, Houston, NYC, Chicago and Denver. It is always clean, bright and the equipment always works. The hardest areas to operate for a gym are the pools, steam and the sauna. I have never seen such a flawless operation. They are always in working order and the cleanest they can be. They even have private showers large enough to move around in and some with seats. And clean towels, it must be because of the association with St Francis Hospital, but you will never be short towels in this facility. Fitness Plus staff is friendly and they are there if you need help. It just makes this effort to lose so much easier and enjoyable. It's working for me in spades! I don't think I would ever think of joining a gym or fitness facility that wasn't associated with a top-notch hospital after my experience with Fitness Plus. I know everybody doesn’t have a facility of this caliber available, but I would recommend that you search your area for a fitness spa that is associated with a hospital.

When I first started going to Fitness Plus I used the Free Valet Service everyday, as I didn't want to walk the distance from the parking lot to the front door. And, honestly, it was painful. I look back and laugh, but it was just one more thing that made it easy to go and enjoy getting my body in motion. By the way, I park in the lot now and walk the walk. The real benefit of exercising besides burning the extra calories is metabolism. I knew that I had to jump start my metabolism and even though I only used part of the Fitness Plus facilities available to me. I had to start by developing the routine (my exercise habit) even if all I used for three months was the steam room. It worked and with my other efforts, I lost weight. I know that many hard core workout experts will argue that the steam is just water loss and that it has no benefit because your just sitting, but I monitor my heart rate in the steam room and it can get as high as a moderate workout. I lost thirty pounds just using the steam room and it enabled me to move to the next step in my lifestyle change. At the end of my third month, I felt good enough to start riding the stationary bike and the steam. Now I have kicked it up and complete a 45 minute to one-hour work out 5 days a week. I have become a body in motion.

Extra Benefits of Exercise Program

That said, a regular fitness program (or any regular physical activity) is invaluable for medium-term eating and weight control for the following reasons:
• It helps reduce appetite
• It helps reduce food cravings
• It improves mood and lessens the need for comfort-eating
• It increases the calories you can eat without gaining weight
• It improves personal motivation to stay in shape

An Exercise Bonus: A Healthy Heart is Related to A Healthy Brain

The latest studies are exploring how Hypertension is related to Dementia and Alzheimer disease. Austrailian studies have shown the benefit of Exercise to control the effects of Hypertension and its direct effect on Dementia.

I am convinced I am on the right healthy path. My blood pressure has dropped by 40 points and I am off the blood pressure medication. I feel better physically, I feel better about myself and my body and I think better.
The Smarter Way to Lose

The Third Link in the chain is my re-education regarding food. One of the benefits of being diagnosed with diabetes is the St Francis Diabetes Education and Management Center. My family doctor referred my to the St Francis Endocrinolgy specialists and part of the program is taking the Diabetes Education and Management program. I originally thought, I was going to have to sit though three days of boring high school health classes. Wow, was I surpised. While I knew the information they discussed, the staff at the Center made it relate to me and I learned why I am over weight and really how to manage it, if I was motivated to do so. I think the real revelation for me was the presentations on portions. The staff is superb, knowledgable and they made it fun to discover a completely new lifestyle.

I guess, through the years of fast food and restaurant dinners, you forget what a real portion of food is supposed to be. I had become removed from what my body needs to sustain and maintain a good lifestyle. I had programmed myself with compelling reasons to finish every oversized, and upsized portion restaurants serve to prove a value and make me come back. And, then you become programmed in childhood to clean your plate, so children don't starve in the world. The re-education started me on the next step. I just can't thank Cindy McClellan,RN and Rosie Danker, RN enough for a professional and thought provoking program.

Calorie Counting: I didn't do it

I say that, knowing it is only a partial truth. But, what I can say is I educated myself on what calories I was putting in my body. I think this was the result of the Diabetes Education and it just spurred me to search and discover more. I discovered that if I just reduced my calorie intake 500 calories a day that I could lose One Pound of fat at the end of each and every week. The fact is 3500 calories equals One Pound of Human Fat. I know that if I break my goals down into reasonable actionable steps that I can reach my goal to lose weight.



I joined a free online health and nutrition forum called SparkPeople.com. There are several similar websites, I just happened to settle on this one as the forum was good, it is simple to use and one of the most thorough I found. It was so simple to enter what I had eaten that day and what exercise I had done (remember the steam room and Jacuzzi is all I did to start off). What this did was provide me with a basis to create my meals and understand what I was putting in my mouth. By understanding my calorie intake, I could then substitute lower calorie foods, make smarter food choices and understand the protions that were correct for almost all the foods I enjoyed eating.

I got fanatical about maintaining this for maybe two months, by then I began to see my food habits change. I did this to understand the caloric intake that I needed to maintain a healthy body and not feel starved while losing weight. It worked for me, 100%. While I don't count every calorie or obsess over every calorie, I now understand and pay attention to the labels (just in case) for all the foods I enjoy eating, therefore, I can control the portions and eat what I enjoy eating. That is the big benefit: I CAN EAT WHAT I ENJOY EATING AND LOSE WEIGHT!

Metabolism: How to Jump Start

The best way and the natural way is exercise, and my personal favorite is the steam room. It is always like a reward after a good workout along with the Jacuzzi. But, here are a few other tricks I have picked up along the way.

The biggest change I made to my daily routine was to start having breakfast! I never understood the value of the morning meal except for the comfort it provided after a night of hard partying. However, in facing the challenge of making a lifestyle change, this was the most difficult for me. What could I eat that was easy to fix, tasted great and would jump-start my metabolism every single day. I enjoy cereal with fruit or frozen blueberries in the morning, but the calories count is higher than I wanted every day. The trick I found was Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal. I have grown to love the taste of oatmeal with raisins or apples and it only has 268 calories with a glass of milk. So, it allows me calorie allowances with my other meals since it is so low. It is great; I also add some frozen blueberries or some dried cranberrys and raisins.

It has made a difference in how I eat at each meal because I never get a ravenous hunger; I have three meals a day and try to avoid missing a meal. I am amazed at how it helps me to control how much I eat. Small snacks help too, one or two a day. I am never hungry and actually eat less than I ever did. It seems that studies back this up as people who ate a good breakfast felt satisfied for a longer period of time.

A couple of other tricks to help my metabolism, that I ran across in some diabetic forums and then at the Linus Pauling University medical research site, is that cinnamon has a time tested magic that can makes a big difference in your metabolism. I take in the morning and the evening.

Here are a couple of other supplements that will jump-start your metabolism too:
• Chromium Picolinate
• Biotin
• Alpha Lipoic Acid
• Niacin
• Omega 3 ( this is not a metabolism booster but, helps the bodies get rid of fat)

Check with your doctor before adding any of these to your daily intake, but I can say that my doctors reviewed all of my supplements and they were fine for me.

The Simplest, Cheapest Weight-Loss Elixir Ever

One of the great mysteries of life is this: How can you drink water (Which is heavy) and lose weight? I have pondered this many times, but over time, drinking 2 to 3 liters of water a day, will help you lose weight and keep it off. It also helps you perform better during exercise, reduces fatigue, and can even help you feel better by reducing back pain and headaches. Common wisdom has long held that drinking water before meals can promote weight loss, but there were no studies proving the point. However, a new study found that middle-age and older adults who drank a couple of glasses of water before each meal lost about 30 percent more weight than those who didn't.

I can remember growing up, juice was just for taking vitamins or medicine, and milk went with cereal. When we were thirsty, we drank water. Over the years, I was amazed when I saw people guzzle soda as if it was, well, water. A regular 12-ounce can of cola has around 140 calories -- have one a day and you could gain a pound every month!

I have made serious choices about the drinks I put in my body. I gave up all alcohol. I love my white wine, with a meal, with friends; just about any time, wine is right. Well, it is like a sugar injection, it is calories without nutrition. There is no nutritional value to the drug of my choice, but I wanted control again of my life and my body. So, I quit. I threw out the diet cokes and the Vodka too. There is a side benefit of dropping the alcohol: Scientific studies show that alcohol consumption reduces a man's testorsterone levels. Actually, that decision was probably worth two thousand calories a week, when I look back. Can’t say anything about the testosterone revelation. It’s important to recognize what your Kryptonite is, and preventing you from achieving your super human body.

I learned something about the trick of diet soda too. You can't fool Mother Nature. Your body knows you put something sweet in you mouth, it doesn't care if it is zero calories, it triggers a hunger, and it triggers your appetite. Look into the glycemic values of foods to fully appreciate this phenomenon. You will find great information from the Glycemic Research Institute at http://www.glycemic.com/. I eliminated carbonated drinks and Diet Sodas from my refrigerator and my life.

So, how can I consume 10 to 12 glasses a day of water to power my weight loss machine? I made a compromise. I like Crystal Peach Tea; I know it is artificially sweetened so there are no calories. But I find it easy to drink, I like it and it has worked for me. I am trying to get in the habit of drinking one or two pint bottles of water a day. But, I really use the Crystal Peach Tea to meet my water requirements. I always drink two glasses of water or tea before I eat. It lessens my appetite and I tend to eat slower. That's the secret for me, it works for me and I enjoy it too.

I lost weight because I started with my Mind

In conclusion, I just want to say that as doubious as I was that I could do this, I am here to tell you that if I can, you can. I am 67 years old and I haven't worked out in the past twelve years. I believe that by starting with my core beliefs and modifying my feelings has given me the motivation to act. It is now programmed into my subconcious. I won't tell you that I havent' tripped and fallen, I have. But, I just have much more persistence and determination now. And, by having the right facilities offered by Fitness Plus and continuing to reprogram my subconscious mind, I have learned that it is so easy to make the right decisions and choices to succeed.

I am winning this battle with weight and diabetes. My A1C (a blood test that measures your glucose levels for the past three months) is now 5.4, below 6.0 is in the normal range. My blood pressure, which has been a problem for the past 20 years, has dropped below the need for hypertension medication. I am regaining control of my life by simply reaching my 5-pound weightloss goal every two weeks. Thank You Dr. Cody Horton, Ph.D, Mike McKinnis and Fitness Plus. Check them out at HypnotizeMyselfThin.com and FitnessPlus.sfmc.net

My Goal is to get to a size XL (I have dropped two sizes now) and to be in shape to go skiing in Vail next winter. That is my reward for simply making the right choices to have a healthy mind and a healthy body. Amazing, isn’t it, what it takes to motivate you to simply do what you know is right in the first place! But, one thing I do know and that is: that the rest of my life depends on me meeting my goal and I choose life over the alternative.

All the Best
Bob