Some of you may remember my posts about weight loss:

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=23029355

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=23453823

I began dieting in October of last year. A few months ago, I decided it would be fun to lose 100 lbs in a year. So that became my goal.

This morning, I hit 100 LBS lost in just under a year. I'm 6'5", I started at 315 lbs, this morning I was 215.

Really rewarding. I've shared a lot of tips along the way (both those links have some). Just a few more that have become more evident in recent months:

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• Try to stay full as much as possible. It prevents over-snacking/over-eating. That's after the first three ish weeks, you'll be hungry during that time... but after that.
  
  
  
• One of my favorite books is the Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt. He talks about how our minds are like a man riding/directing an elephant. Our automatic system (which controls hunger, sex drive, breathing, flight or flight, "gut feelings" etc.) is driven by the elephant, our manual system (logic, knowledge) is the rider on the elephant. 
  
  I've been thinking lately about how big a role motivating the elephant was for me. It wasn't enough to know how to lose weight, I had to be motivated continually. I purchased three seasons of "Extreme Weight Loss" on Amazon and streamed them twice a week (usually during workouts). I listened to a podcast about weight-loss twice a week. I started following health experts on Insta, Twitter, etc. And I bought a whiteboard where I tracked daily weight/calories and hung it on my bedroom wall.
  
  I can't believe how much those motivations helped me, especially initially. My "rider" never could control my elephant when it really wanted a cheeseburger, but if I pointed the elephant to my motivating goals, I was better able to follow through.
  
  As you lose weight, the elephant starts feeling excited about lower pant sizes, lower numbers on the scale, etc. The motivation grows and escalates as you go on. But pay attention not only to the "know-how," but also the motivation.
  
  
  
• In the end, weight loss is about calories. If you focus on nothing else, focus on that. To be honest, though, if you eat 1700 calories a day of cheeseburgers and ice cream, you'll be starving. The healthy food is needed... just get as full as you can for as few calories as possible (no fewer than 1500 for men, no fewer than 1200 for women).
  
  
  
• Exercising doesn't increase the number of calories you can consume... though it was helpful to motivate the elephant for me that if I worked out for 30 min, I got 100 extra calories. But 1 hour didn't give me any more than 30 min.
  
  
  
• Count absolutely everything you put in your mouth. I've helped 5 family members and 3 friends lose at least 20 pounds each since I started. One of the biggest hurdles for people is they count their "meals", but they don't count the handful of popcorn they eat, the extra apple they eat, the "taste" of birthday cake, etc. I tracked my sister-in-law one day, who told me she was only eating 1300 calories a day. I counted 2 days in a row where 1300 were her meals, but her total was 1900 (after small snacks and snitching). You count EVERYTHING you put in your mouth. EVERYTHING.
  

I'm not done, I want to lose 10 more pounds. I've started lifting more heavily, though... we'll see where I level out. I look/feel a lot better than I did 1 year ago.

If you're sitting at 295 pounds and wondering if you can make it/is it worth it, think about yourself in 6 months. In 6 months I lost 60 lbs. By March if you weigh 295, you could be at 235. 6 months to change your life. It's worth it guys!

Please let me know if you have any questions or whatever.