Alan Thomas, Author at Post My Path

Day 214 10/15/17

Posted on October 15, 2017 Written by Alan Thomas Leave a Comment

10/15/17

Day 214

Extreme Accountability Challenge

Today’s weight 193.0 pounds

Starting weight 304 pounds

Destination weight 175 pounds

Goal Date to achieve destination weight 11/22/17

Number of days until destination date 38

Total weight loss to date 111.0 pounds

18.0 pounds to go

Information is so readily available today, that’s a good thing, right? Yes absolutely, but it gave me the excuse to not take action regarding my obesity. There were so many choices in weight loss plans. I don’t think that I could list them all if I tried. The reality is that most of them work to some degree, many of them work very well. The challenge is to follow through and stick to the plan that you choose.

I am no different than anyone else that needs to lose weight. I just wanted the weight off. But it doesn’t work that way. Sure I could take off 5 or 10 pounds pretty easily. But to get over 120 pounds off. That’s an ultra marathon.

I had to pick a plan and learn life long changes to get this weight off forever.

When I was used to eating everything in sight, 252 days of not cheating once is like running that ultra marathon.

A marathon is a little over 26 miles, an ultra marathon is a distance further than the traditional 26 mile marathon.

Last night when I was trying on some of my 19 year old sons clothing, because everything, even my skinny clothes, are way too big. The size 34’s fit nicely. I was a size 46 stretchy waistband guy 214 days ago. That’s a long way when I look back. The remaining 18 pounds are my ultra marathon pounds. I’m biking, going on long walks, many people don’t even recognize me, and I am sticking to my plan.

I don’t say this to boast, I say this because probably no one believed that I would get this far, except one person, me. In reality, I’m the only one that had to believe.

If you struggle with your weight like I did, pick a course of action, tell someone or everyone like I did, and start. There will be at least 2 that believe you can make it.

You and me.

It may feel uncomfortable at first but….

Remember comfort is overrated.

Get uncomfortable and take a chance and…

Press post then press forward.

My name is Alan Thomas and

I’m a writer, a speaker, and a life coach!

175 pounds here I come!!!

Day 213 10/14/17

Posted on October 15, 2017 Written by Alan Thomas Leave a Comment

10/14/17

Day 213

Extreme Accountability Challenge

Today’s weight 193.0 pounds

Starting weight 304 pounds

Destination weight 175 pounds

Goal Date to achieve destination weight 11/22/17

Number of days until destination date 39

Total weight loss to date 111.0 pounds

18.0 pounds to go

Today has been a bit unusual. I am an early riser. Typically I get up sometime between 5am and 6am, often even earlier than that. My family is normally asleep still and it gives me time to think and write. I make my coffee and an ice water with lemon, for a few hours the world is quiet.

I’ve felt that I should be writing for the last few years but honestly I didn’t know where to start. The Extreme Accountability Challenge has given me a voice, really a funnel to process my thoughts through. I don’t know if that makes sense but I think that you get the idea.

In order for me to lose 129 pounds, I had to become a different person. I’ve written every day to give you a glimpse of that happening. I have said it before, I want you to have hope. I needed it for decades and really I was searching for the wrong solution. It was never the food or the exercise, it was me.

I was listening to a mentor this week that was talking about lottery winners and how so many end up broke. Often in worse shape financially than they were before winning the lottery. At a glance, it doesn’t make sense, but really they weren’t ready to handle that kind of money. If Warren Buffett won a lottery he would have turned the millions into hundreds of millions. The lottery winners, while having millions were still that same broke people inside, it took 3 to 7 years for their bank accounts to match who they are.

Transforming yourself physically is no different, you have to change, the outside of you will eventually match what’s inside.

Think of it this way, are you eating for nutrition, for entertainment, or for addiction? That same mentor brought that up to me as well. Wow!

It’s perfectly fine to eat for nutrition and occasionally even for entertainment, but never eat for addiction. I promise you that the 304 pounds were made up of a lot of addiction eating.

Start feeding your mind, it’s how change begins. It’s interesting that we got rid of cable and a month later I’m on course to lose 129 pounds. Angie and I still watch a little television, but about 10% of what we used to watch. Television typically doesn’t feed my mind it numbs it.

Shake things up and start changing what’s inside you may end up a much healthier person inside and outside.

It may feel uncomfortable at first but….

Remember comfort is overrated.

Get uncomfortable and take a chance and…

Press post then press forward.

My name is Alan Thomas and

I’m a writer, a speaker, and a life coach!

175 pounds here I come!!!

Day 212 10/13/17

Posted on October 13, 2017 Written by Alan Thomas Leave a Comment

Alan Thomas's photo.

10/13/17
Day 212
Extreme Accountability Challenge
Today’s weight 192.6 pounds
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Goal Date to achieve destination weight 11/22/17
Number of days until destination date 40
Total weight loss to date 111.4 pounds
17.6 pounds to go

Looking at those numbers beneath my feet this morning, I have so many thoughts going through my head, and really my heart, it’s hard to describe. It’s been 212 days since my first post back in March. The pounds that have come off of me are enormous. 111.4 pounds. That number sounds crazy. It’s hard to believe that I let myself get to that point, but I did. It was as though I was falling from some place high and couldn’t get my footing. Down I went, except I was falling up in weight. Everyday an extra bite of this or taste of that. The desire to eat was an obsession. At night when I came home from work, after dinner more food became my medication. It was destroying my health of course, but it was bigger than that, it was destroying me. By the grace of God I didn’t have more medical issues. I deserved them, but maybe God was protecting me from myself so that I could reach someone else that is falling up in weight like I was.

212 degrees Fahrenheit is the boiling point of water. It’s the point that water ceases to just be hot and becomes real power. The steam that water at 212 degrees produces is powerful enough to power ships and whole cities.
Just 1 degree different and everything changes. These 212 days have revealed something powerful in me.
There was no chance of me ever losing weight long term unless I harnessed some inner strength that I had never been able to successfully find within me.

Publicly declaring my intentions to lose from 304 pounds to 175 pounds by November 22, 2017, in 252 days, when I had tried every weight loss program I could find and had failed miserably seemed crazy, it wasn’t. In fact it was probably the most reasonable thing that I’ve ever done. Think about it, me continuing to accept my obesity as opposed to doing whatever was necessary to get the weight off, that would have been crazy.

As I approach my goal of 175 pounds, there is so much that I want to share with you if you are out of control with your weight like I was. You don’t have to be 129 pounds overweight to be out of control. You could be 5 or 10 pounds overweight. The reality is that if you cannot get a handle on it you have a problem, it’s just a matter of time before you hit the big league obesity numbers.

Do something radically different like I did and change your trajectory, get the weight off and get healthy.
It may feel uncomfortable at first but….

Remember comfort is overrated.
Get uncomfortable and take a chance and…

Press post then press forward.

My name is Alan Thomas and
I’m a writer, a speaker, and a life coach!
175 pounds here I come!!!

Day 207 October 8, 2017

Posted on October 8, 2017 Written by Alan Thomas Leave a Comment

10/08/17
Day 207
Extreme Accountability Challenge
Today’s weight 197.0 pounds
Starting weight 304 pounds
Destination weight 175 pounds
Goal Date to achieve destination weight 11/22/17
Number of days until destination date 45
Total weight loss to date 107.0 pounds
22.0 pounds to goThis morning when I woke up I was wrestling in my mind with a problem that I have and I know that defining the problem is the first step in creating a solution.

It reminded me of all of the years that I wrestled with the problem of being overweight then ultimately had to wrestle with being morbidly obese. For years I looked at my weight as the problem, then which diet would be best became the problem, then ultimately I realized neither was the problem.

The problem had always been my behavior. It’s so obvious now to look back. It sounds so ridiculously simple it’s really embarrassing that it took me to age 55 to figure this out.

You see my weight was the result, it was never the problem.

The myriad of diets and eating programs that I traversed over the past 35 years were never the problem. Sure some were better for me than others, but really if I got the result that I wanted and was healthier, who really cares how I got there in the end. I could argue health and nutrition all day but when you’re 304 pounds does it really make that much difference how I could get thinner?

The problem wasn’t any of that. The problem was simple, I had to define what I really wanted first. I truly never did that, it was always to lose some weight, well I sure lost plenty of weight, I figure that I’ve lost hundreds and hundreds of pounds, the only problem was that I gained 304 more pounds than I lost!!

So when I defined 175 pounds that was a big step. Is it perfect, probably not, but I am clearly headed there. As I go through this process, I am growing, and I want incredible health, 175 pounds is just the first step on that path. My perfect health is and always will be a work in progress.

Next came the really hard part admitting the biggest problem of all, that I never really committed to the behavior to get healthy. Sure I would give it lip service, but to really commit meant change. The change I’m referring to is a change of behavior, forever not a week or a few months but lifelong change. That honestly scared me to death.

But ultimately it wasn’t about what I wanted it was about what I wanted most. An Incredible healthy body and a long and vibrant life.

I could dance around or face the facts and do something about it.

Most of us just want the pain to stop. Get me the anesthesia!!

Focusing on the problem is rarely the answer.

Focusing on the solution, how to get there and taking whatever steps are necessary to get there is the answer.

Search for the real problem and what you ultimately want, not just the symptoms.
It may feel uncomfortable at first but….

Remember comfort is overrated.
Get uncomfortable and take a chance and…

Press post then press forward.

My name is Alan Thomas and
I’m a writer, a speaker, and a life coach!
175 pounds here I come!!!

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