My journey to a life of healthy living.

I am now 54 years old. I have battled my weight since the age of 10. I grew up in the restaurant industry. And have worked most of my life as a chef. I can make things that are bad for you taste really good. My mother, who passed away 15 years ago died from diabetes, and I have always been a student of nutrition, supplementation, and health. It was my job to know all the diets/fads. I have never been a fan of any of them for the most part so I never really followed any of them. I hovered around the 190 to 215 range at the age of 17-24. I was very athletic but always had a belly. But I could run really fast. I ran the 40 in 4.3. When I got married at the age of 23. Within a couple of years I started packing the weight on. In my thirties I hit over 300 lbs and eventually reached 393 lbs. And at some point I had had enough. I was going to lose the weight. And even with an improper diet, you can lose weight. Which I did. I got down to 330 for a while. And then I got down to and hovered around 282. Which is where I was for about 3 1/2 years (last year.) My journey also met some difficulties as my wife is full blown Alzheimer's. Very late stage. I am now not working and am her all the time caretaker now. So now I have not only living through all that stress. I'm dealing with a lot of depression and then this (so-called) pandemic hit. Now I said I was hovering at 282. And after the holidays at the end of 2020 came. My life sucked more and more. So I did something I wasn't ever going to do. I gained 34 lbs and was back up over 300. So at the beginning of the year I contacted a friend of mine who is a trainer. I told her, "I've gained a lot of weight. I need help!" She wanted me to try a diet system that I won't name. Which requires 6 meals a day. And they want you to buy their super expensive products and teach you about eating some healthy meals. My friend told me, "Don, you are going to hate their food. But I'm asking you to commit and just do it for 30 days (I started January 10th). You need to reset your body." So I committed. And she was right. And as I was taking in their information. My education of food and nutrition conflicted with some of their ideas and products. I've always known soy products aren't good for you. But I stuck with it for 30 days. I lost about 30 lbs. And I kept my word. I also thought it was silly that I was staying up later just so I could get my 6th meal in. Now when I was at the 282 point. I had developed neuropathy in my feet. So I had started doing intermittent fasting. Saw some improvements, but I wasn't doing it right. I was fasting for 12 hours a day and eating anything I wanted for the other 12 hours. And as much as I wanted. I wasn't doing it right. Then I did this other plan which I didn't like. And after the 30 days, I went back to intermittent fasting and started designing my own meal plan based on what I learned from the one diet plan that I did agree with. So I started watching videos about intermittent fasting in YouTube. Which is where I discovered Dr Berg as well as 2 other doctors and one fitness guy, who all promoted the Keto plan. Which was funny, because the meal plan I was developing was very similar to the Keto. Mine is more strict. But along the same lines. So I began to eat these videos up and watch some every day. I do refuse to put some things in my body like unhealthy diet pop and any other stuff that is bad for you. Even if it is considered Keto friendly. Anyway, I believe the first month of intermittent fasting, I was going 12-14 hours and was having success losing weight. And then I decided to take the challenge. Because I am so focused on getting the weight off. I decided that I'm going for the 20 hour fast every day. Here I am in June. I have taken off 85lbs! I'm down to 231lbs, and just shy of 12 inches off my belly. I still have the neuropathy, but it has improved. I also got a hold of my trainer friend and told her my goal is no longer 100lbs. I am going for 175lbs. And that is because I don't know the right weight at this time. And I know I will get there. I am committed to the cause. I am focused and I'm feeling so much better. And because of these things, what I am doing (the intermittent fasting) isn't hard for me. It is actually easy. I believe during this whole process, the first week was tough. And after that period I think my stomach only felt like it was eating itself just twice. I also just told a friend of mine just 2 days ago. I have a new goal to run the 40 yard dash in 4.3 again. I told him in one year I will be doing it.