Due to recent medical reasons, Iv’e had to recently change my diet. It wasn’t 100% neccessary, but it was a choice I made to make things easier. Little did I know how it would change my life! I lost 18 pounds in 1 week! A pleasant surprise, as weight loss wasn’t even my goal.

I imediately began with cutting soda and coffee out of my diet. Was it hard, kind of. The first few days were actually painful, as I was getting major headaches from caffiene withdrawls. Giant doses of ibuprofen came to the rescue.

It wasn’t meant to replace the cravings with water. The goal was to be certain that I was drinking the proper amount of water. I bought a name branded water, that came in a convenient 20oz bottle. Since sitting with a bottle any larger than that would seem like a huge task, the smaller bottle was easier in my mind to conquer. I thought “Hey, I can drink 3 of these a day, no problem!”. Though it’s 4oz shy of the minimum requirements, it’s still 100% step in the right direction, as compared to my 3 coffee and 3 soda day!

Next, was my food intake. I did NOT subscribe to any diets out there. Nor did I begin to count calories - or any other nutritional values. Here’s what I did… I cut out fast food, and I began eating vegetable at every lunch/dinner. Simple eh? I’m pretty much a meat and potatoes guy. In the past I would prefer to just have the steak, and on a good day - have a potato with it.

After that, I began to simply make better choices. Did I need to eat that entire frozen pizza 2 hours before going to bed? As much I would d too, I consciously chose different. I thought “would that be best for me right now?”. So I chose a chicken breast, rice, and veggies instead.

Oddly enough, I have developed a taste for ice cream. I can eat it any time of day. Because I make good diet choices through the day, it hasn’t affected my weight at all! Woohoo! I lost 18 pounds in a week, and it has managed to stay off because of making good choices. My metabolism used to run about 24hours, it’s been cut in half to 12 hours.

Whats hardest for me is french fries! I stopped in McD’s for an ice cream, and could smell those fries. Oh soooooo goood. I got out of there as fast as I could. Before I knew it, the urge was gone.

OK so the first 18 came off in a week. So - was I overweight? Only a Tad. Was I out of shape? Yes. I haven’t worked out since I met my wife - about 4 years ago.

Now and then I splurge with a coffee (preferrably a Granda Cafe Mocha, a shot of carmel, and whipped cream top). Do I think coffee is bad? No.

I feel good phisically, and mentally, for overcomming by making good choices. Now I just need to get back to the gym….

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