For some time, I have been quite displeased with my weight.

I was doing great, and then Covid hit. The lockdowns started. And I sort of lost motivation to do anything.

Now, that’s entirely my fault. I have nobody to blame but myself.

That said, since the start of Covid, I found myself slowly gaining close to 60 pounds, until I finally reached high point (or maybe, rock bottom) of 247.

This was, plain and simply put, unacceptable.

Thankfully, I haven’t seen 247 since April 13th of this year.

However, even though that was my “high point,” I still didn’t seem to be taking things very seriously. I had a drive, a determination, to change, but I also wasn’t taking action towards making that change.

Until June.

The last day of May, I determined to get my ass in gear and get very real about changing. On May 31st, I was 240. June 1st, I was at 238.8.

This morning I came in at 224.3. I’m well on my way, but I still have a ton of progress to go.

What does any of this have to do with tracking my food?

Quite a bit, as it would seem.

Starting June 10th, I got very serious about tracking my food intake, along with my macros. I began using the app Cronometer to keep track of what I was eating.

So what have I learned?

Well first of all, I learned that it’s significantly easy for the average person to overeat. Like, holy hell!

For starters, I set my daily calorie target at 1,880. I arrived at this number by multiplying my current weight (at the time, 235) x 8, because I had over 40 lbs to lose. I don’t recall exactly where I saw the calculation, but it seemed decent to me.

And let me tell you, is it ever easy to exceed that number of calories in a day if you’re not careful with both what you’re eating, and in what quantity.

The second thing I learned is that we have far too little protein in our diet, and far too many carbs.

I can already hear people yelling “but carbs aren’t the enemy!” and you’d be right. They aren’t.

But if you’re overweight and sedentary, then yes, they are a bit of an enemy — to your health.

I won’t get into it here but suffice it to say, an overindulgence in carbs, especially the wrong ones, while you’re already overweight, can be very detrimental to your health, and can lead to type 2 diabetes, among other health risks.

With that said, I’ve been prioritizing protein far more than any other macronutrient on this diet. I set my target at 35%/35%/30% for protein, carbs, and fat respectively.

What has that yielded me?

Well, in the almost 3 weeks that I’ve been taking this very seriously, I’m down to 224. And I hope to be even closer to 220 when I wake up tomorrow.

Now, to be fair, it hasn’t been all diet and running. I’ve also been (inconsistently) working in resistance training, in addition to taking a 30–60 minute walk every day.

Where am I going with this?

I have a target number in my head — 165 pounds. If I make it there and I don’t have veins on my abs, then I’m going to continue going down even further. The ultimate goal is to get to sub-10% bodyfat, and from there, start building up the right way, adding on lean muscle mass, and continuing to eat the healthy diet that I’m building now through habit.

I invite you to follow along with this journey, but most of all, I would LOVE to hear of your own success stories! I’m all about celebrating others’ wins with them. So let’s get to celebrating!