Shawn,
I found you on Twitter because Amy Berger mentioned you. I had just been insulted by two friends within 24 hours, both of whom said I was fat.
In addition, I had been told by basketball officiating observers that if I wanted big games and tournament assignments, I needed to lose weight.
One of the big problems for me was the head-spinning, confusing ways of going about it. Paleo and most LCHF diets require an encyclopedic-like recipe book. I HATE that. I want simplicity.
So, I was at a bad point. I was paralyzed into inaction by the complex recipes, going to the grocery to buy a thousand ingredients, but I was also very angry that I not only allowed myself to get so out of shape and wasn’t doing anything about it. Vicious cycle.
Then, I started following you on Twitter. It was a blessing from God, man. So simplistic to eat all meat (in my case eggs, too), yet it seemed it might be effective. I decided to give it a genuine shot. No cheating. No “kind of” doing it. I was all the way IN.
At first, it was weird eating steak for breakfast. But I followed what I saw you saying to others.
That was 20 weeks ago. In 20 weeks, I have…
- Lost 49 pounds *
- 38-40″ waist to 34″
- Increased my energy (I used to want to take a nap at about 2:00 every afternoon. Now I feel energy throughout the day.)
- Better sleep (Used to wake up at about 3:00 AM, and now sleep 7-8 hours straight)
- Increased my cognitive sharpness (recall, analysis, etc.)
- Improved my emotional state (Things that used to easily get me down now don’t)
- Eliminated plantar fasciitis, which had bothered me for two years
- Eliminated almost all of my knee pain
- Increased my weight lifting numbers
- Increased my desire to do work throughout the day
My diet every day is as follows:
- Breakfast – 4-5 scrambled eggs and as many strips of bacon as I want, water
- Dinner – 16-ounce steak OR 3 1/3-pound chuck burgers (occasional cheese added) OR 1 pound of roast beef OR a whole chicken from Costco or Boston Market with no sides, water (occasional ICE brand flavored water)
I don’t have to go to the store and buy a lot of things. I don’t have to look up recipes. I turn on the stove top or the grill.
I have no intention of stopping, as I enjoy every meal.
I can’t wait until the “friends” who insulted me see me again. Let’s see if those a**holes are as quick to compliment me as they were to rip me. Same with the basketball officiating observers.
Thank God I found you, Shawn. I appreciate your insight, effort and encouragement to all of us trying to get better.
Thom
* Update: This post was written in mid-December 2017. Since then, Thom is now down a total of 57 pounds from his original weight.
