A Bet Leads to Weight Loss but Not a Six-Pack
Six Months ago my kids and I were sitting in the hot tub making conversation when my daughter made a comment about my waistline. I can’t tell you the exact comment but it was something along the lines of “Nice round tummy buddy”. Without evening thinking I blurted out that I could have abs by my birthday which was met with a thundering round of laughter from both of my kids.
My birthday was a random date in the future but it ended up being almost exactly 6 months from my little gentleman’s bet. So let’s establish some starting notes.
- When making bets with your children, write it down. I remember a “Gentleman’s bet”, but my kids united and decided that I had bet my daughter $20.00.
- Was my daughter being mean-spirited when she pointed out my waistline? I don’t think so. We razz each other often and honestly, she was telling the truth. I was out of shape.
- I had absolutely no idea how to accomplish this, nor had I ever had six-pack abs.
- I was 48 years old when I made the bet.
- I weighed just north of 250lbs. (I can’t remember the exact number. Apparently, I block out anything above 250)
How did I attempt to get abs? Well, to start with, I spent the first 3 months randomly exercising and not paying any attention to my diet. Yes, I lost a few pounds but nothing on the scale that was going to get me to my goal. Then in late December while browsing Amazon.com I saw a book titled, Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes and on impulse I purchased it. Note: I have a weakness for books, but I digress. At this point, I was 3 months in and I had only lost maybe 5 pounds and my body didn’t look different than when I started. I read the book in a couple of days once it arrived and I kept thinking that I was shell-shocked by the information. 
The book negated several facts that I had always held to be absolute fact. One example is that exercising is critical for weight loss. Turns out that this isn’t the case. It also provided the evidence that I had been searching for when asking the question of “Why shouldn’t I eat carbs?” I had always viewed bread as natural and clean. How could flour, egg, and water be bad? The book details how our body metabolizes sugars and carbohydrates which is just a slightly more complex version of sugar. One other piece of the book created a link between modern diseases such as cancer and our modern diet. I wanted EVERYONE to read the book, but everyone just smiled politely and didn’t show any real interest.
I decided to apply the book for the next few months. Typical for me, I decided to create my own rules. I decide to have a cheat day. So, usually on Saturdays, I ate whatever I wanted, although I’ll be honest I didn’t really eat that poorly on my off days. I might have ice -cream, potato chips or rice/potatoes. I’m Irish and I must have potatoes. What did I eat the rest of the week? A lot of meat and vegetables. Simple salads of lettuce, cheese, and full-fat dressing were common. I didn’t avoid any fats and in fact, I added them whenever I could. That was it. I avoided all carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice, bread and I also didn’t eat any sugar. I drank Coca-Cola Zero if I wanted something sweet and I also made a few “fat bombs” for when I needed a treat. At no time did I make any attempt to count my calories or restrict my food intake. I often ate until I was uncomfortable.
What were the results?
No, I didn’t achieve my six-pack but I haven’t given up on it quite yet. I just didn’t accomplish it by my deadline.
What I did accomplish was losing over 35lbs in 6 months time without what I would consider dieting. I realized at one point that I had dropped below 220lbs. The strange thing about this was that I couldn’t remember weighing under 220lbs. I knew that I weighed 205lbs when I graduated from High School and I weighed 225lbs when I got married but I couldn’t remember the details in between. For the last 15 years at minimum, I had weighed in excess of the weight I was currently at.
One other resource that I used frequently was Darebee.com. Darebee has an amazing amount of resources for exercising at home. Infographics, video tutorials, and apps are all available and I used the ab workouts as warmups for other workouts. One other note is that I didn’t do as much cardio work towards the end as I did in the beginning. As I mentioned the book details why exercise isn’t likely a good way to lose weight but exercise is a fantastic way to increase your strength and redefine your body, not to mention it is a great mental health break.
Read the book and keep moving.