About

TheLoseWeightGuide.com is a blog aimed at those looking to lose weight and keep it off for life. I’m here to educate you to make the right choices, how to exercise, and anything else needed to lose the weight.

Other things you will find:

• My years of personal experience and knowledge of exercising, losing weight, and eating healthy.
• A no nonsense approach. I won’t try to sugar coat anything. If you’re serious about losing weight, you need to face reality about your current situation.
• How to change your habits for life.
• Ways to lose weight without losing the love of eating food.

About Me

My name is Benny and I’ve been exercising and learning about eating healthy since college. I wanted to get lean and build muscle so I read as much as I could to learn how. I got into the best shape of my life up during that time. However, since then I’ve fluctuated from periods of exercise and healthy eating to not exercising and eating junk food. Yet I’ve always kept my appetite for knowledge about health.

Currently now, I feel the best I’ve ever been. I’m 32 years old but get mistaken for being 25. I attribute that to living a healthy lifestyle. It hasn’t always been like this.

When Did I Have My Wake Up Call?

It’s January 2007 and I’m on a family vacation in New York City. The day after another huge meal, I woke up feeling absolutely sick. I’ve never ever felt like that before. Instead of a day out seeing the city, I spent it sleeping in bed all day long. No matter how much I slept, I still wanted to sleep more.

I believe that day was a wake up call. It had been at least 3 years in the making. I used to be in shape in college! I didn’t have to worry much about weight because I was active and young! Even after college, I stayed active and probably had a high metabolism. I always stayed at 165lbs. That was my comfortable weight. I thought I would be there forever.

Then after my mid-twenties, I was too lazy to exercise. I had a girlfriend so we ate out a lot. I had a lot of stress from work so I ate junk food to help me feel better. I remember it was a big bag of chips, cookies, and Icee during the day.  Big lunch and big late dinner. At night after coming home from work at 11pm, I would have Haagen Daaz ice cream. Yikes!

I didn’t know I was gaining weight. I don’t think anyone knows. It just creeps up on us until one day we get that wake up call and look at ourselves in the mirror and realize we’re not leading a healthy lifestyle. I weighed 180 pounds, which was my heaviest ever!

After that morning in New York City, I got the motivation to get back to my weight of 165. I signed up for a 10K race in Jacksonville, Florida. I’ve always wanted to try it, even though long distance running was not my favorite thing to do. One year I woke up early to line the streets and cheer on the runners. The following year, I could not even wake up in time to do that!

I paid for the registration. I knew if I paid, I felt like I had to do it or else I would waste my money. In the local newspaper, there was a 2 month training program laying out what do to everyday. I joined a gym that was walking distance from my house.

I stuck to the program. The training program didn’t have a eating program so I had to find one for myself. I had always been a fan of the Body-for-Life program and followed the six small meals a day plan.

I was adamant about eating healthy. Six days of clean, healthy eating. I passed on sweets, fried foods, and sodas. The 7th day, I was allowed to “cheat”. I ate everything I had been craving all week. Big breakfast. Hamburger for lunch. Milkshake. Pizza for dinner. Cookies for dessert. By the end of the day, I felt so full and tired that I didn’t need to eat like this for the rest of the week.

Two months later, I finished the 10K race in 1hour 30 minutes. I didn’t win the race, of course, but my goal was to keep jogging the whole time, which I did. Seeing people lining the streets and cheering you as your run was one of the most exhilarating experiences ever.

I went from 180 lbs to 165 lbs. My body was lean. I had muscles again! I shaped my body to a point I was comfortable with it. My pants were loose again. My face went from chubby to healthy looking again.

Most importantly, I had more energy, I slept better, I felt great and felt confident about myself again.

Since then, I’ve kept the weight off. I have consistently exercised. I make smarter food choices. I do splurge and eat what I am craving but I keep it all in moderation. That is very important.