Lose Weight - The Fast Food and Beer Plan

I am certainly not going to be featured in any Calvin Klein ads anytime soon, but I am extremely proud of the weight I have lost. As a nation we keep spiraling toward higher weights and unhealthy eating habits. The sad thing is, we are losing a battle of common sense against ourselves.

Starting the day after Mardi Gras I decided to observe the season of Lent. This represents the forty day period before Easter that Jesus spent in the desert being tempted by Satan. Many religions observe this season by eliminating a vice in their life. In the past I have chosen one thing to abstain from for the duration but this year I went all out.

I am 6'3" tall and twenty-four years old. If you check at the doctor's office, I should weigh between 195-210 pounds. Personally, I think those charts a bunch of crap and do not intend to live by them. Before the start of Lent, I weighed around 240 pounds. Everyone told me I looked fine because my height can often hide the extra weight I am carrying.

I decided to get very serious about Lent and refrain from eating and drinking many of the indulgences we all like. I completely cut out all fast food, any junk food (chips, cakes, etc.), and drank nothing but water. This sounds like it would be very hard to do, but I still ate meals that I wanted and whatever size portions I wanted.

The hardest part of the entire diet was cutting out everything but water. I am addicted to sweet tea and that is usually what I give up for Lent. By cutting out everything but water I realized that I was cutting out thousands of calories that I get from tea and soft drinks in a given week. I drink a lot of water, especially at work, but to switch entirely to water for forty days was quite an adventure.

I also cut out beer for the duration. I am not a heavy drinker by any means but just by cutting out the roughly six beers I would drink throughout a week I was able to cut out over 700 calories a week. I never really thought about the number of calories in a single beer but with 110 calories in the average light beer, the numbers add up quickly.