Sign up for the FREE Emotional Eating webinar (upcoming)
In this episode, John gives an account of his weight loss journey from ~423lbs to ~227lbs.
This episodes answers some common questions John gets asked:
The story falls into three or four periods:
Other points of interest:
Discussion and Evaluation of my Tactics and Strategy at the time. Pros and cons of:
If you are a past, current or FUTURE client or a part of John's community at large, you will get aa fascinating look into the near 200 lb weight loss whose successes and failures did so much to inform his philosophies you enjoy today.
Make sure you're subscribed to the EASY WAY OUT. And please take a moment to leave a review.
🦉 John's Resources:
To learn about 1-1 coaching with John, email: john@oakesweightloss.com
Dive into John's life-changing weight loss course
Join the "Lose Weight with John" Facebook group
Subscribe to the YouTube channel (where you can watch the video version of the podcast)
Buy my book! 75 EASY: the ultimate challenge for personal growth
Amazon US
UK
CA
AU
Weight loss coaching - Join the Weight Loss Freedom Academy today
To inquire about 1 -1 Coaching with John - email John at john@oakesweightloss.com
Check out the EASY WAY OUT Blog/Newsletter site
Join the free "Lose Weight with John" community
Watch the Easy Way Out on Youtube
Sign up for the FREE Emotional Eating webinar (upcoming)
In this episode, John gives an account of his weight loss journey from ~423lbs to ~227lbs.
This episodes answers some common questions John gets asked:
The story falls into three or four periods:
Other points of interest:
Discussion and Evaluation of my Tactics and Strategy at the time. Pros and cons of:
If you are a past, current or FUTURE client or a part of John's community at large, you will get aa fascinating look into the near 200 lb weight loss whose successes and failures did so much to inform his philosophies you enjoy today.
Make sure you're subscribed to the EASY WAY OUT. And please take a moment to leave a review.
🦉 John's Resources:
To learn about 1-1 coaching with John, email: john@oakesweightloss.com
Dive into John's life-changing weight loss course
Join the "Lose Weight with John" Facebook group
Subscribe to the YouTube channel (where you can watch the video version of the podcast)
Buy my book! 75 EASY: the ultimate challenge for personal growth
Amazon US
UK
CA
AU
Weight loss coaching - Join the Weight Loss Freedom Academy today
To inquire about 1 -1 Coaching with John - email John at john@oakesweightloss.com
Check out the EASY WAY OUT Blog/Newsletter site
Join the free "Lose Weight with John" community
Watch the Easy Way Out on Youtube
00:00.00
oaksack
This week we're going to be talking about how I lost nearly £200 what I did right? What I could have done better and if anything and what I did super super wrong if anything. I think this will get us into a discussion of the mechanics of weight loss and a little bit of weight loss strategy but also answers some of the common questions I get about how I lost the weight.
00:35.77
oaksack
In some ways it inspired the outlook or methods that I use to coach others in some ways it was I guess you could say in the sense of the successes and the things I did well. But I think that the things that I screwed up were just as important the things that were super hard for me and were basically pure suffering I learned a lot from that as well and that has gone into my overall philosophy that I developed over time.
01:18.60
oaksack
But before we get into that I just want to do a little bit of housekeeping I'm going to be teaching a couple workshops coming up on specifically on the topic of emotional eating and how to stop how to let that go.
01:36.58
oaksack
It's a complex topic. But I think I have a way of approaching it that is going to help you not only understand why it's happening much better than you do already or just add some nuances to the understanding that perhaps you already have. But also to give you a framework a couple frameworks to use to make it simpler in the moment in those hard moments to know what to do to know what not to do to know how to. Navigate when the storms kick up.
02:17.32
oaksack
Um, and hey learn how to navigate before you get to the storm and go around the storm in the None place.
02:30.74
oaksack
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So they say if you're interested in None on one coaching. Oh and if you're interested in taking part. If. You're interested in taking part in my none workshop which is going to be free for everybody. There's a post in the Facebook group you can respond to that you could just email me john@oaksweitloss.com I will probably send out an email perhaps today telling people about this free webinar workshop that I'll be doing and you can probably just reply to that email. So I'll put that on my to-do list to do right after I'm done recording so hopefully by the time. You see this by the time you see or so hopefully by the time you are listening to this or seeing this on Youtube.
03:39.10
oaksack
That email will be hitting your inbox. So this this will go live on Tuesday so we'll make sure that that email hits your inbox early early Tuesday morning or maybe the day before.
03:58.79
oaksack
Somebody told me never to email on Monday because everyone is so backlogged with their emails that came in over the weekend. But yeah.
04:12.16
oaksack
My emails are more important to you than all your other work Bs right.
04:22.18
oaksack
Um.
04:39.19
oaksack
Oh, and also if you would be so kind as to find this survey in the post that I made in the Facebook group about this free webinar that I'm going to give click on the link to that survey fill it out. It's going to help me tailor my approach. What? what? I'm teaching exactly to your needs as you express them to me in that survey so go find that I'll probably include a link to that in the email as well. That's one of the easiest ways to sign up because when you do the survey it asks you to put in your email. I am open for None to one coaching. Still.
05:36.33
oaksack
I am open currently for 1 to one coaching if you're interested in that you can email me at john@oaksweitloss.com that's o a kesweightlossdotcom and I'll send you info on that. And some questions that you'll answer and then we set up a time to to chat to jam and we figure out if it's a good fit super chill. If you're looking for a lower cost option than coaching you can get what I call coaching in a bottle for a fraction of one month of coaching in the show notes below either on Youtube or. In the podcast you can check out my course the beginner's guide to losing weight the easy way. This is designed to help you reshape your approach to weight loss from the ground up and so even if you're a grizzled veteran of weight loss and you've done this. 20 times and gained it ball back and you really don't want to get burned again. This is a course for you. This is a way for you to.
07:00.57
oaksack
Approach this project with self-care and well-being as the first priority not having to motivate the changes you want to make out of thin air and using someone else's motivation but using your motivation and I. Hopefully show you how to link up with that.
07:26.23
oaksack
And how to develop a plan of action for your eating and your activity that will reflect that will hopefully reflect your deeper passions and values. Rather than your fears or fitness dogma we cut through all that Bs and tell you exactly what you need to get into a sustainable and effective calorie deficit sustainable. We tell you exactly we cut through the Bs and tell you exactly what you need we cut through all that Bs and tell you exactly what you need to get into a sustainable and effective weight loss program.
08:24.80
oaksack
So even if you've been through this many many times before might be time to put on that white belt but on your beginner's cap and really it's.
08:54.66
oaksack
It's an opportunity to sort of let go of the past to detach the the desire to get healthier from everything that's been done in the past and so much of my approach is designed to help you do that. So check that out. Grizzled veteran or you are really just doing this for the none time and you want to get set up for success rather than failure that's there for you and you can find that in the links below if you're not a member of the Facebook group you want to get on over there lose weight with John. If you search that you're going to see three groups people always ask me which one I am I'm the one with more than 34 members and I've posted in the last two years the other two are jokers who were trying to sell weight loss bs supplements I didn't even know that there were None other groups named that until well after. I made our group I asked one of the dudes to delete his group because he hasn't done anything with it for None ars and he was not.
10:05.50
oaksack
Let's just say he wasn't super helpful so feel free to join his weight loss group if you're interested in getting sold some sort of potion or powder or if you want to join my Facebook group. It's the one with None people in it instead of None or you can follow the links below lots of good stuff going on in the Facebook group always looking for ideas on how to make it more interactive people are getting a little bit more in the swing of it the Facebook group when it's rock and enrolling is super super helpful for everyone. So. Post your successes post your questions post your updates. This is your group. We have a meal thread. You can post to your healthy meals if you're proud of it or just want to share.
10:59.20
oaksack
Um, and lots of good people over there.
11:15.25
oaksack
Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already or subscribe on Youtube or both and please leave a review this really helps people find the podcast. We're starting to really rack up episodes I think we're going to be in this for the long haul. So. You could help me. Ah.
11:38.62
oaksack
If you would help me reach more people with through this platform I would really appreciate it and it costs you nothing. It just takes a few moments of your time 5 stars kind words tell a friend share it on social media.
12:22.59
oaksack
Okay, so let's get into the show if you don't know my name is John Oakes I'm a weight loss coach I specialize in helping severely overweight people lose.
12:50.45
oaksack
I specialize in helping severely overweight people lose as much weight as they can or want to.
13:01.80
oaksack
And as you can tell from the name of this podcast I like to take the easy way out I'm always looking for the path of least resistance and it's amazing If that sounds crazy to you stick around because it's Amazing. How much we like to get in our own way. How much we've been programmed and conditioned to always take the hardest possible way out of our so most stuck situations or issues in life.
13:34.46
oaksack
None reason people feel more comfortable coming to me than other coaches apart from my approach is that I have gone through a massive weight loss myself I've done other large scale weight losses and gained it back and then some have've been through it all then through the absolute ringer. Ah, get it I understand it.
13:59.13
oaksack
And that definitely informs my approach so today figure it's maybe time to just take you through my own journey There was a lot going on for me. With my mental health life in general honestly, that is the more important story. But today I'm really just gonna focus on the the weight loss aspect. What was I doing what what strategies was I following what phases. Did the weight loss fall into and.
14:42.78
oaksack
Um, what did I learn.
14:48.80
oaksack
Um, so I topped out at None I believe
15:08.45
oaksack
I was in a very dark place I like I said severe mental health issues.
15:26.93
oaksack
And for context I am six foot 4
15:35.79
oaksack
So I'm a bigger guy bigger frame but still for 20 That's a lot to log around.
15:52.60
oaksack
In the fall of 2018 I started to get a handle on.
16:04.15
oaksack
Being able to move forward. You know we all have our our mental blocks. You know I kept telling myself that once I reached a certain level of success with some of my creative and business interests then I would have the the mental bandwidth to lose weight. And so I just put more and more pressure on those other aspects of my life and it clearly wasn't coming from the healthiest spot so that was why I was continually putting it off because I I mean I really did have very limited bandwidth. It's amazing that I was able to be functional at all so in the fall of 2018 I started losing I dropped the first £30 really just through trying to walk. And get a little bit of my get a little bit of control over my eating and just eat a bit more mindfully bit thoughtfully. But then I I hit this major wall. In the 83 s.
17:24.73
oaksack
Oh and I should mention I wasn't counting calories I wasn't really tracking steps I was just walking more than I did because I didn't really walk I was just doing any intentional walking and just limiting what I was already eating I wasn't going. Keto I didn't do anything you know special was just the same food I was eating and just ate a bit less.
18:02.66
oaksack
So Then I hit this stall in the three eighty s and still have no idea what it was because I was trying really hard to get through it and I've lost weight before so I have some tricks on my sleeve and it didn't seem like. Anything was working.
18:31.78
oaksack
And I do wonder if it was psychological if it was something to do with my hormones or something I don't put too much stock in hormonal fluctuations as being a barrier to weight loss. Um. And maybe it was something I was doing on a strategic or tactical level that I really wasn't in as much of a calorie deficit as I thought so it could have been a lot of factors but I do know that I I cut out carbohydrates. At that time and I went on a medication called paxel for my mental health. Um I was only on it for about three weeks and I was only on a full dose for about a week of that I started having funky symptoms and they they titrated me off of it. But in that week. I noticed my weight start to move and so maybe the combination of lowering my carbohydrate intake with something the medication kicked loose in my brain. Maybe I was just in a bit of a stall and it just was total coincidence. But some factor in there I'm still not sure why kind of broke through the three eighty s got me into the three seventy s and then I started thinking on it all right I I've lost weight in the past. What did I do in the past what what works and what would I like to do. So I started to get more more serious about my food intake and being conscious of that because I wasn't calorie counting I used a method that is fairly effective I ate the same things every single day. And that way if I wanted to reduce my calories I would just take out None element of 1 of my meals I would have I wasn't sure I'm not sure what I was doing right at the beginning but I would usually have like eggs and beans for breakfast. Would take like a serving of beans and or serving in a half I don't remember and put them in a saute pan throw them in a pan saute them in a little bit of soy sauce or garlic. And garlic powder and then crack a couple eggs into it I might have started with 3 eggs but as I got more and more serious into into losing weight I did go down to None serving of beans and None eggs and oftentimes I'd have that with some kimchi or sourraut.
21:16.64
oaksack
Homemade usually or store bought kimchi.
21:24.61
oaksack
Are.
21:35.60
oaksack
And for my lunches I usually eat 4 times a day That's always kind of been my pattern especially when I'm on ah some sort of Diet. My lunches were both the same thing. It was a a salad of sorts I would chop up cabbage and. Broccoli and maybe a bell pepper to you know, put it in in a big tupperware and then I would have some sort of lean meat either ground beef that I that I drained really? Well so almost all the fat was out of it. Or chicken breast or potentially tuna if I was out of both of those things.
22:21.32
oaksack
So I would grab you know a couple handfuls of my veggie mix Raw throw in cooked protein a serving of beans like Kidney beans or black beans and maybe a little bit of feta. And maybe a few almonds or something like that for a bit of crunch now I'd season that with Salt no dad do Salt I don't I think I was a bit shy of the salt at the time because I thought salt would you know screw up my weight Loss. At least in my head because I was very dependent on the scale going down regularly psychologically now I understand you know that that's not as necessary and I understand that Salt probably would have made life a bit easier. So Hopefully I'll remember to come back around to that. But. I Definitely used to restrict salt in order to manage weight fluctuations and I think it made me hungrier and achier and generally perform worse because I was in a big body and I was starting to work out more and more. And I don't think I was replenishing my electrolytes the way I needed to so if I don't get around to it. That's one thing I would have looked out looked after much better is making sure I was getting my electrolytes because I didn't really know. At that time how deficient I was in many of my key electrolytes sodium especially potassium and especially Magnesium Magnesium is something that I just have a hard time holding onto I noticed when my mental health started to deteriorate something about that. I'm shifted there too I'm not really sure what the connection is but I I believe there is a connection between fibromyalgia Ptsd The body aches and cramps and and I think. And I don't think that this is completely unsupported. Scientifically I think there is some link. Maybe it's not fully understood yet but people with those conditions often aren't magnesium deficient for me Personally I know I am I have a hard time holding onto it at least in the forms that. Keep my muscles from you know, cramping and spasming and so yeah I dealt with chronic pain all through the the journey I still deal with it. You know, just lately been really stressed with work and.
25:02.23
oaksack
Um, been hurting. So if I seem a little bit lower energy today. That's probably why.
25:13.78
oaksack
Are. So now we're into the spring of 2019 and I start losing at a pretty steady clip through the summer and on into the fall and then about September I was getting. Down into you know. Over the summer I started experimenting with fasting with going keto different things like that I didn't really notice much of a benefit for me in those things with the keto. The fasting was fascinating. I really kind of fell in love with it. It caused me to develop a different relationship to my body to food it laid the groundwork for more significant. Longer term fasting after I reached my goal weight.
26:35.78
oaksack
And it really helped me find a level of peace that I hadn't ever found before there's something meditative about fasting for me and many other people it. I'll talk about that more maybe in other episodes. But I'm a big perform but I'm a big proponent of fasting especially in its more moderate forms. Yes, it can be an effective way to limit your chloric intake during the day but there are so many other benefits as well. But overall I was starting to just get burned out. As I got into the lower none you know at the end of that summer into September right into the first week of October I had been on a very low fat diet I realized and. That's that's about to play an important part in the story. So I would be on a very low fat diet through the week and then I would allow myself a cheat day. You know I try to try to diet pretty hard and then cut loose on whatever day. My cheat day was and there were no restrictions on the cheat day. But. I knew I was going to be working out the next morning so I didn't want to go too crazy and you know I didn't want to hurt myself I wanted to actually enjoy my day this often coincided with a family day. Basically so you know go out for breakfast or make a good breakfast at home. And then maybe hit something for lunch. You know, go go to the lake get something out there on my back home. Whatever cook a nice fatty steak. That's often what I was craving by the end of the week and yeah it was it was a bit extreme but overall that six days on one day off gave me sort of a psychological release valve it gave me a way of breaking up the the bigger process into week to week chunks where my job was just to just do that week. And every day within that week kind of had a different feel due to how I structured my my workout regimen and yeah, mentally it just it worked for me. It was good enough and good enough is great. Is it what I recommend for clients.
29:16.13
oaksack
Not usually but I'll later on I'll get into my assessment of my program.
29:28.51
oaksack
Part of what I was getting burned out on you know as I entered the fall of 2019 and was getting close to £300 was
29:45.54
oaksack
Um, was my workout routine. It was the same thing every single week. It was um, you know day one 3 and 5 were wait training days resistance training days. Um i. I was going to the gym at that time we hadn't started with the pandemic yet. So I was going to yeah out a local ymca that used to be a golds gym and so there's this weird combination of like you know the elderly folks. You know, wearing their sunglasses. You know, like sitting on the machines unmoving and you're like oh did this dude just die. It's like oh no, he's just taken a real long break and then you got these just monster meatheads who have been going to this gym since it was a golds gym. And you know some bodybuilders and just quite a quite a bouquet of humanity. It was a good good group. Nice people all around.
31:04.35
oaksack
And around this time one of the trainers there. Yeah I was walking into the gym one morning and he was getting out of his car and he was like hey man I noticed you lost a lot of weight and I was like yeah thanks and he asked how much And. He was really impressed and the thing he said to me was he's like I've seen guys come in here and lose weight he's like but they always have like a gym Buddy. He's like to see you come in here alone and just do it all by yourself. That's really what impressed him. So by that point I had made a significant weight loss and some of the people in the gym were noticing and and complimenting me on that.
31:50.61
oaksack
But as far as my time in the gym I was getting less and less satisfied with it. Not that my satisfaction was ever the key point the the just making things doable and repeatable and effective. That's all I was after. So. What I would do and how I'd structure. My workouts is on these lifting days day. One was a ches day and I would do supersets right? So I would start off say on the chess press and then I'd run over to the chess fly machine Pec Deck and I would alternate those so I'd go chess press pec deck usually for None reps a weight that I could do fairly fairly easily for None reps and then I'd do a set of abs and I'd come back and repeat the process. So I end up doing 3 sets of both in supersets. Along with a set of abs in between and then I would switch into the second half of the workout and I would do let's say an incline press combined with.
33:05.20
oaksack
Some other kind of press and if if like a machine was taken I could always just go back and do more chess press I would just do more sense of that.
33:19.13
oaksack
I really felt it was important to keep my tempo up I was getting None sets of work in and each set I was shooting for None reps and just trying to use a weight that would allow me to get through all 3 sets fairly quickly so I was using some lighter weights. Maybe not light weights but lighter was I gaining muscle. Yeah I think I was from doing that you know you can gain muscle by just doing even the most boneheaded program as long as you're just kind of pushing yourself and trying to lift lift a little bit more weight. However, the. Any gains in strength really petered out as you know I was really grinding on the diet because I just wasn't eating enough to recover fully the way you would want to if you're really trying to gain muscle while you are losing. Fat which is possible and I teach people how to do that. Maybe another podcast episode out there in the future.
34:28.21
oaksack
And then at the end I might knock out some triceps same thing basically from my back day do a lap pull down cable row Superset abs in between so lap pull down cable Row Abs Lap pull down cable Row Abs. La Pull down cable row abs and then I'd go over to maybe the Hammer Strength row alternated with like a supernaated grip pull down or these dual handleled pull down things where kind of feels like you're doing a chin up. Ah, Chin up type movement. But you're pulling the handles down to your you know face through your sternum and then I knock out some biceps at the end of that workout and then day five was a shoulder day. So I Do some shoulder pressing shoulder Flies. You know, lateral raises. Did a bit of reverse pack deck for the rear delts and and then like chess press or shoulder press machine like.
35:43.28
oaksack
Um, and then at the end of that I might do a bit of combined biceps and triceps I would try to get through these workouts fairly quickly. The idea was to keep up a high pace which is not normally how you train if you're really trying to build Muscle. This was just something that I noticed worked it helped me lose weight. Um, it did help me maintain muscle I certainly did lose muscle while I was doing this program.
36:16.97
oaksack
And then combined with cardio on the other days of the week this gave me a sufficient caloric expenditure to make progress cardio days. You know I'd start out I think I started out just trying to do 20 minutes on the bike exercise bike recumbent bike. It's so funny that I had an exercise bike like a nice one that I bought you know a few years before I at the time I bought it in 2017 or 2016 end of 2016 and so it had been sitting around for two or three years at that point had even took taking it across the country in a move and it was just sitting in the garage and I didn't want to bring it upstairs into the house. So. I was just using. Yeah, just a recumbent bike wasn't my favorite but that's what I had available to me and I started off just doing 20 minutes and then over time I worked up to 30 minutes and I'd often do that in the form of intervals where i. Do 5 minutes kind of at it slow and steady and then I would kick that up. You know I you know how exercise bikes have resistance settings. So let's say you're on a resistant setting of None just kind of pedal and easy warming up then at minute five I would bump that up to None and start pedaling as fast as I could basically doing a sprint and then you know I'd start out doing that for like 30 seconds thirty five 45 seconds and then eventually I worked closer to a minute or full minute. And added in more and more of those sprints with you know, a minute break afterward where you bump it back down to level 6 and then at minute 7 boom we sprint so every 2 minutes you're sprinting and taking a break for a minute and so you do that None times. That's 20 minutes and then you throw on another 5 minute you know it's not really a cool down It's just a more relaxed pace back down at None or None to cruise for the end of the workout and I would always try to beat my numbers from the time before. So I'd get a pretty good cardio workout. And these sessions.
38:47.80
oaksack
And it was good I did enjoy it most of the time not like craving it but able to enough through I was able to do it and it got to be habitual and you know even if I didn't feel like going down it was just there. Wasn't an option to not go. So I knew I was going to feel better after and that was enough to keep the wheels on keep the train on the tracks. But as I was mentioned earlier I was getting burned out on this whole setup not because of the setup itself alone but also because of my. Mentality toward things I mean I was very stressed out about my weight loss I was always trying to figure out like the better way like is there a better way for me to do this am am I holding myself back I was majorly overthinking it I was spending way too much time on Youtube trying to learn about. You know what's the next greatest thing and what's the best thing I can do to lose weight and you know those hours and hours and hours and hours of learning contributed already to a pretty good base of knowledge about nutrition and exercise. That you know you all benefit from today in None form or another. So even though I do focus a lot on mindset I have put in the hours in the technical side of weight loss as well and sadly there really isn't a magic bullet there really is no one best way. There's a. Only a few biological rules you know laws of physics at work. So just and other than that it really comes down to strategy and aligning your strategy with your personality and your. Mobility and all that stuff.
40:42.86
oaksack
So I believe I did dip just below 300 I think I maybe hit none or None or something like that and then I I got off my program. And I was focused more on like I was going to start like lifting heavier and maybe try keto again and I got a few days into that and I started I remember one day. My family was out of the house and I started feeling this pain at the top of my stomach and I I felt pain like this many many many times that's one of the more common chronic pains I get right at the top of my stomach. My stomach feels bloated and it just hurts like health. So. This started it seemingly came out of nowhere and I was like dang this is really intense, but after a little while you know it went away and then you know the next day it came back and it stayed a little bit longer. Um. And I would just sort of breathe through the pain day 3 4 5 6 you know it's it's starting to be more and more constant I'm assuming that it's some sort of like like muscular spasm or whatever. I'm trying to kind of massage it you know I remember this thing hurting like crazy and I'm like walking around doing my walks you know doing stuff I remember seeing somebody had left. Ah, ah, a bunch of carts like shopping carts I live right right near a target and. Saw all these shopping carts on the street and I'm like man these animals like you people need to put your carts back. So I'm like volunteer cart boy you know for the neighborhood and and so I'm pushing these carts like hundreds of yards back to toward the target parking lot. And walking back and not realizing that I am close to death and is sad because this is how punishing my mental health had been to where I had an organ inside of me that was dead and rotting. I didn't just have a gallbladder stone or anything like that. This thing was done I had probably I had probably been dealing with this for years and mistaking it for other stomach pains that I do have and still have today.
43:27.39
oaksack
Right now. So I had gotten to be so good at managing my pain that I was experiencing a pain that some people say is the one of the worst pains you can feel which is when your gallbladder goes out on you because it just it hurts everywhere. You know it's right there underneath your. Rib cage right by your liver by which is very sensitive like you see people get punched in the liver and boxing or mma and they just go down. They just fold up like a lawn chair like your whole body can just shut down because there's just an insane amount of pain receptors there. So yes on day seven I was you know laying on the floor being like I don't think I can massage this out. It's just getting worse and worse and worse and without going in too many great details was pretty pretty messed up. You know I went to one hospital. And they wouldn't even like treat me it was. It was really weird and um then I went to the next hospital down. Luckily a friend's wife is a nurse I guess she's a friend too. Um is a nurse and she was like well. She was texting with my wife kind of helping give ideas what to do? Thankfully they got me into the next hospital down. And they took me in they had me on an er slab real fast and they checked. They checked my blood pressure and it was something insane like none and like the first day had to check to see if I was having a heart attack but the the doc yeah er doc came in and asked me what I was dealing with and and I told him I was like I have severe ptsd I get these weird pains I I don't know if that's what's happening and he's like no man he's like it's your goal bladder. He could just tell from where the pain was so it took him about 3 minutes to diagnose the problem where the other hospital pretty much was willing to let me die on the lobby floor.
45:48.76
oaksack
Um, which would have been sad considering that was the hospital I was born in come in on the None floor go out in the lobby. It's maybe a metaphor for life in there.
46:08.38
oaksack
Um, so I had my gall bladder removed. The doctor later was like dude you're a tough guy I've never seen anybody block a around for a week with with this bad of a gall bladder. Um, you know usually I think of doctors as thinking that we're all idiots and so I expect them to just be like you're in, you're moron who walks around with this like you should have been in here day one but he wasn't he wasn't that way at all. He was just like frankly impressed I just thought that was hilarious. So I recuperated through October. Um I don't I think I just kind of hung out in the low none through November and December and I think I kicked it. Back into gear in January um, not as like a new year's resolution thing. It just happened to be when I felt ready to to attack it again and attack it I did January february I was rocking and rolling I was down to about 86 when the pandemic started to crop up and stay at home orders were going in place and the gyms were shutting down and so at that point I was still following the same protocol as before because i. I realized like I could dabble with Keto and all this other stuff. But I just should stick with what's working and you know because I was like I I didn't feel like I could afford to play around and maybe there was an argument in that in favor of that idea.
48:05.47
oaksack
Um, so I I was definitely only alive because I had taken a very you know, pragmatic and.
48:20.29
oaksack
I'd been on quite the mental health journey during this time as Well. So when things were shutting down I was just getting better like mentally ah to enough to where I could like go out in public more often and even that was tough. A lot of the time start having panic attacks.
48:55.61
oaksack
Like 1 time I was walking into a target and when I start to have you know panic attacks or stress really ramps up my my eyesight diminishes greatly and so I'm walking into this target and I see this lady walking up on crutches. And I said something like I thought I was seeing a lady like where she had like a boot on and you know how when someone's wearing a boot like if they broke their ankle. Um. They they kind of that foot is just behind them and so this was like her left foot I thought it was just behind her other leg and I said something like cordial about like like god you hurt yourself or something like that and she just. Breezes on by me I think she made a comment like something like ah been this way for years or something like that and she passes by me and I I follow in behind her through the automatic doors and she is missing her leg like right below the hip and I'm like oh god I think I just made fun of it. And Apu tea right to her face and I didn't even mean to so yeah, that's where my mental health was at ah to the point where I was nearly blind when I was walking into target so the pandemic wasn't. Great timing for me personally because I was just starting to be able to go out and about more.
50:32.21
oaksack
So I'd been hearing about something called a Gorilla bow so I went and bought one of those right away I got it before you know the shipping started really slowing down and any of the fulfillment issues became a problem.
50:51.98
oaksack
And basically this is ah like a metal bow like a bow and arrow but instead of a bow string it uses resistance bands. So It's kind of a way of using resistance bands with a static bar that you could use for things like lat pull downs or. You know, kind of like a bench pressing type motion chess press mainly I used it for you know shoulder pressing I would just do sorry I should preface this by saying as we rolled into you know the stay at home orders. And gyms were shutting down I realized okay I'm not going to be able to ride the exercise bike anymore or left weights at the gym. So I'm going to need to make a program that I can do at home and so I transitioned into running because I was just getting down to a weight where. I felt like my my body could handle that historically to 90 I've been able to run to 90 and below.
52:00.84
oaksack
Um, so I started doing interval runs on my cardio days and I started into a lifting program at home I first started off as like ah this same style of workout that I was doing at the gym just with the equipment I had at home. Um, doing lots of like pushup variations and getting creative with you know, working my back starting to do pullups with like a bunch of resistance bands to help me just with this pull up bar that you know stuck in a doorway that kind of stuff. And I eventually transitioned that into a like a 2 day split where I would do like chest and you know front and middle deltoid and then on my back day I would hit rear delts as well biceps and all that. so so I would just I had like an a and a b workout and I would alternate those um in those same intervals. You know day one 3 and 5 except instead of doing chest back shoulders I was doing workout a workout b workout a workout b. Where you end up doing workout a twice in one week and then the next week you're doing workout b twice still doing my cheat days. Obviously not the same way because lots of stuff was shutting down.
53:33.33
oaksack
Um, but still the same basic idea.
53:43.73
oaksack
So I think this went into effect in March and I think in may I decided. Okay I'm going to im going to take ten weeks and I'm not going to get on the scale and at the the end of this 10 weeks I'm Goingnna be real close to my goal weight to None and in that ten week I made it nine weeks before I waited and it was a bit nerve wracking during that time I don't know if it actually really helped me maybe it did I was pushing hard in that time I think it was 2 65 when I went into that and I get on the scale. At the end of nine weeks and I get on the scale and I'm 53 and I'm like I lost £14 in nine weeks at the time that was just that was the slowest stretch I'd ever had except for that time when I was really stuck in. Three eighty s so I was pretty upset about that I was really hoping to be in the in the low mid to low two forty s so I kept pushing another couple weeks. Got to about none and then I think I I remember we went camping this is in July I weigh in I bring my scale to the campground. Is how hardcore this is how mental I was and I so I do my end of week way in um, and then I you know had my cheat day there while camping and after my cheat day I decide. Next morning you know, just drinking coffee. You kind of get and moving packing up I decided I'm not going to eat breakfast and so then I get a little bit further into the day and I decide I'm not goingnna not gonna eat lunch and see if I can push through til dinner and I'd only ever done that once before. To do you know 24 hours without eating and then I I made it another. And then I ended up going the whole night without eating and I think I I don't remember what I did the next day
56:12.91
oaksack
But I was like I was super jazzed that I had gotten through an entire night without eating and I was like oh I didn't die. You know it's pretty cool and so this started me. In this period I started to do a more I decided so after that I decided okay I'm not going to do such an extreme you know extreme diet during. Week and then cheat days because I thought you know what I'm just getting to a point where maybe I'm not burning as many calories because of of all the weight I've lost or something Metabolically is just off but this whole the the cheat day thing doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. I was like let's just get into the classic count your calories and just keep it at a certain level every day so I picked a certain level. It was still quite You know it was a healthy level I think it was about eight hundred calories more than I was maybe None none more than I was consuming on an average day.
57:28.92
oaksack
And I remember something silly like I just got really frustrated at the scale one one day like I gained a couple pounds for I mean for no reason. Um, and I just got really mad and and I decided ah screw it and. And so I just you know my brain was like well I'm going to do something hardcore then and you know it wasn't the best motivation I definitely try to teach you guys not to do this sort of thing but I I was so curious about fasting that I started to. You know, but it was entered into a one day fast and it became a two day and then I wanted to see if I could push the 3 and sure enough I did and it was wild. You know it was really a very interesting experience. I had one meal and then I went into another three day fast and then I had one meal again and then I made it another two days so that was a pretty pretty wild stretch and I think I actually a couple days later I went into another. Fast so like in fourteen days I was fasting for like None of them or something like that and I I of course I lost a bunch of weight I and went well past to 48 down into the 22 s I think.
59:07.90
oaksack
But after that you know leveled out in the two thirty s you know gain back a bit of water weight leveled out in the two thirty s and was still just really focused on getting it. Leaner and leaner but knowing that it was time to put on muscle. So maybe the story of what I did from there on out to today is its own story because it was a different phase of learning. Ah, definitely don't wait to 35 anymore. It's partially because I was very successful at putting on muzel and I've been successful at putting on some other stuff too and I have been less in a hurry to you know, get it off because I know I know that the way I'm trending it's It's going to take care of itself and it's going to be easy and it's going to be more maintainable than the last season. So I'm not like I'm not like blown up like the Michelin man just heavier than I want to be.
01:00:30.96
oaksack
So looking back? What are some of the things I would have changed would I change if I if I had it all to do over again. What I do the cheat days honestly, you know I've gone back and forth I've made some tickoks about how I I would I would. Not do them I think I would go back and really explain to myself that the calorie calories in calories out is the mechanism. You really don't have to worry about anything else. It's it's quite simple. You know the application. It can be delicate and nuanced but don't kid yourself into thinking that you have to eat the same things every day or I think maybe the plan would have been more flexible if I could have just. Kept a set number of calories every day and had a little bit more variety. However I was eating very few calories I was down to seventeen hundred calories at one for for several weeks especially toward the end there in 2019 and 2020 was my sort of big none leg of the journey.
01:02:06.00
oaksack
I mean obviously I wouldn't go back and change anything I mean it is what it is but I think with my personality The the cheat day format. It worked and I'm obviously not the kind of person where I'm going to go on a severe. Binge and clearly I had enough of a um, you know for my cheat day I would often come in. You know between None so nothing too crazy. Oftentimes it was right around None and I thought that you know on those cheat Days. You kind of get away with something like you're not going to absorb all those calories and maybe I don't know there's maybe there's maybe an argument to that. But. Generally speaking your body's gonna kind of get those calories one way or another but I was also the kind of person who could have a big cheat day and then roll out of bed the next morning and know that hey no matter how gross I feel. Um I'm going to feel much better after I work out. And so I do my workout. Usually do you know do my push workout or my back workout or my poll workout. Oh and I was incorporating.
01:03:35.22
oaksack
And yes I guess I glossed over this I wasn't training legs because my cardio sessions were so important to me and it wasn't like I've had chicken legs like I was a big dude and I was running like I so I was doing fine in that Department. So I didn't really specifically resistance train my legs outside of cardio I started doing that after I got down to goal weight.
01:04:29.24
oaksack
So I don't know about what it should it could have but what are some other options I could have done I could have focused more on building muscle from the start I maybe would have put myself on a different program a program more like what I would prescribe for a client nowadays. I would have used that lifting to burn a lot of calories because what I learned when I started lifting really hard as I you know transitioned out of this weight loss phase and more into a muscle building phase was that I burn a lot of calories. Um, lifting weights especially when I'm lifting weights consecutively day after day after day that you know for for a lot of people. This afterburn effect isn't really a big feature for me I think it is and I think it has something to do with the fact that genetically I'm pretty quick at recovery. So I think that recovery is a bit more of an intense process whereas for other people. Their recovery is a little bit slower more drawn out. But either way I found that you know working out day after day after day before I took a break when I was in my. My not quite masking phase but muscle muscle building focus I burned a lot of calories and I I definitely my maintenance calories were around thirty seven hundred calories when I was really. Cranking.
01:06:07.28
oaksack
So knowing that I probably could have had very similar results had I worked out like that and you know eaten twenty three hundred calories a day instead of None would I be able to work out like that on twenty three hundred calories a day I don't know I don't know so we get into an issue of like well at some point your your eating and your activity need to match and work well together. So whatever I was doing it. It made sense like I wasn't working out in such a way that I was really making a huge amount of progress. But I also wasn't working out in such a way that I was feeling super duper hungry because of it. You know I noticed that one of the reasons I've gained weight over the last year and a half is that. I get so much hunger after I train really really hard especially day after day and then I do a leg day and ah my my body's destroyed. It's like feed me give me more It's like Oliver the little orphan Oliver holding up his bull. Please sir may I have some more That's my body after leg day and it's specifically asking for cereal cereal man topic for another day. What foods can you moderate and what foods can you just maybe not for me cereal man heist I struggle with the cereal. Day one I can moderate it day. None sure day three day 4 it's just it's getting pornographic. It's just not good. same thing for the same thing for sweets like I same thing like I can control it. For for a while. But then after I start getting more and more of it eventually the switch just flips and all of a sudden I'm a monster I just want it all the time.
01:08:08.10
oaksack
But I do think there could have been some sort of hybrid program where I could have worked out enough to actually be building muscle and structuring my workouts a little bit differently. Not so high tempo I don't think I need it to always lift with such high tempo I think that just by getting a good solid work. And you know maybe doing a little bit higher tempo than like ah a lot of weight lifters do that would be fine considering I I gain muscle fairly easily. So yeah, finding some balance where I could lose 2 or £ 3 a week due to my size which was a reasonable amount and slowly be gaining muscle in that process.
01:08:59.42
oaksack
And not having cheat days but just sort of focusing more on enjoying the foods I was having flexible dieting if you're not familiar with that kind of means that there's there's no real off limit foods. For me that doesn't work so well because a lot of foods just have a different impact on me like I said I I can't eating an ice cream bar just isn't the same for me as eating an Apple even if the calories are the same. It takes me in a different direction. It puts me in a different headspace certain foods are hyper pallatable. They. Take you up the hedonic ladder hedonic staircase and that's big fancy talk for you know you eat something really like insanely tasty and it makes it harder to get the same enjoyment out of fruit and vegetables and stuff like that. So I find that. That there were lots of foods that offend my my healthy eating and so I I do you know restrict certain foods and certain categories of foods I don't think being a flexible dieter would have worked for me I think it would have been more stress than the the plan I was on honestly. I could have taken my stress levels down more than more than just by. You know, having a slightly different program where I wasn't eating as little I really could have changed my mentality I could have been a lot more chill I also. Could have and definitely would have weighed myself every day like I was but I would not be taking the individual data points as important I would have gone back and absolutely gotten myself on a spreadsheet with some formulas in there to to keep a seven day running average of my weights. And use that as my benchmark for success only measured that against the number from the week before to get a sense of how much I had lost. This is something that I teach clients to do today I will. Happily teach you how to do this. Maybe I can make a video for my Youtube showing you how I track my weight and how clients do as well and how we use these sheets as sort of our dashboard to look at you know, hey how's your weight loss going. Okay maybe what's going on like with calorie steps blah blah blah. Very useful if you have an accountability buddy.
01:11:37.89
oaksack
Um, or a coach to walk you through step by step what you should be doing.
01:11:48.78
oaksack
So my my mindset would have been would be very different. No matter what methods I chose my mindset would be very different I would be more focused on well-being I'd be more focused on like hey getting the weight off isn't. End I'll be all yes we want to get the weight off but I thought that I had to fly through a keyhole to get the weight off and sure weight loss is is tricky. It's notoriously tricky. Um, but the hardest thing about weight loss is keeping your mentality straight. Think everybody listening to this is on board with that or at least you know close enough that they're like yeah yeah I could see why you'd say that because there's so many planes that can work if you do them consistently What's the best way to lose weight. It's like they say it's a little bit trite. But. Whatever way you're going to stick with because in the end it does take quite a long time to lose a significant amount of weight I did it in if you're keeping track I don't know from like the fall of 2018 to the. Late summer of 2020 so little under None years in sort of speedier phases with a long break in between them. None main phases I guess you could call it 3 phases if you know first phase was that first thirty forty pounds being stuck it in the three eighty s for quite a long time and then yeah, the none phase would be none to about None and then 300 down into the two twenty s and then eventually settling out kind of in the two thirty s
01:13:51.19
oaksack
I would definitely supplement better I would get myself on a good quality fish oil man I really noticed when I was lifting weights really hard in the last year and a half that my recovery was so much better I really felt better when I got a quality fish oil. Like the actual liquid kind that you drink like Carlson's um that would have been very much worth the investment I think it would have helped me you know, round out some of my nutrition because I wasn't getting enough fat on my diet I definitely would have gotten a little bit more fat and taking up fish oil. Would have been a great source of that because I'm not I don't need a ton of fish and what I do eat come to the can. I definitely would have supplemented more with my electrolytes I would have taken care of my sodium and potassium and magnesium and I wouldn't have worried about the fluctuations based on sodium intake why because I knew it didn't matter. But I knew I was beholden to the scale I would just take care of my body give it what it needed to perform well and feel good and I would have been a lot less miserable and once you start doing that. It's it's going to shake out on the scale ah in just a few days like that. Give it a week and and you're going to. You had a new normal and yes as your sodium levels it fluctuates so will your weight. But if you keep it relatively similar then week to week. It's going to come out in the wash and your progress is going to ultimately be the exact same. So. I would definitely do that differently.
01:15:42.74
oaksack
Um, probably edited down. We're getting a little over an hour here. So I should wrap this up.
01:15:58.73
oaksack
Here's None thing that I'll talk more about in the future but that really helped me on my way down I did not apply it the way that you can the way that my clients do but at least I had this outlook of using the minimum effective. Dose. What's the least amount of output I can give for the most game that is the strategic mindset. You need to have for a long-term weight loss program. You don't want to be shoving all your chips to the middle of the table going all in just to get those first ten pounds off do not need to do that. You want to keep as many of your options as possible open and only utilize them as needed. You know if you've been losing £5 a week and then you have a week where you only lose £3.8 that's not the time to to. Get upset freak out and start making rash decisions take it from me I I made plenty of those sometimes that we're out in your favor but in the long run they they don't that way of being reactive gets you into trouble. It gets you into a mode where you're ruining good things that that thing where you're. Getting so mentally attached to well I can lose £5 and in a week and so how many weeks divide the weight I want to lose by 5 and okay, that's when I'll be there. It's like no no, that is not how it works this is not. You don't just divide by what you lost on your second week and think that that's going to. Give you the timetable and now you just set yourself a ridiculously rigid expectation and the reality is fluctuations are going to happen the the weight loss overall might look pretty smooth and when you zoom out at the graph but week to week day to day fluctuations are going to happen.
01:18:03.18
oaksack
Let's see if there anything else any other big takeaways.
01:18:16.40
oaksack
I think part of my success came down to hunger management as well. That's a topic for an entire podcast in and of itself so that was None thing that I did a very good job of was hunger management both strategically and mentally. And that's something I have a lot to say about I know we can talk about that in the future.
01:18:44.30
oaksack
Another benefit of the minimum effective dose is that I was never pushing myself too hard I was always making sure that I was going to be able to come back and do whatever workout I needed to do the next day and so I never got myself injured I never got myself hurt I would allow myself to push. I I was good about making sure that I didn't rack myself because I had the system prioritized over any one workout I was never deluded into thinking that one workout was going to lose all the weight for me. And that's one really smart thing about having a set program like that. Yes, it's rigid yes, it does get old. However, it does kind of get you into a rhythm that can be very powerful. You know habitual. It can actually take the work. Out of the weight loss regimen I mean a lot of people describe weight loss as being really exhausting because there's just so much meal prep this and that I find that by eating the same things all the time there was no decision. The the grocery list was the same I knew exactly what time of day I was going to eat. So if it's you know if I'm not going to have lunch number None until 1130 and it's ten thirty it's like well we need to use some different skills at this point. Because we're not eating yet and that makes it simpler in a way where instead of suffering and making yourself exhausted by trying to decide whether or not you should eat you just suffer now I don't want you to suffer i. I don't want my clients to suffer so I have a different approach to that. But there was some good in what I was doing at least I made this process as simple as I could for myself given the tools and the mindset that I had at the time which I feel like a completely different person now. Looking back. Obviously there is the mindset evolution that I went through during this time the mental health gains that I went through during this time. There's a huge other aspect to this story but I hope this was insightful I hope it gives you. You know the inside baseball on exactly how I lost the weight the methods I used the drawbacks to those methods I would say overall the process was fairly punishing especially later in the week um the the hardest parts were the day after cheat day you get really hungry again.
01:21:32.17
oaksack
But then you know you do your workout you get through that None day and then day 2 3 4 are a breeze and then day five. You start to get hungrier and then day six you're like oh my gosh I'm so ready for cheat day because you're just getting really drained.
01:21:49.74
oaksack
It was more extreme than anything I would put myself on now now I'm very much into creating processes and structures that are more that are less rigid rigid in whatever way it makes life simpler for me. Flexible in whatever way keeps me more connected to my passions and what I want to do in the moment. For instance I sat down to do this podcast I had a ah thought in my head of what I ought to do and I was like I just I'm so tired like what what feels right? What feels now. And this popped right in my head I was like oh that feels good but I can do that and so I probably did a much better job today podcasting because I was willing to be flexible in an area where it was warranted and for me and made things easier for me. Rather than harder. And if we can apply that example to everything we're doing for our physical health man. We can go so much further with so much less effort as I say at the end of every podcast I I might have missed something I might have skipped over something. Not I don't have a producer here to make me make sure I'm hitting all my notes and you know all that stuff. So I hope this was informative I hope it was helpful and obviously I'm not recommending that anyone do what I did. I recommend everybody pick something that fits your personality your strengths your weaknesses your peccadillos definitely definitely I think everybody should if they're going to use the scale use it every day and take a seven day running average. Everyone should be looking after their nutrition their vitamins and minerals as much or more than their mac definitely more than their macros micros over macros every single time your macros really do not matter matter anywhere near as much as people make it out. Basically you need to get minimums of protein and to some extent fat and there is no minimum of carbohydrate that you need. It's very simple, get your protein, get your fat and then after that your calories can be whatever and your weight loss outcomes will be more or less the same now just cut myself.
01:24:35.46
oaksack
So if you'd like me to help you get on a weight loss program of your own. You can take my course like I mentioned we have one on one coaching where I'm there with you through the process guiding you each step of the way take advantage of the Facebook group the Youtube channel. Subscribe review all that good stuff I really hope that this helped you hope you got some value out of this if you did please leave a review and tell a friend share this story. Um. I forgot to be all inspiring and stuff like because I've just been very analytical assessing it for its merits as ah as a program but also that yeah, sure be inspired about this because I did this in a situation where I was in extremely rough shape remember the part. My gobladder was rotting inside of me but I didn't notice because I was used to being racked and riddled with pain and where I was having panic attacks all the way through and like sleeping like garbage and constantly having nightmares and then waking up and doing this stuff. Anyways. Not to say that I had it harder than you or that if I did it well you can do anything but certainly it indicates that we humans are far more capable than we give ourselves credit for and I figure if you're listening to this podcast. That's a message that you really need to take take on take to heart. And let it challenge. You let be challenged by how amazing you are be challenged by be challenged in attempting to accept more the reality of the good in your life and the opportunities all around you and the love. That surrounds you that just because you don't accept. It doesn't mean it's not there and in another podcast I could logically break down all the ways in which we reject love. But. But we certainly do accept more. B more.
01:27:03.10
oaksack
Accept more look for the easy way out accept more love yourself more easier said than done. But whenever you're struggling always look for the easy way Out. And I will talk to you next time.