This is what I DIDN'T do to lose 125lbs

I've told everyone how I've been able to lose all this weight and keep it off but I want to emphasize how I didn't lose 125lbs because I feel like there are many desperate people doing the wrong things because they believe that the only way to lose weight.

1. I did NOT do P90X or the Insanity workout to lose 125lbs.

• These are extremely intense workouts that even in the shape I am in today I don't know if I could complete them.
• P90X for example is an hour a day 6 days a week. My workouts are approximately 30 minutes and 3-4 times a week. Diet is far more important to losing weight than exercise. 
• So the idea that you need to nearly kill yourself working to lose weight is FALSE. Yes we should all workout, but remember even a little bit helps. You should start with less and progressively add more intensity to your workouts. 
• If you are not already in great shape then you need to avoid P90X or Insanity style workouts.  

2.  I did NOT starve myself to lose 125lbs.

• With my Spike Days every week, I never felt deprived, and I honestly feel like I eat more now than I did when I was obese. 
• On non-Spike Day's I eat high protein and high fiber foods to help me feel full and keep my metabolism burning.  Drinking water between meals also helps to avoid feeling hungry.
• Diets that require to eat less than 1,200 calories a day, or even worse 500 calories a day like HCG are not safe and will cause your metabolism to slow and your body to slip into "starvation mode"

3. I did NOT eliminate carbohydrates from my diet to lose 125lbs.

I'm definitely a "carb-guy".

• Through my research I now know why low-carb dieters lose more weight at the beginning of their diet than people simply following calorie restriction. The reason is glycogen. Atkins and South Beach are so popular because while most regular diets you may lose 1-3 pounds the first week, low-carb dieters may lose 3-5 pounds the first week. It's NOT because Atkins is more effective at fat-burning, they are just losing more water weight. When we cut out carbs or body is forced to burn up even more glycogen which has a large connection to water weight. (see my post about glycogen) This water weight will come back as soon as carbs are returned to your diet, and while it looks great on the scale, water weight is not fat and does not really effect your appearance. In fact most of the water weight is in your muscles, when we are dehydrated our muscles can look flat and weak.
• Did you know? That Atkins and other low-carb diets bring on ketosis, in fact Atkins dieters long for ketosis. Ketosis refers to elevated levels of ketone bodies in your blood. When glycogen is completely depleted our liver will turn fat into ketone bodies to be burned instead of glycogen. it sounds great "burning fat" but it messes with our entire bodily process, our brain which requires 100 grams of glucose a day drops that requirement to about 30 grams a day.  So people in "ketosis" are only giving their brain 30% of what it needs..
• I tell people all the time if you want to lose weight with a low-carb diet then you need to plan on going low-carb the rest of your life otherwise as soon as you bring the carbs back, the weight will come back too.
• Instead I eat a balanced diet of 40% of my calories from protein, 40% from carbs, and 20% from fat. That way my body gets everything it needs.

4. I did NOT take unnecessary diet drugs to lose 125lbs. 

• I was prescribed weight-loss from my a doctor a few times before along with anti-depressants, neither medication did anything for my weight problem.
• I had to change my lifestyle and there is NOT and will never be a magic pill. 
• With a pill you rely to much on that pill to make you lose weight when all we don't go through the necessary journey of weight-loss.  Where we learn about ourselves and gain valuable knowledge that will help keep the weight off for good. “give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.” 

5. I did NOT have risky surgery to lose 125lbs.

• No matter what they say, every surgery has risks.
• I know many people who regret having weight-loss surgery done; whether because they can't keep food down, or they've had to have multiple post-surgery operations, or they feel like their loose skin is worse than the fat. 
• Many people including myself have lost 100+ pounds without surgery, I would exhaust ALL options before going this route and personally I would never recommend having weight-loss surgery done.

In 2003 when I weighed 330lbs

From September 10th at 205lbs

If I can do it without the above you can too.  You just need patience, knowledge, and consistency. Find out your real reasons you want to lose weight and remind yourself daily to stay motivated.