- Hey, guys, and welcome to today's video,
which is one that has actually been
very highly requested.
(upbeat music)
Before we get started, make sure
you guys are subscribed to our channel
by clicking that subscribe button,
and if you wanna see our videos
in your subscription box, make sure
that you hit all updates when you click
the little bell icon next to the subscribe button, also.
Everyone wants to know, you guys.
Everyone just wants the secret.
I'm here to tell you there is no secret.
But I will give you my story.
So today I wanna talk about my weight loss.
Over the course of probably about 12 months,
I have lost an accumulated 55 pounds.
This is the most weight I've ever lost.
And a very large portion of it was unintentional.
And I'll get into that in a little bit.
I haven't really shared a whole lot about my weight loss
on the vlog.
I think I updated a couple times.
But for the most part, I really wanted
to share it on social media.
I think sometimes it's hard on this channel
for me and Missy to open up as honest as we can.
And it's something that we've made a focus to do now.
So I wanted to make this video
and talk to you guys a little bit about my weight loss.
See, even right now, I feel like I'm subconsciously
hiding my whole body behind this couch, (laughs)
which is something that I used to do
when I was much heavier.
So everyone wants to know, how did I lose the weight?
How did I lose over 50 pounds?
I'm gonna try and tell you as best I could. (laughs)
I was actually scrolling through Instagram last night
and trying to figure out, when was I my biggest?
Because I have always been the type of person,
even through high school, to fluctuate with weight.
I would gain 15 pounds in the summer,
I would lose it all when school starts,
I would gain it all back in winter,
I would lose it all again.
My weight was never something I really paid attention to.
But in high school, I was overweight, a lot.
I was bullied for it, mostly in middle school.
I think the bullying I endured,
a lot in my younger days of being an overweight kid,
made me a loner in high school.
And I'm sure it influenced my path after high school.
I was the fat kid in the classroom.
I was the kid who (laughs) some days
would wake up, and his pants wouldn't fit.
My mom would have to cut the sides
and cover it with a belt so that
I could have pants for work,
because I had gained 10 pounds, or something
and couldn't fit into my work clothes.
I've been there, I've done that, and it's hard.
And it takes a toll on you mentally and emotionally.
So that's kinda some history about me being big.
But I was going through Instagram last night,
and I was trying to pinpoint, when was the last point
I was at my biggest?
And I think it was last summer.
And now I'll even go back to videos
from last summer that we did on the vlog,
and I don't even recognize this person anymore.
I'll put up some of the pictures
that I found on my Instagram
of probably me at my biggest I've ever been.
And I look at that person, and I don't even know
who that is anymore, you guys.
But I think that's a testament to how I carry myself,
because even when I was 250 pounds,
I still had a lot of confidence.
I still felt good about myself.
I look at pictures of me then, right now,
and go, "who is that?"
But back then, I was like, "oh, I look good for the day."
And that's something, mentally,
losing weight does to you.
And I was tired of it.
So I kinda just started tracking what I was eating,
not on an app or writing it down at all.
But just being aware of what food was in front of me
and what I was eating.
And I made a rule to eat only half
of what was in front of me.
That actually worked.
I started eating half of everything
that was in front of me.
I'd be a little bit hungry.
But it wasn't horrible.
And I think that was a way to slowly introduce
what was about to happen.
After the new year, I was looking at myself
in the mirror, and I was like,
"I look like I've lost a ton of weight."
And I weighed myself, and I knew
about last summer or all last summer,
I was over 245 pounds, 250 pounds, easily.
So I weighed myself, and I think I was like 225 pounds.
And I was like, "wow, I've lost 25 pounds,
"and I didn't even try anything."
That was just cutting my food intake in half.
So once that started to happen,
I started to look at myself in the mirror
and notice such a big difference
that I was like, "well, maybe I should keep this going
"and do it properly now."
Like, this is my way of subconsciously telling myself
to start this change.
So I started tracking my food.
I gave myself 1200 calories a day.
I used my Apple Watch to track my fitness
and also give me additional calories
if we were going out or something like that.
And I started just to lose weight like crazy.
I don't know if it's my genes
or if it's because I'm a guy or my age,
but I was able to drop the weight really, really fast.
I weighed in this morning, and I was 190 pounds.
So I think that's officially 50, 55 pounds lost.
And I wish I had a proper before photo,
like a shirtless before photo.
But I had no intention of ever doing this.
So I actually went back and I found
probably when I was at my most biggest,
which I'm gonna put on the screen on the left.
I was probably about 255 pounds.
But as of today, I finally have an after photo
for this first section of my goal,
which I'm gonna show you now.
So that's what I used to look like.
And this is my after photo,
which I'll put on the other side,
weighing in today at 190 pounds.
So this is huge for me.
This is like, I've never had my body
transform this much before.
And it feels really good.
I feel better when I'm playing with my kids,
I feel better when I'm out and about.
It's just amazing.
So there you have it, guys.
That's before and after.
I don't think I've ever showed that anywhere
except for here.
But I did ask on Twitter if you guys
had any specific questions about losing weight,
so I'm gonna answer some of those right now.
So Robin asked, "have you noticed a better change
"in everyday activities since losing weight?"
Yes, I get less tired, I sleep better,
I love just picking up my kids and carrying them
and throwing them in the pool.
And we lead a pretty active lifestyle
with our two boys.
So definitely, losing the weight
has helped so much.
I feel like a new man.
It's amazing.
Sarah asked, "how did you stop temptations
"to fatty foods and drinks?
"PS, love you and your family."
Thanks, Sarah.
So one thing that I did when I was losing weight
is I still ate the food that I wanted.
I just didn't eat so much of it.
So if you go through my diary tracker
that tracks the food that I inputted on here,
you'll still see pizza.
You'll still see chicken strips.
You'll still see popcorn at the movie theater.
You'll see peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
You'll see potato chips.
You'll see soup, you'll see microwave meals.
I've eaten everything that I've normally eaten,
but I'm not eating so much of it.
So I'm really, really focusing on calories,
how many calories my body needs,
how many calories my body burns.
Drinks was really easy.
So one of the biggest factors
that I believe in losing all my weight
was cutting out soda.
I was addicted to soda.
And Kate actually asked, "what was one
"of the hardest things you had to let go of losing weight?"
And that was soda.
So what I did with soda, I used to drink a ton of diet soda.
I work from home, so I'm always running around the house.
I always have to have a drink.
So I drank a ton of diet soda.
I switched to Coke Zero, cause, hey, I'm trendy.
And that was cool.
But then at one point, I was like,
"you know, even the Coke Zero
"is making me feel very bogged down."
It was filling my stomach.
I wasn't able to eat a lot of the food I wanted to eat.
So I had to cut out soda.
And I did this by actually trying La Croix.
So I started drinking sparkling water,
because it was carbonated,
and it had a little bit of flavor,
but it had no sugar and nothing else.
It's basically just water.
So I started drinking that in place of soda.
So instead of drinking 10 Coke Zeros a day,
I was drinking 10 La Croix a day.
And then I felt even better about myself.
But that was the hardest thing, mentally,
I think to get over, was to stop drinking soda.
And honestly, to this day, I do not drink soda.
I drink iced tea when I go out.
Sometimes I'll have lemonade, I'll have sparkling water,
I'll have normal water.
I like to do sparkling water with a side of lime.
That's my drink when I go out.
But I have no desire to drink any soda.
And since not drinking soda, I feel like
it has completely changed the taste buds in my mouth,
because everything tastes different and amazing to me.
There's a lot of foods and drinks
that I didn't used to like that I now like
after quitting soda, cause I feel like soda
trains your mouth to crave only sweets.
So Nina and Meg both asked similar questions.
"How do you eat healthy while on the go
"and you and your family are on the go a lot,
"and sometimes it's easier to eat out?"
Meg wants to know, "what do you order when you eat out?"
So we do have a very busy lifestyle with the boys.
We do eat out a lot.
One thing that I do when I eat out,
sometimes I combine a meal.
That's around four to six hundred calories.
But if it's a big chain and they're serving burgers
and pancakes and bacon, the best thing to do
is just order your food, and then immediately
when it comes, split it in half and say,
"I'm only gonna eat this small portion of it."
And I like to do that before I even start eating,
cause if I don't, then I will literally
just eat the whole thing.
But sometimes it's easier to even put half of it
on a plate and send it away
and literally just eat what's in front of you.
That way you can still eat what you want.
And I have found by doing this, I'm actually,
I get full when I'm about halfway done eating that.
So I'm really, when we're going out,
only eating like a quarter portion of what they give me.
But I still like to eat what I wanna eat.
Guys, my stomach is literally growling.
I don't know if you guys heard that. (laughs)
That was crazy.
Sandy asked, "how did your gallbladder
"affect your decision?"
For those of you who have followed us
on this vlog for a while, you know
I actually have an issue with my gallbladder.
I have a lot of gallstones.
And I was having attacks, and I was having a lot of pain.
And I went to the doctor, and she basically told me,
"you have to have surgery to take it all out,
"or you have to start eating better
"and start eating less fatty foods."
So this was something that was kind of
always in the back of my mind before I ever
had made a valid decision to lose weight.
But it was definitely something that helped me
move forward, because as I was doing it,
I was like, "well, you know what?
"I've actually haven't had a gallbladder attack
"in a long time."
I don't eat a lot of fatty foods anymore.
Once you kinda start eating less,
you start eating better, and you start noticing
what's in food, and you start staying away from fatty foods.
So that was definitely a big factor
in kinda motivating me.
So Kylee asked, "do you use any apps
"to track calories or exercise?"
Yeah, I actually use two different ones.
Lose It! is a great one.
And I actually used MyPlate.
MyPlate works really good with the Apple Watch.
Lose It! worked with the Apple Watch.
I also had a scale that wireless connected to the app,
so that when I weighed myself every morning,
it would update automatically in the app,
which was really cool.
Yeah, so those are my favorite two.
And Kylee, huge congrats on losing over 20 pounds.
That's seriously amazing.
So this is actually the app MyPlate.
This is what I used for a bulk portion of losing the weight.
And this is what a typical day looks like.
So I consumed 1400 calories.
That was 26 calories over.
That is okay, that happens.
And this actually gives me a diary
of everything I ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks.
You can see my Apple Watch reported 200 calories that day.
I honestly forget to put it on a lot of times,
so that may have just been the afternoon.
I think the average, even just walking around
when I wasn't exercising, I was burning
about 400, 500 calories.
So for breakfast, 150 calories.
Looks like I had eggs and an English muffin,
like a little egg sandwich.
For lunch, I had a chicken salad bowl,
and I had Doritos, because I still
gotta get my snack on.
As long as I track it, that's okay.
For dinner, let's see, I had a piece of toast,
and Missy actually made a chicken Parmesan penne.
I weighed it out, got the calories.
And it was a good 600-calorie dinner.
Snacks that day were kettle corn.
And that day, actually, Missy made a brownie.
Thanks to Missy, I had to eat a very small brownie
for like 100 calories.
And then, yeah, my Apple Watch reported 212 calories.
So that's a typical day of kind of what I was eating.
I was still eating everyday things,
still eating what I wanted,
but eating a very condensed portion of that, for sure.
Antoinette asked, "what is a good snack
"to help you get by until your next meal?"
So when I first started out, I was getting hungry
in between meals.
But honestly, that feeling of hunger
was something I hadn't felt in a long time.
And I actually really liked it.
It was like I was telling my body,
"no, you'll eat when I'm ready, not you're ready."
And that's kind of what you have to do.
I had to listen to my brain instead of my stomach.
But occasionally, you do get pretty hangry
in the middle of the day, when dinner is still
three hours away and you've got things to do.
I would grab a bag of apple slices,
which were super to eat.
And I would use the almond butter,
a little bit of almond butter.
I love the little boxes at Starbucks.
Those are actually great lunches,
cause they have sandwiches and fruits and veggies.
They also have one with eggs, hard-boiled eggs,
which is a really good one, cause you get lots of protein.
And honestly, I have always loved chips.
I still snack on chips.
We buy the little snack packs.
They're like 120 to 140 calories.
And if I'm hungry between meals,
I'll grab a bag of chips.
Sometimes the heart wants what it wants. (laughs)
So last question comes from Katherine.
"How have you stayed positive
"and blocked out people trying to bring you down?"
So while losing weight, even with sharing it
on social media, you get a lot of people
who are kind of crazy.
No, I did not have any weight loss surgery.
That has been a big thing that a lot of people have said,
which I actually find really flattering,
that they think that I lost the weight that fast.
But no, I did not have any weight loss surgery.
It's funny, cause when people see other people succeeding
or doing well, I think some people have a problem with that
because they have their own insecurities in their life.
And I hate that.
I hate that that was something I had to deal with
while being open about my weight loss,
was people actually trying to deter me from it.
And like I said at the beginning of this video,
I was bullied a lot for being fat in school.
And I totally, 100% believe that that shaped
what I did after high school.
I think the message I want everyone to get
from this video is to love your body,
love yourself, no matter where you are at in life.
And if you're encouraged by this video,
if you're someone who's been struggling to lose weight,
I just wanna encourage you and let you know
that you can do it.
I was there, I did it, and being healthy feels amazing.
And that's the most important thing.
So try not to focus on a number.
Try not to focus on what your body looks like.
Try to focus on how you feel,
cause that's how I did it, honestly, guys.
I know it's super cliche, but that's how I did it.
And it helped so much.
I feel like my main focus was just,
"I wanna feel good, I wanna feel like a normal person."
So there you have it, you guys.
That's my weight loss story.
That's my before and after.
If you guys have any other questions,
let me know down below in the comments.
And I'll hang out and answer some of them.
But I hope you guys enjoyed this video.
If you did, be sure to give it a big thumbs up.
Be sure you're subscribed to our channel.
Normally the videos are a little bit
different than this one,
but this one was so requested,
I really wanted to do it for you guys.
So thumbs up for being healthy, though,
because that is literally all that matters.
Thank you guys so much for watching this video,
and I'll see you guys next time.
Bye.
Boop.
(upbeat music)