1k Posts - On TL, Weight, and the community I love

While I will touch a bit on the "how" of weight loss, I primarily want to share what worked for me on the motivation side, as that is obviously the most important piece and the practical side has been heavily covered by others.

At 5'8" and 190 I felt like something had to be done. I've always seen myself as reasonably athletic and fit person and it was painfully obvious that the image wasn't holding up to reality. Regular activities I had done before were noticeably more difficult not to mention I didn't feel great about how I looked either.

I've had my share of battles with weight loss. Pure and simple, I love to eat. And I mean LOVE to eat. Consequently, if I stop being active and controlling to some degree what I eat my weight balloons: fast and out of control. I'd curbed it once in H.S. going from about 180 to high 160's, and again had another run in college going from 175 to about 160, with several other minor failed attempts thrown in. In short I had tried, and failed, to get down to a nice, lean weight.


Before embarking on my weight loss quest, and perhaps because of it, I had read some of the "7 habits of highly successful people" book. One thing in particular resonated strongly with me, which was the idea of being principle driven as opposed to my previous style of being impulse driven. My previous attempts to lose weight had failed because of my approach to trying to lose weight. I didn't have a strong reason to lose weight (mostly vanity, which for me is a pretty weak motivator) and I had always tried to lose weight by trying not to eat as much as normal and avoid sweets. While willpower and renewed desire would sustain me for a month, maybe two, it can only take one so far. Eventually my willpower would start to slacken, slip ups would soon start happening, and I was soon back to the old ways.

It was obvious this time I needed a different approach. It came in two forms: a desire to lead a principle driven lifestyle, and a desire to run faster. I was pretty tired of being a slave to my whims, and disgusted with my general under performance in many of the things that really mattered. It was here that I found reasons strong enough to support long term weight loss. Being at a proper, healthy weight IS an important value to me and I mapped out a plan to achieve it.

The plan itself was pretty simple, diet and exercise. I tend to be a person who goes all-in or not at all so I wanted the generally aggressive goal of 1.5-2 pounds of weight loss per week, which means a 750-1000 calories deficit per day. That said, I don't like the idea of eating less than what is needed by the body for general maintenance and daily activity so this meant I was looking to eat 2,000 calories a day. Diet looked something like this:

-Breakfast: Bowl of Cereal (2-3 cups), random fruit #1, random fruit #2, glass of skim milk - ≈500cal
-Lunch: Sub (Turkey, LOTS of lettuce, tomato, light olive oil), random fruit #1, random fruit #2, 2 cups of mixed vegetables or LARGE portion of vegetables if leftovers, milk - ≈ 800cal
Dinner: Family Dinner (1/2-2/3 plate vegetables, 1/4 plate meat, 1/4 plate rice/potato/noodles etc.), or in the rare cases we didn't have dinner/leftovers I would basically eat same thing as lunch - ≈ 600-900 cal.

If I needed extra calories I'd have fruit or maybe some cereal as a post run/workout snack. I also drank water, and a LOT of it. Anywhere from 12-20 cups a day (enough to keep hydrated).

The exercise portion was simple as well. Running (7-12x wk), with some strength training and core work 2-3x per week. Started off at 40 miles per week (mpw) in April all in singles, then started adding 3 miles runs to each morning, starting at 2 going to 5, which brought me up to about 55-60 mpw by mid June. Built up a little more over the course of July to where I was running about 70 mpw.

By the time I was at 70mpw that’s burning about 1100-1200 cal extra per day, which made my 2000 calorie of eating more than sufficient to generate that 1k cal/day deficit I was aiming for.

As I mentioned before the key to being able to actually follow what I outlined above was my mindset shift. As I burned the idea of being principle driven and wanting to become the man I envisioned myself as, the desire to binge or even eat more than normal was driven deep into the background. It simply wasn't compatible with my new beliefs. I really can't stress how important I think this is. Especially if you have a significant amount of weight to lose, for all but a select minority it's nearly impossible to do on willpower alone. You have to find a reason that's significant enough to and subjugate yourself to that goal.

Needless to say, the weight started coming off. And fast. Pretty much a steady 2 pounds per week, maybe a touch less. By the end of April I was 177, 170 by the end of May, low 160's by the end of June, mid 150's by the end of July, and currently a little below 150. Needless to say my running has also improved drastically, going from 23:01 for the 5K to 19:06 a couple weeks ago. The 9:00-9:15 min/mile that used to be a slightly tougher than easy pace has given way to 7:45 min/mile being a light jog. I feel far fitter, healthier, and more ready to tackle life than ever before.

I came to TL about 2.5 years ago, just out searching for starcraft tips or something like cause I wanted to beat my friend. Little did I know what an impact a simple website would have on my life.

It didn't take me long to realize TL was something pretty unique. The content was fantastic, the people manner, and the posting generally more intelligent and thought out than other website's I'd visited. Yet, there was something more. A sense of purpose, and of community pervading TL. It drew me in. I felt part of something, something unique.

Over time I got more into StarCraft, eventually discovering that yes there was, in fact, a world outside of 4 pools and one base carrier play. In late 09' I discovered the pro-scene (yes, I really was on TL for 6 months before noticing streams). I was captivated, not only was the skill, and entertainment, off the charts but here I was shown a place where gaming had managed to scrape out a respectable hold and name for itself. While never a hardcore gamer I was still fascinated and encouraged that such a scene existed.

Not long after discovering the pro scene. TSL2 came along, and a grand tournament it was, with some many fantastic games.

And then, it was gone.

SC2 had arrived, and with it, the disappearance of the majority of the then-relevant foreigners, and of much if the BW scene on TL itself. While I played SC2 some during beta, and to some extent enjoyed it, I sorely and bitterly resented it's arrival. Just when I had really started to love BW, SC2 came along and snatched away a big portion of what I had come to enjoy so much.

Over time though I came to accept SC2. It was here, the long awaited sequel and being bitter and resentful over something that isn't changing is plain silly. I stopped hating SC2 and started following it's scene some. While the games didn't awe me they were still entertaining and it was fun to see the game constantly changing and the new plot lines as new stars emerged, teams restructured, and popularity soared.

Fast-forward to present and while the health of the BW proscene concerns me I am excited about what SC2 is becoming, and it tears at me. I love the vibrancy and vigor of the SC2 community, and of TL itself. TL before, while at the center of the foreign scene, was largely a fairly close knit group of people who loved BW. Now, it is a force to be reckoned with. ONE stream now sometimes get the viewer numbers that TSL2 got. TL has influence at the head of the growing SC2 movement, and I can't imagine a group of people that I'd rather have leading the way for this new game and maybe, just maybe, a greater acceptance of "ESPORTS" in the west. It is indeed an exciting time we live in.

TL to me is a unique contrast right now. There is the bustle, energy, and massive numbers of people here from SC2, but within the BW forums still lies (for the most part) that tight knit, dedicated, community that I loved when I first arrived. In many ways, its the best of both worlds. Make no mistake though; it IS this sense of community that makes TL truly special.

TL, the community, is a special thing indeed. First, TL is an incredibly diverse group of people from around the world, with varying ages and occupations. This makes it an incredible source of information, opinions, and advice by many people with unique experiences and perspectives to share on the topic at hand. While some of the advice can be absolute bogus you can get some incredible advice. Whether its Kennigit/ET with girl advice, MightyAtom with his unique insights on success and approaches to it, or any of the host of the many great, experienced people here I've learned so much and taken so much from my time here.

More than anything though is the sense of trust and loyalty members seem to intrinsically have toward each other. Where else do people do for random strangers they know only from the internet that they do here? Never have I been to place where meet-ups are easily organized with people volunteering place or driving many miles at no cost just to help others be able to attend, where strangers help a kid stranded several hundred miles get back to his house, or where consulates are called and searches made when notable forum posters don't post for an unexpected length of time. There is a trust between members of this community that is almost sacrosanct, and certainly unrivaled. I can only expect my next 2.5 years will be as awesome as my first 2.5 here!

You are my heart, you are my soul, I thank you for all you've done for me!