Author: Franklin Grigsby

I’ve been pretty active this week including my first boxing class at a new gym Sunday that kicked my butt.  I’ve been eating more though including some great BBQ ribs at Backyard BBQ in Falls Church after the class and a steak with eggs last night at my favorite Mexican place.  I’ve managed to stay no sugar, low carb, but I did have some refried beans with the steak last night.  I was still slow carbing it though, so I feel good about how I’m eating, but my weight has been holding steady this week.  In these spots, the first thing I think about is whether this is a cause for alarm.  I’m still running at a caloric deficit, so I can expect to be losing weight.  I think the key is to stay strong and keep doing the right thing even as I hit a plateau.  I’m sure this is a topic I will return to in the future.

Here I am at my start a few years ago in the vicinity of 240 lbs. and more recently on the day I dropped under 200 lbs.I have other pictures, but let’s stick with these for now.  A big change is that I don’t have a fat face anymore.  I hated looking at pictures and seeing myself with a spreading neck.  It is vain on some level to critique your little faults and try and improve them, but a great positive feedback that I get is when people compliment me and notice a change.  If you can eat a little better and become active right away, then people will notice a glow about you and will comment within the first couple of weeks.

The start to my journey was buying a scale and measuring my weight everyday.  Weight is not necessarily the best metric, but it’s quick and repeatable.  Every morning in boxers and a t-shirt, I get on the scale.  Eventually, I think I will move on to also measuring circumference at key points around the body, but for now weight is a good metric and I recommend that you measure it (or something similar like waist size) too. I started out at 240 lbs. at the start of 2014.  I went down to 225 lbs by the start of 2016 by cutting down on carbohydrate and how often I went out on the weekends.  Eating pizza late at night after a night out is one of the worst things you can do.  I had plateaued for months and was slipping back to eating bread and some chips at Mexican restaurants even though I knew they were counter to my weight loss goals.

The big change came at the start of 2016 when I started to actually log my weight and everything I ate.  I recommend the free MyFitnessPal app.

After a month of tracking and modest weight loss, I went to my doctor who offered me a custom liquid shake diet that he had come up with.  I had shown him by my logging that I can stick to a plan if I decide to do it.  He put me on a 600 calorie a day diet that included 60 grams of protein.  I probably was a little heavy on the shake scoops so let’s call it 700 calories a day.  I went on the diet at the beginning of February and right away I saw results.  I lost 9 pounds in the first week and didn’t look back.  I would actually eat a dinner meal 3 days a week for the first month.  This is what gave rise to the oscillating shape with a week period in the graph above.  I know feel and look much better and am looking to measure even more and kick this up into overdrive where I am not just going for weight loss, but for an ideal body.

Hi, my name is Franklin and this is my blog on losing weight and keeping it off.  The goal of everything we do should be to lead a happy life.  To keep the mind clear, a healthy body is really helpful.  I managed to get out of shape, but I lucked out and did not suffer any consequences (that I know about).  This blog is documenting my journey to good health and how I stay there.  I hope that it gives some helpful lessons through my mistakes and successes that will help you achieve health in body and mind as well.  Also, I will share a few great meals that I have when I eat out and what I did to keep them healthy.