My weight loss journey began in mid-March 2021 when I was 61 years old. My weight wasn’t due to the lockdown, it was strictly a symptom of my laziness.
When my wife showed me a picture of herself sitting, I decided that I was tired. At that point I weighed over 300 pounds.
I tried several diets from time to time, but always ended up heavier than before. This time, with the help of his wife Nancy, he decided to eliminate almost all sweeteners and processed foods.
I stopped drinking my favorite sweet root beer soda, stopped going to Starbucks every day, and drank a Caramel Frappuccino with extra caramel. I had a heart attack while walking and was just waiting to happen.
When I was younger, I had a lot of energy. Are there any children who don’t? However, as I became an adult, that energy waned from doing nothing. We’ve all heard the saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Well, for me, that’s what happened. All I did was sit.
After changing my diet, I immediately noticed a change in my energy levels. I now have energy all the time, but I didn’t have the usual high blood sugar followed by low blood sugar all the time.
At my annual physical in early June 2021, my weight had dropped to 255 pounds just by changing my diet. I was really happy that I was able to lose over 50 kg just by doing this.
For me, my journey is really about changing my lifestyle and continuing to exercise.
I work with Fairfax County before and after school programs. We offer these programs to children to support parents. That summer, I was assigned to a school with railroad tracks right across the street.
A dear friend of mine spent the last year walking, exercising, and following a strict diet. It is because of her that I started walking.
On that very first day, June 13, 2021, I slowly started walking. At first he started with two laps, or half a mile, and gradually increased the distance.
Eventually, I started walking more than 20,000 steps a day. The more I walked, the more energy I had. There were days when I walked for five or six hours. Her wife put up with me being gone. She was and still is very patient and understanding.
There are still days when I walk for several hours, but it’s just maintenance. I’ve lost 5 pounds in the last two weeks alone by increasing my step count. I also try to maintain a calorie deficit.
At that point, I had not yet started bodyweight training. Although I was losing weight, I was still in poor health.
As a kid, I used to do push-ups with my dad, so this was my go-to exercise. But I was still too unwell to push up off the floor.
So, at school, every time I had recess, I would find a wall and do wall push-ups. I started with 20 times. Eventually I started doing 1,000 wall push-ups a day. Then I started doing push-ups on the couch and finally sat on the floor and did push-ups.
Push-ups are now part of my daily routine. Start at 30:30 or 40:00 in the morning and continue it throughout the day.
Then I started adding boards and crawled around the backyard every day. know. It sounds strange when a man in his 60s says “crawling.” I find it to be just as comfortable as walking on all fours, although walking can sometimes feel more difficult.
In August 2021, I hit a wall. I was frustrated and didn’t understand why I was doing this. I felt 100% better, but something was still missing. At this point my weight was 209 pounds. I had lost nearly 100 pounds.
Then, on my first day of school, one of my physical education teachers, Kenan Broad, came up to me and said, “Mr. Everett, you’re doing great.”
I’ll never forget this. She saw me when I was at my heaviest, and hearing her say that now was the encouragement I needed to continue on my journey.
My life is completely different. I have infinite energy and can do anything unless my bad shoulders tell me to hang from a pull-up bar. Well, other than running. I was never a runner.
But I think I’m where I want to be in terms of losing weight.
Everett Gooch is the SACC teacher responsible for the children.
All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
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