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My Story
I'm sure there are many questions about me and what has motivated me to develop a website like IMOK. You are in the right place to get those questions answered.
I'm a 5' 7", 29 year old man and I have had a weight problem for as far back as I can remember. If I had to try and pinpoint when I first remember being overweight, I guess I would probably say the 4th grade. As I entered my teen years, I became more and more aware of my weight. However, I was fairly happy and considered myself to be "healthy heavy." By this, I mean that I realized that I was overweight, but I was the same 15-20 pounds overweight and I didn't really gain or lose much.
Then came junior year of high school. This is the first time that I can remember breaking that 15-20 pound threshold. I was on spring break and I went on a "binge." At this point of my life I had a seasonal job in a boatyard. I can remember working during the break, and when I wasn't working, I was eating and drinking. When I returned to school after the break, I remember some of the people in gym class commenting on how much weight I put on. I wasn't very popular in high school, so people didn't really have a problem telling me. I remember the sense of panic that engulfed me and this was the start of my dieting career.
I had no clue about nutrition, and I decided that I would try the only thing I knew. My father used to run track and he told me how they used to skip meals to "make weight" for an upcoming meet. Well, this is what I decided to do. I started skipping breakfast and lunch and I rode my bike and did my sit-ups and push ups. Eventually, I integrated a weight lifting program. This is what I did for a while, and by the time the summer came, I was back to "healthy heavy."
A similar scenario occurred the following year, but I put the weight on gradually throughout the year and got back to "healthy heavy" by my high school graduation.
As I entered college, the dreaded number of 18 was upon me. When I hit 18, my metabolism got even slower. I became a lot easier for me to put weight on. Also, I began to eat and drink more. I had more money because my job payed fairly well, and when I was traveling to and from school, I would stop off somewhere and pick up something to eat. Also, since my friends and I were unemployed for the winter, we used to hang out a lot and drink beer all weekend. Soon, a trend began occurring. During the cold months of the winter, I would put on a lot of weight. Prior to the beginning of the boating season I would realize how much weight I put on and I would take off some pounds using the "skip meals and exercise" method.
This lasted for a couple of years and then my metabolism slowed again. This is when I began facing major problems. I began putting on pounds like never before. I was consistently approaching the 200 pound mark. I remember realizing that the summer was upon me and I was going into the summer well overweight. Basically, what happened is that I eventually went up to 208 pounds. All I can say is that at 5' 7" that put me up to about a 38" waist. My "skip meals and exercise" routine was no longer working, so enter radical diet #1 - Cybergenics Cybertrim.
I think the company is still around, but I haven't heard much about it recently. What this program offered is a 6 week fat loss system. I bought a box that contained supplements, a body fat calibrator, an audio tape, and a book with the diet and the workout. This program worked, but I had to do it twice. I lost 4-5 pounds a week for 12 weeks which put me down to 148. This was a lot of weight to loose in a short period of time. This program consisted of a very low fat diet. Each day had a balanced amount of carbs and protein. A typical day was half a dry bagel for breakfast; 3 oz. of protein on 1 piece of whole grain bread and 3 oz. of vegetable for lunch; 3 oz. of protein, 1 piece of whole grain bread (half a dry baked potato or 3 oz of brown rice was ok too), 3 oz. of vegetables for dinner. The protein could be any kind of low fat protein but no more than 3 oz. of red meat per week. They encouraged you to drink a lot of ice cold water (your body burns calories heating up cold water) and have a leafy salad with your meals to make you feel full. The workout was 3 days cardio and 3 days lifting on alternating days.
The result:60 pounds in 3 months!!! Down to a 32" waist.
Now the bad news...
Have you ever seen 3 oz. of turkey? It is 3 slices. I denied myself of many pleasures during that time that I couldn't wait to get my hands on a steak and some beer when I finished the 12th week! It was all downhill from there. I started eating again stopped working out, and the weight came back, and then some.
Flash-forward to the next Fall - 228 lbs. 40" waist. I did Cybertrim again three times and went down to 145. This time was different though. I didn't gain all the weight back immediately. I started putting it on slowly and did a mini-crash diet in between. This time I used a system called Quick-Trim. This system put you on a low carb diet and told you to do 2-a-day cardios. I lost 18 pounds in 2 weeks.
This loss didn't last either. I continued to exercise but got gradually heavier because I wasn't eating right. Over the next couple of years I did my exercising but eventually went back up to 200 pounds. I then decided to make a radical change.
The timetable is now a couple of years ago, and I went to the extreme. I was frustrated with exercising and putting weight on. I contacted a supplement supplier and got some advice. He gave me an exercise program, a diet and supplements. The supplements consisted of an ephedra based supplement and "andro". The exercise was 6 days 45 minute cardio and 3 days lifting with light weights, high reps. The diet was a low (really no) carb diet. The good news - 45 pounds gone, 6 inches off my waist. However, here is where my danger started...
Eventually, either the andro or the ephedra, or both started causing me health problems. My prostate became "boggy" and I was diagnosed with Prostitis. Prostitis is basically an irritation of the prostate gland. Also, I was experiencing some dizziness. That's what the supplements did...
Now what the diet did - I was both physically and mentally exhausted. I wasn't thinking straight and I was highly irritable. I began eating less and less and eventually became trapped in the grips of an eating disorder. I was totally obsessed with taking off the weight at any cost! Needless to say, this put a huge strain on my personal and professional life. I caused many caring people a ton of unnecessary pain and suffering.
I have now started a new chapter in my life. I have learned from the past mistakes, and I seem to have found a happy medium. Basically, I took a combination of things from all my other experiences, and one new aspect and came up with a formula that has made me content. Please check out the My Routine section of the site to see what works for me.
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This page was last updated on
1-23-2003 by Dominic Esposito
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The domain imok.com is for sale. Anyone who is interested can contact me directly at dominic@imok.com.
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