How I lost 130 lbs in 8 months

March

November

I think I have waited long enough to talk about this. I'm not really big on sharing things like this mostly because I am annoyed by everyone who loses weight on some program or product and then tries to sell it to everyone. I firmly believe that instead of selling weight loss products we should be educating people on what causes them to be overweight in the first place, and how to get back to a healthy weight. I now know that it doesn't take some expensive program or crazy workout routine to lose a large amount of weight. What it does take is a large amount of self discipline and real desire to change yourself. So now, without further ado, here is my story on how it happened and what I believe are the core factors in my success.

The first thing that really contributed to me losing weight was that I finally accepted that I wasn't really happy with myself. I never really felt right in my skin and that caused a lot of self confidence issues that have begun to bubble up over the past few years. I kind of became a hermit and started pushing people away. This coupled with the fact that I am approaching my 30's and that I haven't really had a proper relationship my entire life really started eating at me. Then a few friends at work started talking about having a weight loss competition. So in preparation for that I started talking with a friend who had told me that his wife did a weight loss program and lost close to 30lbs in a month. Since I like to win things I decided I would use this program for a month and win the weight loss competition. So I order the stuff for the program and then find out that the weight loss challenge kind of fell through. So I decided since I have the stuff I might as well use it since it costed more than I am willing to admit that I spent on a weight loss program, and went on the program for a month. What I didn't know is that it was this small chain of events that would start me on a life changing path eventually leading me to where I am now.

The weight loss program did what it said it would. I stuck to it and lost about 30lbs, but immediately quit it after the first month. During that month I had started to research what exactly the diet was doing to help me lose weight which eventually led me to finding a weight loss practice called keto. Where you remove the bulk of carbs from your diet and replace it with fats and protein. I read a lot about it and decided that I was going to start using that to shape a diet after I was finished with that month long program. After the month was over I began the real weight loss, and it was this diet that was the biggest factor in my success. However there are a few more factors that have been incredibly helpful in achieving the weight loss.

The factors of my success

Diet

I have always had a big misconception about what it takes to lose weight. From everything that I heard and saw it was working out super hard and almost killing yourself in the gym that helped you lose weight. I am here to tell you that is not the case. If you want to lose weight the diet is the key, and you workout enough so that you don't lose muscle mass during the diet.

Consistency

Another thing that I found was that if I ate the same thing every day, for the most part, it was easier to regulate my diet. I knew my calorie intake, and all of my macro nutrient intakes so I never had to guess or check whether it was ok or not, and since it was always the same it was easier not to cheat because I never had to think about what to buy at the store.

Education

I have done a very large amount of reading on everything from body types to macro nutrients to figure out how to do this, and to figure out what will work for me. I strongly suggest educating yourself first before jumping into anything. And read multiple articles on the subject.

Never Cheat

Another thing I found helpful was that I never cheat on my diet. Unhealthy food is a slippery slope back to where I began, and staying away from the things that got me to that point was a must.

Remove possible excuses

Instead of getting a gym pass and having an excuse in the morning to not go I brought the gym to me so that when I wake up I have no excuse to not work out. I got an adjustable dumbbell set and a bench that, for the most part, covers all of the workouts I need.

Love the word No

I have become very accustomed to saying no these days. There have been so many times that people will offer me something that I can't have, or I am not sure whether or not I can have it. The easiest thing to do is just, for the most part, say "no, thank you." You don't need the extra calories and you don't even need the food.

Discipline

In order to lose weight you have to make the decision and stick with it. So being disciplined on a diet and workout routine and not breaking that routine is very important. Once you start to get lazy about something it gets harder and harder to stick with it. You just have to fight through it. Discipline yourself.

Determination

To be successful you have to be determined to succeed. It won't be handed to you and there will be times when grabbing a slice of pizza at the work party looks very appealing, but you have to have the determination to succeed that will help you overcome the desire to fall back into your old ways, because sadly it is a complete lifestyle change and you will likely never get to go back to eating and living the way you were. (Fat me cries a little when I think about this one.)

Ok, now you know what the factors of my success were. Here is what I have been doing for the past 7 months.

Meals:

Breakfast: 

isopure protein shake (strawberry sand cream is the best)

Mid-morning snack: 

handful of almonds

Lunch: 

ham or turkey and cheese red leaf lettuce wrap

Afternoon snack: 

string cheese or beef jerky

Dinner: 

large spinach salad with boiled egg, half an avocado, chicken or fish and a little bit of ranch dressing

This adds up to around 1200-1300 calories and I use the MyFitnessPal app to track calories and macro nutrients.

My workout routine

I always do my sets of reps 12-10-8 and work out 2 muscle groups each day. I will probably end up getting a personal trainer or at least someone that knows what they are doing eventually, but for now this works for me probably haha I am a total amateur.

Monday:

Chest and triceps and crunches

Tuesday:

Back and biceps

Wednesday:

Crunches traps and chest

Thursday:

Legs

Friday:

Crunches chest and shoulders

I would get more specific on what the workouts are but they tend to vary when I find a new workout for a muscle group that I like better.

Anyway, this may have been a long read for you, but hopefully it was interesting or educational at the very least. Thanks for reading.

My First Week At InsideSales.com

I got so much traffic from the post about my first day that I decided to do a follow-up on how the first week was. It we surprisingly well. Most companies will do a lot of talking up about their products and the company making it seem like everything is bullet proof. So I made sure to take everything said with a grain of salt. Even doing that I am amazed by the company. Not everything is perfect, but I believe that they are making some great strides to fix the things that need to be fixed. Above all I think there are a few things that make me so excited to work at this company.

Culture

Something that most tech companies have is a culture that is work hard play hard. This is the reason that a lot of these companies have game rooms, soda machines, great benefits, and all the other awesome things that you have heard of tech companies having. It makes an environment that encourages people to be able to unwind for a little bit, and then jump back into their projects. 

I know for me I like to power through a project, and then take a break for a while so that my mind can reset. It also helps to go do something that will take your mind off of a problem so that your brain can process it while you are focusing on something else. Also, it is just fun to have cool things, and it entices employees to stay if they are having fun and working on things that are worth while.

Planning

I feel like a lot of companies will just let themselves grow without planning in advance, at least this is what I have seen before, but from what I can tell there has been a lot of planning in this company's growth. They have hired key individuals to build out an education platform, lead improvements on their software, do business research, and grow their sales and support staff. People that have been company for a long period of time have not really been replaced with more knowledgeable people, but positions have been created to integrate new high level hires. The company seems to have a good hierarchy and structure with what seem to be very qualified people from all over the country.

I believe that it is because of restructuring and finding highly qualified talent that this company will be able to find itself as an industry leader in not just selling software, but in leading thought and driving change.

Science

Something that has been repeated over and over is that InsideSales.com believes that "science holds the key to unlocking human potential." I love that this is their mindset. They are all about making informed decisions based on scientific studies and factual evidence, and using that information to improve themselves and their clients. It is also very cool that I get to not only see the intersection of all the sciences and their programmable application, but I get to work with data scientists and people with PhDs. How cool is that?

I never would have thought that I would be in a company that has a research team with scientists and I am a part of the team that implements their findings. My interests lately are very much in tune with what this company is doing in this area. I couldn't be any more excited about getting to work on something this revolutionary.

Big Data

InsideSales.com is ultimately playing the same game that a lot of other companies are playing these days. And that is the game of data. What it really comes down to is whatever company has the most data has the best ability, assuming they are using it wisely, to make informed decisions because they have identified the patterns that give insight to consumer habits. Which in turn reduces time that people waste on useless tactics and and poorly time efforts. This makes work incredibly efficient and lets you focus on more important things instead of playing the guessing game with how consumers behave. This information is a game changer for struggling companies, because it gives them the ability to optimize their time and efforts so that they aren't wasting as much time. 

This is just one example of how you can gather data to gain insights on human behavior, and that is why this big data movement is so intriguing to me. I love learning how people work and how you can find patterns in something that seems so completely random. The greatest part is that this is just the beginning of what can be done. It will be exciting to see how this industry evolves.

So those are my thoughts and why I am excited about this job. Yay!

My First Day at InsideSales.com

I figured I would type this all out so that I don't have to retell the story over and over again. So even if I talk to you in person I am going to refer you to this blog post if you ask me about my first day. Ok? Ok.

The first thing you have to know is that this company has way too many people for the amount of parking spots they had. I was lucky that I read the multiple emails that had been sent about parking, and I made sure that I showed up at least 10 minutes early. I got a really nice spot right in front of the building because of that. I think I am going to continue showing up 10 minutes early, because I really don't feel like walking forever to get to the building. That information isn't exactly relevant I was just kind of thinking out loud...but while type. So the loudness was from my fingers making typing noises...yeah.

Ok, so I walk into the building and a guy walking in asked if I had a badge to get in because he forgot his. I told him it was my first day so I didn't have one. Lucky for both of us the door was open. Apparently this is going to be an almost play by play of my day. That rhymed.

Once I was inside the building I was greeted by my recruiter Julie, and handed my new hire badge so that people know to treat you differently because they can see that you are new. I was then greeted with a handshake by Ron...I can't remember his last name, but that's ok it isn't relevant. Ron is also a new hire, and he is going to be an executive sales person, or something like that. I can't remember all of the job titles. An interesting side note however is that they call all of their employees accelerators. Every company has their quirks and that is one of theirs. I mean there is a reason, but I can't remember/don't care to tell why at this time.

Anyway, once everyone in the training group showed up we were given sparkling orange juice and we all toasted to welcome ourselves to the InsideSales.com community. I thought that the orange juice thing was kind of a risky move considering everyone had brushed their teeth at most 30 minutes before this. Everyone knows that OJ and toothpaste don't mix. -- Insert O.J. Simpson joke here --

Now that we had toasted our way into the company it was time to go to the training room where the 12 of us will spend the next 7 business days of our existence. As we were going up the stairs a weird thing began to happen. There were a bunch of random people clapping at us. It was like being part of a sports team that was running out onto the field except we were a bunch of new hires at a tech company, which everyone knows are generally anti-social, so clapping at all of us was probably a cause of a few anxiety attacks statistically speaking. Another funny thing that a kid, Ian, mentioned is that to get that together they probably went through the company and just asked people if they wanted to go stand by the stairs and clap at new hires early Monday morning. When you actually think about how some things are actually set up it can become weird thinking about what was actually done to make it happen. I could probably give another example, but I am not going to.

Once I finally made it to the room we were sat down, and basically introduced to all of the company's processes and procedures. Talked about benefits and just general need to know stuff. Then we were shown some information about how well connected this place seems to be. They have a lot of ties to Silicon Valley as well as some big names in the general tech industry. It is pretty exciting to see some of the names of people that are involved in this company as well as some huge names that are clients. I don't know if I am allowed to share any of that information, but it was a lot of pretty impressive stuff. I mean this company was given a $1 billion valuation. If anything I am going to learn a lot and be able to have some connections to some large names in the industry.

Once we were given the initial presentation we were given the tour of the building. Since there was a lot of team introductions I will just leave those out and highlight the things that I thought were aesthetically impressive.

Open Workspace
The first thing you would notice about this company is the open layout of the desks. Some people don't really like this layout, but after working in a cubicle I can personally say that I like the idea of an open work space. It is easier to communicate, and it doesn't feel like you are alone. So that is my 2 cents about an open work space.

Whiteboard Desks

This is something that I wish that I had at my last job. We had whiteboards, but they were really difficult to write on because of the angle, and because of that I rarely used it. Having your desk as a whiteboard makes it so that you have scratch paper everywhere essentially. I really loved it. Something that I have seen at other offices is actual whiteboard paint for a wall, or just using glass as a whiteboard. All of these work, and are pretty cool for an office.

Soda Machine

Have you been to a new Wendy's lately? If you haven't then you haven't seen the cool soda machines they have there, and you should probably google a picture of them. If you have then you know the ones that I am talking about. Well we have one of those at the office. Pretty much every flavor of soda that you could think of...except mountain dew :(, but oh well. It is probably for the best. I don't need to get diabetes, and if there was mountain dew I would have little control over myself.

After the tour we got to have lunch. They ordered Papa Johns and we got to eat with our respective managers. This was great for me, because I really wanted to see what my team was going to be like. My manager's name is Scott, and he was a very laid back guy. I don't think I could be any luckier with a manager. We had a great conversation, and got to talk about what the day to day of the team was like, and what kind of projects I will be working on. It sounds like my team is relatively young and gets a lot of freedom and flexibility with projects so that if we can find ways to make it better we can explore those ideas. Also, it sounds like there is a lot of opportunity for automation as well so that is another thing that I am excited about. Something worth mentioning is that we also have a data science team, which is something that I am very interested. I am pretty sure that they are implementing machine learning and neural networks which is something that is increasingly sparking my interest.

After lunch it was kind of a blur until the end of the day. We got a lesson on sales methodology as our company implements it and consults it. We talked a lot about data as well, because that is basically the way the company does business both internally and with clients. It was pretty amazing to see the way that they run things internally. The organization made me believe very much in the company as a whole. I can't speak in detail about they way that they use data to improve the way employees speak together and interact, but it is something I had never heard of. Something else that I really liked was that they continually reminded that they are of the mindset that they don't like to follow the crowd on a lot of things. They gave many examples of how not following the crowd and thinking outside of the box had given them a leg up on the competition. It is really exciting to me, because I like to think I am also the type of person that doesn't like to do things the conventional way.

Overall, I think I made a good decision in going to this company. I believe that I am going to have a lot of great opportunity and learn a ton! Also, if you are reading this and need a job I am told that since their investment rounds they are going to be hiring like crazy this year to meet client demand and growth predictions. So if you are looking for work let me know, and I can refer you.

Thanks for reading!