Happy New Year!

I had a great Christmas with my family and I hope all of you did to. We are all gearing up for the final celebration of the year and I just wanted to share my New Years resolution with you. My resolution for the New Year is to be more helpful and supportive to those around me and to be good to myself as well. That last part seems awful selfish but often times we forget to take care of ourselves either mentally or physically. When we let ourselves fall into disarray it has a downward spiraling effect on our whole life.

When your body is neglected you tend to get sick more often or run out of energy quickly. This neglect can also lead to an early demise at the hand of  cancer, stroke, diabetes, or heart attack.

If you neglect to take care of your mental health the resultant anger, depression or fear can not only dig you further in the hole but can cause physical changes to your bodies chemistry. These changes can lead to weight gain, loss of sleep, loss of ability to focus, loss of energy or motivation and the list could go on for pages.

So, if you make any New Years resolution at all remember to take care of yourself. If you are healthy and happy those around you will invariably be or become that way to.

I also want to encourage those of you visiting this blog even for the first time to please leave comments.Those of you out there who have questions or comments that you would rather not share publicly please just say so in you emails or comment. I will always respect your privacy. If you would like to contact me please email me at fitnfree4ever@gmail.com.

Thank you to all those that have supported me on my way to health and freedom.

I wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy New Year!

Zach Leonard

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season. I am doing great but I have been really lazy lately. I haven’t exercised all week and last week only twice. But I have still managed even with all the holiday festivities to lose another 2 pounds!

Of course with the New Year around the corner its a great time to get back on track with our goals. Many of you visiting this blog are probably think a lot about losing a few unwanted pounds come the New Year. Well I can definitely help Reset you lifestyle and eating habits.

Contact me today so I can help you reach your goals of health and wealth for the New Year!

New Bike

So, as a gift to myself for getting to this point I bought myself a new mountain bike. Its been years since I have been on a bike. Growing up I became an enthusiastic fan of cycling and use to ride everyday. At some point though I gave it up, mostly because I felt that I was inadequate.

It’s really amazing how as my body changes so does my attitude towards life.  Instead of thinking, “I can’t do that”. I now see every  obstacle as a challenge to overcome and make myself a better person and enrich my life and my family’s life.

Lost another 3 pounds

Its been about a week since my last post and I am now down to 219 pounds! That’s 31 pounds since I started 6 weeks ago! So far on the Reset program I have lost an average of 5 pounds per week. I exercise an average of 3.5 times per week. Although since last week I have only lost 3 pounds. I did change my eating schedule from eating a full meal at lunch with my shakes and snacks spread throughout the rest of the day to eating a full meal at  dinner and my shakes and snacks earlier in the day. So I will switch back to my old eating schedule to see if my weight lose increases.

After Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving was a lot easier than I thought it would be. In the past I would eat 2 -3 plates of food on turkey day, but this year I could barely get through one plate and I felt really full. I did not restrict my diet at all over the Thanksgiving weekend and I didn’t gain a pound! Mind you since going through the Reset program I have been feeling full faster. The other thing we did is make healthier choices for Thanksgiving. We used low glycemic sweeteners like agave or stevia for desserts. We replaced white breads and white rice with whole grain bread and brown and red rice.

On the Monday following the Thanksgiving weekend I spent the day on Reset and have been continuing with the Transformation Phase of the program. I weighed in today and I am down to 222 pounds. I have also gone from a 44 inch waist to 40 and I had to get my wedding ring re-sized from a 9 1/2 to a 7 1/2.

Solution

I have always been resourceful (one of the good things about making bad decisions is you learn how to recover fast) so I started an Ebay store and managing rental properties. It wasn’t much but it slowed the bleeding and I could relax a little. I had some time to clear my head and really think. Being at home all the time was actually turning out to be great. I see my daughter every day , play with her and watch her grow up. I get to spend time with my wonderful wife.                                                                                                              I made a decision to find a way to make great money and still be able to be with my family and do what I want when I want. I had already cut my teeth as a business owner and was addicted to being my own boss, why go back now.                                                                                                                                                               In this time I also made a decision that I was going to get back down to a healthy weight. I was 32 and figured I need to be in good shape for chasing around children (and the wife) well into my 40′s, 50′s and beyond. I started exercising 15 minutes everyday and I cut out certain foods and again the cravings came I lost a couple pounds after a month and a half, things felt impossible.                                                                                               I received an email from a friend and she had a link to a website of a company that produces and sells nutritional products. I of course wanting to know more about these products and just plain old curiosity checked it out. It was the website of a company I believe now has changed the course of my health in ways that are just short of a miracle. The company is Usana. I read the website and followed up with research into what they claimed they had. I was skeptical to say the least.  My friend asked me to look at another website and I realized Usana was a network marketing company, now I was really skeptical. I did more research I asked questions, do people actually make money at this?, do the products actually work?, aren’t these things just a big scam? The short answers are YES, YES, and NO. I decided to take a leap that has changed my life for the better.
I started with Usana’s reset program I lost 12 pounds in five days! I won’t lie, it was not easy but hell it was only five days. I never felt hungry, and I had few if any cravings. After the first week I now noticed that I didn’t crave sweets, I ate a lot less and felt full, the things I wanted to eat had even changed. This is not magic or mind over matter this is just good nutritional science applied and packaged in a way anyone can use.
I am in the Transformation Phase of the Reset program and will remain on it until I reach my goal weight. To date I have lost 25 pounds and counting. This is not just some strangers testimony to a product this is my life and it just keeps getting better….

My following blog posts will be a re-play of my daily experiences and challenges. Please follow my blog as I will be updating it with recipes and exercise ideas.

Change from Within

Eventually I realized that this weight was not about just my body or that I ate to much or didn’t exercise enough. So much of my obesity was psychological in my case it was painful family issues. Whatever it takes the first step to being healthy is to learn to forgive others and find peace within yourself. When you do this you gain the world for your family and yourself.
Once I learned what the true cause of my obesity was I could begin the real process of transforming my body. I tried a high protein diet, it worked I got down to 180lbs and thanks to all the weight lifting I did I looked pretty good. It didn’t last though I felt weak and was craving sugar all the time. I spent hundreds of dollars a month for supplements that did little to help I ate whole foods (when I wasn’t stuffing my face with sugar to kill the cravings). I started a new business and all the time I had to spend working out and eating just right (most of the time) was gone. In two years I gained all the weight back plus an extra 10 pounds I was now 250 pounds. A couple years went by I closed my business, started a new job, got married had a child and moved out of state (with no job) all in a 2 year span. To say the least I was stressed out.

The Beginning

I have been obese since I was a small child I began exercising regularly when I was 13, 20 minutes light weight training and 20 minutes on the treadmill then the 5-mile bicycle ride to school each way. Still I weighed 220 pounds by the age of 14. I continued to exercise through high school and weighed 240 by the time I graduated. The depression of being overweight lead other bad habits as well.

Welcome to Obesity Addiction Recovery

Hi my name is Zach and I have struggled with my weight my entire life. I have tried multiple diets, supplements and adjusted my workouts a hundred times and I have had some results. Results that were hard earned and easily lost. I started this blog to share my story and struggles of overcoming obesity. I sincerely hope this helps you with your struggles with weight loss.