Dave Scherer's Weight Loss Tips (you can't write comedy this good)

http://www.pwinsiderxtra.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=498&p=1

WAIST REDUCTION, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS FAT AIN'T WHERE IT'S AT - DAVE'S
THIRD BLOG IS NOW ONLINE
by Dave Scherer @ 11:52:00 AM on 2/1/2006

I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was going down the escalator
that cascaded onto the wonderfully decadent Harrahs Hotel and Casino in
Atlantic City when I looked into the mirror on my right and saw
something that truly scared me.  It was some time in the early spring
of 2003, so all I had on was a T-shirt and a vest.  I never like to
take a coat into the casino because it becomes a pain in the ass to
drag around all day.  So, as I rolled down the steps and glanced to my
right, the mirror showed that that there was a lot more of me than
there used to be.  No amount of "sucking it in" could have hidden the
fact that my gut had grown to a record proportion.  When I got home, I
got on the scale and was floored when I saw the number: 280.

When I had quit my job at Coca Cola back in May of 1999, I weighed 245
to 250 pounds, which was 10 to 15 pounds more than I should have
weighed.  I am a large man by nature and if I ever get down under 230
pounds, I look like death warmed over.  Some people would look at 225
as I did at 280, but for me 235 is my natural weight.  Back when I was
working at Coke, I was putting in 40 to 50 hours a week there, plus at
least 60 hours a week working on 1Wrestling.com, The ECW website and
writing for WOW and ECW magazines.  There was "no time" for exercise,
but at least I was incredibly busy so it kept my weight from getting
too out of control.  I worked a lot and was on the road quite often,
going to shows and PPVs, so at least I hadn't become completely
sedentary.  Then, ECW closed down and I found myself at home, sitting
on my ass, a lot more than I ever had before.  Oh, I was still working
hard at my job, but there was absolutely no physical exertion being
done, and that isn't good.  In the two years that followed, I had
gained at least 30 more pounds and was now a roly-poly 280, devoid of
much of the muscle tone that I had most of my life.  Looking in the
mirror that day, I knew something had to be done.

I decided that I needed to change the way that I did a lot of things,
both in getting physical activity and evaluating the way I was eating.
There was also a bigger issue that needed to be addressed as well, and
that was my mental state.  Why was I eating so much and letting myself
get that out of shape?  With Coke out of the way, the magazine work
gone, and ECW and WCW out of business, it's not like I didn't have the
time to take care of myself.  It's just that I didn't care.  I had
grown soft and complacent because I wasn't happy and I let it affect my
overall health.  My blood pressure was high.  My triglycerides were
bad.  My cholesterol was rising to unhealthy levels.  And, when I tried
to sleep on my back, I had developed sleep apnea.  I was becoming a
mess.  Why was I letting that happen?  The answer was pretty easy to
uncover.

Around that time, things at my job were starting to unravel.  I won't
get into the whys and wherefores, but I wasn't at all happy at
1Wrestling, so much so that I was seriously considering life after
wrestling altogether.  I had about a year left on my contract and I
knew even then that the odds were minimal that I would re-sign with
them due to major philosophical differences that I had with one of the
owners (and that isn't to say I was right, I just didn't agree with the
way he did things).  I always had the idea of doing my own site, but
who knew if it would be successful?  I had to be ready to return to the
work force if I couldn't make a living here at PWInsider.com.  I
figured a that point, if I was going to back on the job market at 42
years old, the deck was already starting to get stacked against me so I
had better look as good as I can.  I decided to turn a negative into a
positive and the end result was a 55 pound weight loss by the end of
2003.

It wasn't easy, but it wasn't all that hard either.  It just took a
plan.  Here is mine.

First and foremost, I want to say that I hate diets.  I have always
thought that the vast majority of people will never completely
successfully change the way that they eat.  I think that they eat how
they eat because it's the way that they like to eat.  It's become a
habit that is very, very hard to break.  Sure, people make
modifications and can stay on a diet for a short period of time, but
most go back to doing what they always did because they like doing it
or it's what they know.  Going on a diet often works while you do it.
Then you lose the weight and go back to eating the way you always did,
putting the weight back on.  That's why health care people say that
it's just as big of a challenge to keep the weight off once you lost
it.  So, I hate unrealistic diets.

Personally, I have always preferred behavior modification to dieting,
and you have to commit to it for it to work.  Diet, no.  A complete
change in eating habits that you will abide by for the rest of your
life, yes.  What you eat is obviously very important, no doubt.  But I
think it's even more important to accept and embrace the fact that
exercise is even more instrumental to losing the weight and keeping it
off.  I look at it as simple mathematics.  Diet with no exercise means
that you are solely counting on the reduction in your caloric intake to
reduce your weight.  Proper diet, as opposed to a diet, along with
exercise not only reduces your intake of calories, but also burns fat
and thus doubles up the process.

For example, on a day you cheat and eat something you shouldn't, you
can do extra cardio and negate at least some of the affects by burning
extra calories.  The real benefit is that adding exercise to your
program (after talking to your doctor first of course) is also good for
your overall health, which dieting alone isn't.  There are reed-thin
people everywhere who don't exercise and have cholesterol and blood
pressure levels that are through the roof.  Being thin alone doesn't
always equal being healthy.  Cardiovascular exercise is great for your
heart and, in many cases, will help lower important levels, such as
those mentioned above.

To make it work though, it takes commitment.  When I say "accept and
embrace", I mean it.  It has to become part of your every day life, and
as you get older, it should even if you aren't overweight.  Why?
Because there will always be a reason to blow off working out.  You
have to make sure you always find a reason to work out.  I did and
within seven months, I had safely lost 55 pounds, weight that is still
gone two years later.  It can be done, and you can do it, if you
commit.

I was going to go into my program, but this blog ran long.  If anyone
wants me to write about my workout routines, drop me an email and I
will cover it in my next blog.

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