Four Years, 100+ Pounds & The Long Game

Four years ago, I weighed 326 pounds.

I was dealing with major health issues, including unmanaged Type 2 diabetes, and I had reached the point where something had to change. Not “someday.” Not “when life slows down.” Not after one more failed attempt. I had to change.

Over the last four years, I have lost more than 100 pounds.

That sentence sounds neat and tidy. The process was not. My health did not improve quickly. I nearly died twice of health complications in those four years. But it’s a journey I would not trade.

Before the picture on the left, I had battled my weight for decades. I had already proved, many times over, that I could lose weight fast. I crash-dieted. I pushed hard. I completed one full marathon and some half-marathons. So this was never about whether I could suffer for a short season or summon intense effort for a while.

The problem was that none of it involved real life-change.

I could force results for a little while, but I was not building a sustainable life. So I would lose the weight, gain it back, and usually come back less healthy than before. The cycle kept repeating itself, and each round seemed to multiply the damage.

So what is different this time?

This time, I stopped chasing quick results and started pursuing actual change.

Here is what I changed:

1. Portion discipline
   Not starvation. Not punishing myself. Just learning that quantity matters, and that even better food can become too much food.
2. Limiting simple carbs while keeping lots of dietary fiber
   I cut way back on sugar and simple carbs while keeping fiber high. That made a huge difference for me.
3. Eating lots of protein
   More protein helped me stay fuller longer, maintain better balance in my eating, and avoid the crash-and-crave cycle.
4. Taking strategic supplements
   For me, that has included Vitamin C, B6, B12, B complex, D3, fish oil, a multivitamin, apple cider vinegar, and methylene blue.
5. Moving a lot more
   Not insane, unsustainable workout programs. Not a temporary blast of punishment. Just more movement, more often, in ways I could actually keep doing.

That last part matters more than people realize.

For years, I kept flirting with extremes because extremes feel serious. They feel noble. They feel impressive. But sustainable change is usually less dramatic than that. It is usually built through wise choices repeated long after the emotional fireworks have faded.

That is where this formula came from for me:

Discipline
+ Focus
+ Consistency
+ Time
= Sustainable Success

Not discipline for six days.
Not focus for one month.
Not consistency when I feel inspired.
And certainly not the fantasy that meaningful change should happen overnight.

Time matters.

That has been one of the hardest lessons of my life, and one of the healthiest. I have had to learn to think in terms of the long game.

The concepts behind and the components of the formula are certainly not original to me. But they came together in an aha-moment when I realized I would remain unhealthy without adding them all together. So I put them together and realized that I could implement them all or I coul just give up.

Giving up was not an option. I was sick, depressed, discouraged and feeling hopeless. I’d lost my marriage, important relationships, my career and hope.

So I started over with almost nothing except a decision that I would live the rest of my life fundamentally different than before.

What has surprised me is how much this same formula has shaped other parts of my life as well. In fact, it influenced the writing of my novel. Novels do not get written the way crash diets work, in short bursts of emotional intensity followed by collapse. They get written the same way lasting health is built: discipline, focused effort, consistency, and time. Page by page. Chapter by chapter. Revision by revision. The same principle that helped me change physically also helped me finish something I had dreamed about for years.

And honestly, I am trying to apply that same formula everywhere now: relationally, spiritually, emotionally, financially, and vocationally. Because the truth is, most meaningful things in life are not built in a moment. They are built slowly, quietly, stubbornly, over time.

I am not sharing this because I have mastered life.

I am sharing it because, after a lot of failure, I finally learning something I wish I learned many years ago: the long game matters.

It is not too late.

It is not too late to get healthier.
It is not too late to break old patterns.
It is not too late to learn discipline.
It is not too late to build something meaningful.
It is not too late to change.

The picture on the left reminds me of where I was.
The picture on the right reminds me that change is possible.

Slow change is still real change.
Quiet progress is still progress.
Sustainable success is almost always slower than we want, but better than we imagined.

For the first time in my life, I think I am finally learning how to stop chasing dramatic moments and start building a better life.

And I am grateful it is not too late.

Sustainable success is almost always slower than we want, but better than we imagined.

The Best Is Yet To Come!

Alan D.