Weight Loss Journey: How Steve Uses Accountability to Get Healthier

Don’t you love a good story about a person’s weight loss journey?

I know I do.  That’s why I asked Steve from My Family On A Budget to share his fitness / weight loss transformation story with us.

Steve, like many of us out there, had trouble losing weight.  Well, how can you blame the guy?  He’s a loving husband and a stay-at-home daddy to two beautiful girls.  The guy doesn’t exactly get a lot of time to focus on himself.

But, that’s how it is as we get older isn’t it?  We get married and raise children.  Our hopes and dreams for ourselves become hopes and dreams for those entrusted to our care — our spouses and children.

My wife will never let me live down how I ran a marathon one month after my son was born.  Setting my “new dad” move aside, I lost about 40 pounds between 2014 and 2015 with dieting and running.

However, like Steve, I gained a lot of it back.  Sure, I can blame my new dad duties, but the truth is I allowed myself to eat crap again.  I didn’t hold myself accountable and my wife was too busy being a new nursing mother to help me there.  Plus, I did kind of run a marathon when my son was a month old!

Anyway, check out the details of Steve’s weight loss journey.  I know I saw some parallels in my own personal weight loss journey and I’m sure some of Steve’s story will resonate with you.

Thank you, Steve, for sharing your story with us!

Before we begin with your weight loss journey, Steve, give us a little background about yourself.

Well, I am a stay at home dad of 2 girls, ages 5 and 3. I enjoy spending quality time with them while taking care of the household and our family’s finances. Since taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University back in August 2011, we have been following the baby steps and have managed to grow our net worth by over 500% in that time. I publicly track our family’s net worth monthly as well as my 2017 goals so that I can feel the accountability of sharing the numbers. This has helped us stay on track and grow while also managing to help encourage others.

I read your journey from 2015 to today about losing weight and getting healthier.  Can you take us to the beginning and what lead you to start losing weight?  How much did you lose and what did you do to get there?

Well, the roots of my whole blog are wrapped up in that initial weight loss journey and my net worth updates. I think from time to time we get frustrated with who we are when we look into the mirror. This happened to me and I decided that the best thing that I could do was to start tracking my weight loss journey. I was unhappy with where I was and wanted to make a change. I lost almost 25 pounds in about 3 months. A lot of it was just water weight, but I was focused on exercising regularly, eating healthy, tracking calories using MyFitnessPal and just doing things in moderation.

You know I found it interesting that you gained the weight back because you stopped publicly tracking it.  It’s interesting to me because I cover both financial and physical health here.  You’re a personal finance blogger trying to get healthier.  We both know how important accountability is when trying to make a change in these areas.  Can you speak to that need for accountability for us?

Absolutely. Tracking my progress publicly has helped me take it more seriously because I know that I’ll have to write about it and others are going to read it. I want to make it the best story that I can, so it makes me work harder to reach my goals. Without that accountability, I felt like no one was around and I wouldn’t have to explain my actions.

[clickToTweet tweet=”To get healthier, you have to take a lifelong mindset instead of a dieting mindset – Steve @MyFamOnABudget” quote=”To get healthier, you have to take a lifelong mindset instead of a dieting mindset.”]

So, you’re back on the horse so to speak.  What are you doing today to get healthier?

Yes, I decided to make one of my 2017 goals this year to lose 20 pounds. If I hit that, I’m going to go for an additional 20 pounds. This time around, I’ve decided to make multiple goals being the weight loss, but also an exercise goal. I think that by hitting both goals, the weight should drop rather well. I’ve also decided to start back on Herbalife replacing 1-2 meals a day with healthy shakes so that I can cut calories and focus on other tasks at hand.

One of the hardest things about eating is the time it takes to prepare all the different meals. I found that by making 2-3 different variations of healthy shakes, I was able to cut my calories and also up the nutrition I was getting while freeing up more time to do other things like watch the kids, blog, or other fun things. For my daily meal, I’ve started doing meal planning where I make 20 crock pot meals that I just freeze and cook for the family.

How are you holding yourself accountable to stick to it this time?

This time around I’ve started doing monthly accountability check-ins on my blog at http://myfamilyonabudget.com/2017-goals/. I feel that as long as I stick to reporting my stats, that should motivate me enough to reach my goals!

What are your health goals for this year and beyond?  How do you plan on reaching them?

This year I’m looking to lose 20 pounds and if I hit that goal, I’ve got a stretch goal of an additional 20 pounds. The other goal is to get a workout in 3-5 times a week. Whether I go to the gym, run outside, or some other activity, I’m tracking them on my Apple Watch and using the activity app on my phone to track and motivate myself.

After I lose the weight, I will go into maintain mode and will focus more on toning and then building more muscle.

How are you trying to help others with your blog, My Family On A Budget?  Can you tell us a little about it?  How can readers contact you?

With my blog, I focus on sharing my family’s journey in how we are growing our net worth on a normal income. I share tips that I figure out as well as have a guest on each Monday to either share their debt freedom story or share a money tip that you can take action on. I really enjoy the different perspectives that are coming out of the site and am reaching out to more and more people with each new post.  Also, I give away my budgeting spreadsheets when people sign up for my email newsletter.

If people want to reach out to me directly, they can email me at steve@myfamilyonabudget.com or visit the site at MyFamilyOnABudget.com.

One more question.  What advice can you give to readers who are trying to get healthier?  What is one important tip that you can share?

To get healthier, you have to take a lifelong mindset instead of a dieting mindset. You can’t drop the weight and then go back to your old habits and expect to stay healthy. Finding a way to put things into moderation and making it fun is one thing that I have found to be key.

Other than that, I would always encourage people to journal through their journey, whether publicly like I am or privately. By doing this, you can look back and help to re-motivate yourself when the going gets tough. It’s not going to be a straight path getting healthy. You are going to fall off the wagon from time to time. The key is that you have to remember to get back on the path and continue on the journey!

So, how does Steve’s weight loss journey strike you?  Do you struggle with your weight?  It’s cool.  You’re not alone.  Share your weight loss journey with us below!