3rd Time's a Charm

Attempt One: The Wake-Up Call

After my second son was born, the combination of dad stress and poor habits caught up with me. The thin version of me had become the heavy version of me, and I didn't like what I saw.

I lost 19% of my body weight primarily by changing my diet to be more healthy and by adding exercise back into my life. I tried low carb diets, but they weren't sustainable long-term. I kept the weight off for about three years, then maintained at a reasonable level for another five to ten years.

But the weight didn't stay off forever. It came back gradually — about four or five pounds a year. When you gain five pounds in a year, you're still probably wearing the same size pants, the same size clothing. It didn't alarm me at first. At some point I'd outgrow the clothing, but because it was gradual, I wasn't too worried.

I went through a lot of spurts of starting and stopping exercise based on the stress and demands of my life and my job. There were injuries. There were family health issues that prevented me from exercising consistently. My food choices were often driven by time constraints rather than what was healthy.

About 13 or 14 years after my initial weight loss, I realized I wasn't happy with the number on the scale again. And about 16 or 17 years after that initial loss, I was at the highest weight I had ever been in my life. This happened to coincide with the height of COVID — and weight was a clear COVID risk indicator. That's when attempt two started.

Attempt Two: The COVID Catalyst

I got COVID and realized I was fortunate not to get sicker than I was. Two things catalyzed my second attempt and made me really successful in a really short period of time.

First, working remotely gave me time back. My commute went from an hour and a half daily down to zero minutes. When my day ended, I already had the opportunity to work out, especially when the weather got nice. Given that gyms were closed, I returned to something I enjoyed as a kid: cycling. I put in about 1,500 miles on the bike in 2021 and 2022, after not riding much for a decade.

The second catalyst was that I wasn't feeling well. I had a lot of weird post-COVID symptoms — stomach-related issues and other problems. It led me to a series of doctor visits that led me to experiment with my diet. I cut out a lot of sodium. My doctor was worried I might be allergic to dairy, so I cut a lot of dairy out as well (which makes sense because a lot of dairy products contain a lot of sodium — check the back of a package of cheese if you don't believe me).

I lost 15% of my body weight in about six months. I felt great.

The job I had at the time was westward of me, so my team didn't come online for about an hour after I got online every morning. That meant I could spend more time exercising in the mornings. I would do a three-mile ruck with a 50-pound pack and include 27 flights of stairs. That workout, combined with modifications to what I was eating, helped me sustain my weight loss for about two and a half to three years.

It was during this time that I added WHOOP to my routine. I started noticing patterns in my sleep and some concerning data about my heart health that I hadn't been aware of before.

Then I lost that job. The stress of a job search caused some of the weight to creep back. When I finally found a new job, it came with a different timezone — and I lost that morning workout window. The creep accelerated over the past year.

Attempt Three: The Data-Driven Approach

This time I'm setting a clear goal: lose 15% of my body weight by the end of 2026.

I'm older now. My metabolism isn't what it used to be. My biomarkers are showing the classic issues that middle-aged men face. I need a systemic approach to both the quality and quantity of food I'm eating. My current job has an earlier start time, which makes it harder to carve out exercise time in the mornings.

But this time, I have a little extra help, courtesy of WHOOP. I've been wearing my WHOOP since 2023. Since my exercise routine has tanked, I have quantifiable metrics to show how my fitness has dropped as well — which led me to targets for my overall health and fitness. In addition to trying to lose the 15% of my body weight, I'd also like to increase my VO2 Max and HRV, as well as lower my overnight RHR, and improve my sleep quality. While some of my metrics have suffered in my current "creep", I have also greatly improved my sleep quality in the last two years of wearing the WHOOP.

I've learned that vague goals produce vague results and/or never get done. That's why I am setting hard goals for myself to see what I can achieve, and because I have observable independent metrics with WHOOP, I have a way of really tracking my progress.

Why I Built This Site

Partly accountability. Partly because I spent two years learning from the WHOOP podcast and dozens of books before I found a system that made sense to me — and I think other people could benefit from a shorter path to that knowledge.

If you're someone who thinks analytically, gets frustrated by vague fitness advice, and wants to understand the "why" behind what works — you're in the right place.