Last week: 399 lbs.

Start (2/3/15): 413 lbs.

Total lost: 13 lbs.

—

With 11 weeks until the Lake Placid Half-Marathon, my training has kicked into high gear, and I’ve written down some helpful tips to set myself up for completing the race in record time on Sunday, June 14.

This list is based on the experiences I’ve had over the past 15 months recording my weight-loss journey in the Lake Placid Diet column.

I find that most people get so consumed by the number on the scale — weight lost, gained or maintained — that they lose sight of the real progress. In a nutshell, that’s health and wellness. There’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, not just how much you weigh. The formula of “calories in, calories out” does not work when you consider the countless variables people are faced with daily. And everybody has their own set of circumstances, so there is no silver bullet to weight loss or improving health and wellness.

Some people have asked me to write about what I’m doing specifically to lose weight. What diet am I following? That’s an easy one. There is no specific diet. I stay away from the fads. All I can say is that I’m eating healthier food — nothing dramatic — and eating less. I’m also exercising more.

I hate to go into specifics because I’m afraid people will imitate me and think that my program is the best route for them. My philosophy is “everyone is different.” What works for me will not work for you. However, there may be some helpful tips you can glean from my habits and tailor them to your own program.

To say that I’m an expert at this weight-loss stuff is a lie, even though I’ve had decades of experience. There have been more failures than successes. But that’s OK. Never give up. Every time I fall down, I get back up, brush myself off and try again. As some people say, a setback is a setup for a comeback. I’m taking a long-haul approach to health and wellness because there is no time limit. I’ll be trying to improve myself until the day I die.

25 keys to my success

1. Get enough sleep. For me, that means 7 to 8 hours a night if I can get it and extra sleep on the mornings I feel my body needs it, especially after a long week of training.

2. Hydrate. I’m not really good at this, but I continually try to keep hydrated throughout the day, especially on training and race days.

3. Proper nutrition. I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan, but I enjoy many veggie dishes. I try to focus on whole foods, keeping processed foods to a minimum. I also try to keep my alcohol and caffeine consumption down.

4. Self discipline. Some people call this will power. I give myself permission to let loose once in a while, but when I need to get back on track, I can only improve myself when I have the self discipline to work on it and see things through.

5. Days off are good. Don’t be afraid to take a day off from work, exercise or eating healthy. But know your limit. When a day off turns into a week, a month or a year, there’s a problem.

6. Mantras, sayings, motivational stories and videos. I’m always looking for inspirational sayings, stories, movies, documentaries and YouTube videos to keep me motivated. And when I need to dig deep during a rough patch or a tough workout, I keep focused with some helpful mantras.

7. Join a support group. My main support group is the Fit Revolution class (formerly called Take It Off) at the Fitness Revolution gym in Lake Placid, but I also get plenty of support from my Lake Placid Diet readers.

8. Create a training plan and keep to it as much as possible. Working with my trainer Jason McComber at Fitness Revolution, we put in place a 14-week training plan for the half-marathon that has me working out six says a week, three walking days and three cross-training days in the gym. But exercise is only one element of the training plan. It also includes nutrition: what, when and how much I eat.

9. Stress reduction. This is the toughest one. Right now I’m trying to identify the stresses in my life and minimize them. I’m learning about meditation and starting to practice it. Soon I’m hoping it will be a part of my daily routine.

10. Medicine cabinet. I’m only talking Ibuprofen here, no hardcore stuff for pain. I just need some relief from the everyday soreness from working out this extra-large body. Baby powder and Gold Bond medicated body powder also help with the results of chafing. When there’s extra skin around, there’s bound to be lots of chafing.

11. Minimal supplements. Every other day, I take a multivitamin as a safety net. I try to eat a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and meat protein, but some days I just can’t do it. I also take probiotics once in a while to help with my digestion.

12. Food, exercise and weight journal. I write down my weight once a week and keep track of my exercise using the calendar function on my Nokia phone. And on most days I write down everything I eat using the MyFitnessPal app on my phone. This way, I’m able to keep track of my gross and net calories and macronutrients.

13. Writing therapy. Writing the Lake Placid Diet column has been one of the best ways for me to keep on track with my weight and exercise goals. It keeps me accountable and gives me the opportunity to broaden my support network with the readers I have around the country.

14. Continuing education. I’m always eager to learn about the latest health and wellness news. Plus, I have an insatiable curiosity about how the body works. I’m currently reading a textbook called “Contemporary Nutrition,” by Gordon M. Wardlaw and Anne M. Smith, on loan from one of my workout buddies.

15. Music. Life’s too short not to have music in your life. I love most kinds, but bluegrass is my favorite, and I listen to it at home and at work. On my walking days, the training mix on my phone contains about 80 songs from the Gibson Brothers. I hit “shuffle all” and start walking.

16. Keep an eye on my goals. I have specific mini goals with weight and training, and I try to meet them, but right now I’m focused on two that go hand-in-hand: Get stronger and lose weight. My main goal with the half-marathon is to beat my time from last year.

17. Focus. With all the distractions in life, I find that I have to practice focusing. Meditation helps. What I do before a gym workout is get there 30 minutes early, walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes as a warmup, stretch for 5 minutes, walk to the speed bag and start punching it, getting a rhythm going until that focus sets in. Then I’m mentally prepared to work out. When my form gets sloppy during a training walk, I’ll focus on something in the distance, such as a street sign, and keep my eyes on it steady as I walk toward it. It’s like focusing on your breathing during meditation. That helps me focus on my form.

18. Stay mildly obsessive about weight loss, exercise and healthy eating. I have better results when I keep track of my progress throughout the day, writing down my food and exercise, thinking about my goals and training, visualizing how I’ll feel or look like in the future, always learning more about this new lifestyle.

19. When I get discouraged, I remind myself to put faith in the effort. For example, when the scale is not going in the right direction, I say to myself, “Put faith in the effort,” meaning that the scale will eventually behave as long as I work hard. The key is you have to put forth the effort in order to get results. Stick with it.

20. Count your blessings. A daily reminder to count my blessings or list three to five positives in my life really helps put things in perspective. It’s a way to stay in a positive frame of mind. It’s easy to list positives on a good day, but I have to force myself to count those blessings on the hard days. That’s when I need them the most.

21. Time with family, friends and pets. We’re social beings. I always feel better when I connect with family, friends and my two dogs.

22. Stop being a workaholic. For the past 15 months, I’ve worked hard to decrease my stress by creating a better balance between work and everyday life. It’s getting better, but I still have a long way to go.

23. Plan and prepare meals on the weekend. I eat more healthy meals after spending a day on the weekend — usually Sunday — preparing grab-and-go food for breakfast and lunch during the week. Since my schedule with the newspaper is fairly unpredictable, and I spend six days of the week training, having a flexible nutrition plan is important. By flexible, I mean having a variety of food ready to grab, pack and run on my way out the door. Fruit is easy with bananas, apples and pears. It takes more time to slice up an orange or grapefruit and put it in a sandwich baggy. I like to cook chicken, turkey or fish and place 4-ounce portions in baggies. I’ll take raw, unsalted nuts such as almonds, walnuts or cashews and place 1-ounce portions in snack baggies. The key is to measure the portions so I can easily record the food in MyFitnessPal. Peanut butter sandwiches and hummus wraps are quick and easy to make before I head out the door in the morning. I’ll make my hummus on a Sunday, and I’ve figured out the calories for half-cup portions, so it’s easy to count the calories. It takes time, but it’s time well spent if I want to get healthy.

24. Keep my eye on the journey. While my focus is on the June 14 half-marathon, the real benefit to a 14-week training plan is the healthy lifestyle it creates while I work on achieving my goal. It’s about the exercise and nutrition. It’s about adopting better habits. It’s about getting stronger so I can do something in week 14 that I couldn’t do in week 1.

25. Repeat. Fourteen weeks is not enough. Once I’m done with the Lake Placid Half-Marathon, I’ll move on to another race, then another and another. This is my new life.

—

Helpful mantras

Here are some mantras and sayings that help me when I need it the most.

-It’s only pain. (before or during exercise)

-No more excuses. (when you’re in the middle of telling yourself or others why you can’t exercise today)

-Screw the critics. (Use a stronger verb if you must. The four-letter word I use starts with an F.)

-I can do it. (helpful anytime you need it)

-One step at a time. (helpful going up hills while training for races)

-Piece of cake. (helpful when you’re faced with a tough challenge like climbing a mountain)

-I’m at the top of my game. (always a lie)

-I’m not here for easy. (Say this to your trainer after he says, “You’re going to hate me for this, but …”)

-Put faith in the effort. (helpful when the scale is not cooperating and you’ve been working your butt off)

—

WORDS OF WISDOM: Theodore Roosevelt

This excerpt is from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “Citizenship in a Republic” delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on April 23, 1910.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”