Atlanta Resident Loses 94 Pounds

• Former weight: 335 pounds

• Current weight: 241 pounds

• Pounds lost: 94

• Height: 5 feet 11 inches

• How long he’s kept it off: Maintained a 50-pound weight loss for several months but now losing steadily again.

• Personal life: Thomas works as an information technology consultant for CGI Group Inc., a consulting firm. He lives in Midtown.

• Turning point: “Two things,” he says. “A friend was trying to set me up with one of her friends. These two girls were having a conversation about me and the friend of the friend said, ‘Warren’s a really great guy, but I don’t want to be a widow at 45.’ Being overweight, I was used to people not being attracted to me, [but] to hear someone say that you’re a short-term prospect was a blow.” He also felt some divine intervention reaching him. “The preacher at Buckhead Church was doing a sermon on temptations. I really felt like God was telling me that food was a major temptation in my life that was going to steal my life away,” he says. “I left church with my roommate and we went to McDonald’s. Before I knew it, I had ordered a whole combo meal.” Thomas knew right then that he had to find new ways to eat.

• Diet plan: Thomas followed the Weight Watchers’ points plan. Breakfast is usually Quaker sugar-free or weight-control oatmeal or high-protein cereal. Lunch is a low-calorie frozen dinner or a turkey sandwich. Dinner can be anything from tacos at home to dinner out. “If I know I’m going to be eating something else that’s not good, I’ll trim out points somewhere else,” he says. “I had wings the other night and it was like three points per wing.”

• Exercise routine: When he first started, Thomas rode the elliptical machine at his condo complex five to six times per week. “That much really burned me out,” he says. “Now I work out three times per week.” He has started running and follows the Couch the 5K program at CoolRunning.com (http://www.coolrunning.com

/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml), which takes exercisers from couch potato to 5K runner in nine weeks.

“I started [doing] more high-impact running and I really saw a big difference in my weight loss,” he says. “I’d heard people talk about running as a magical weight-loss cure. I really like it. It’s gotten to be something where I like the way it makes me feel. I don’t dread it. I look forward to getting my runs in.”

• Biggest challenge: “When I’ve met my goals, it’s gotten easy to become very complacent,” he says. “Over the course of this [journey], it’s been very important to me to say now that I’ve met a goal, I need to make another one immediately. Without a goal in mind, it’s going to be easy to slip back.” He also finds social gatherings challenging. “I have a girlfriend now. A lot of my friends go out and eat, and I want to go out and have fun and do the things my friends are doing but not get myself off track.”

• Munchie antidote: “Unfortunately sometimes I reach for munchies,” he says. “If I feel hungry, I drink something instead. I have a Brita pitcher and I fill it up to the top and the water filters through to the bottom. I keep that on my desk at work and drink it all day long. It tastes better than tap water and it’s right there.” He’s also learned to replace some of his snacks with better versions. He reaches for baked chips and instead of regular cookies, he buys fat-free versions. “Sometimes if it’s coming out of a big bag, I don’t think about how much is going in, so I weigh out my chips and put them in bags that I know the points values on. I allow myself to snack, but it’s a proportioned, pre-measured controlled snack.”

• Secret to success: “Honestly, God being on my side,” he says. “There was a day I was walking to my workout center to do a run and I realized six months ago I would have been much hungrier at that point in the day because of what I [would have] eaten. I realized my appetite had changed; my desires had changed. I wanted to be more connected spiritually. As my relationship with my heavenly father improved, all these things in my life improved.”

• How life has changed: Trying on clothes used to be a dreadful experience. Thomas would find a pair that fit and buy three of them. “Now it’s, ‘Do I want the pleated or not pleated, stain-resistant or not, cuffed or uncuffed’ — it’s been a welcome challenge to have options.” Overall he has a lot more physical freedom. “I have a lot more energy. I can get down and scrub my floor in my bathroom and I’m not as uncomfortable.” Source: AJC.com