SUCCESS STORY / John Bausch, 31: From 245 pounds to 175 pounds
Former weight: 245 pounds
Current weight: 175 pounds
Pounds lost: 70 pounds
Height: 5 feet 8 inches
Age: 31 years
How long he's kept it off: Started in April and reached his current weight 2 1/2 months ago.
Personal life: "I have a wife, a daughter, Amelia, 6, two cats and a bunny rabbit. I work in corporate security in a hospital here; I'm a former correctional officer," Bausch said. He lives in Columbus.
Turning point: "I had been trying to lose off and on for years. I tried to exercise, and nothing seemed to work. We were in Florida, on vacation … I was fat and miserable, and we were overweight," Bausch said. "We decided we didn't want to be those people on cholesterol medicine. We started looking up diets. … We got back to town and immediately started the diet. … We started off following the Atkins diet (www.atkins.com). … It was hard at first. We went through the keto flu detoxing from all the carbs — we lost 15 pounds that first month. I wouldn't so much call it a diet at this point — we've just completely changed the way we eat."
Diet plan: Breakfast is cheesy eggs with bacon. Lunch is a lettuce-wrapped sandwich. He also eats a lot of salad and finds low-carb recipe modifications to enjoy his favorite pizza and calzones.
Exercise routine: "I lift weights about four days per week. … I have a home gym I set up," Bausch said. "I was doing this before the diet. I work every muscle group. I do dead lifts, squats, it's an Olympic-style weightlifting routine. I don't do any jogging or cardio. I absolutely hate running."
Biggest challenge: "The first week, detoxing from the carbohydrates. Coming down from the carbohydrates, you almost feel like you have the flu. Your stomach hurts, you get headaches," he said. "It's nowhere near as bad as quitting smoking. After that first week, it's absolutely easy."
How life has changed: "I feel so much better with all that weight off my knees and gut," Bausch said. "I was prediabetic and so miserable. I weigh about what I weighed as a freshman in high school. … I feel more confident not carrying all that extra weight. It's something I am really proud of — it's always there in my mind, even though I got myself fat, I got myself not fat. … A lot of it is me and my wife did it together. We held each other accountable, and we didn't want to let each other down. … You gain weight together, 5 or 10 pounds a year. Losing it together, we both look like we did when we were dating. … It has been a net positive. I was just so fortunate to have her find the diet, and we both decided to do the diet — I definitely couldn't have done it without her."
Share Your Success: Have you lost weight successfully with a healthy lifestyle change? If you would like to share your story with our readers, please include your email address, a daytime phone number, and before and after photos (by mail or JPEG), and contact us at: Success Stories, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 223 Perimeter Center Parkway, Atlanta, GA, 30346-1301; or email Michelle C. Brooks, ajcsuccessstories@gmail.com.