Weight loss goal: achieved

Weight loss goal: achieved

Left - age 22 / 240lbs / June 2010
Right - age 27 / 185lbs / Feb 2016 (height, 6'1")

I've pretty much always been chubby, ever since I was a kid and also through high school. I was picked on and bullied as a teenager. After high school I decided to really hit the gym. I gained more muscle and was in better shape but I continued to struggle with losing excess fat and I hit a dead end with results.

I decided to really clean up my diet around ~1 year ago

Things I stopped eating completely:
Fast food (Domino's, McDonald's, Subway, etc..)
Junk food (processed crap you can buy at gas stations)
Store bought bread
Donuts
Fried food

Thing I cut back on/hardly ever eat:
Cheese, cookies, candies

Thing I used to eat & what I switched over to:
Sugary drinks (fruit juice) --> water
Monster energy drinks --> Coffee
Beer --> Wine
Ice cream/cake -- dark chocolate or home made fruit sorbet
Frozen pizzas and the like --> home cooked meals
granola bars (Cliff) --> homemade granola w/ nuts & dried fruit
flavored sugary yogurt --> plain Greek yogurt
chips/pretzels (snack) --> celery & carrots or apple or almonds

For daily lunches I started eating a lot more vegetables. We buy packs of microwavable steamer veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, snap peas, etc..) It's a very easy and inexpensive way to make sure you are eating enough veggies.

I also eat a lot of quinoa or brown rice for lunches along with either grilled chicken or steak, sometimes salmon.

I really fill up at lunch time, it's my biggest meal of the day.

For dinner / post gym, my lovely wife makes me a protein shake consisting of:
Almond Milk, 2 scoops whey protein, chia & flax seeds, cinnamon, vanilla, 2 cups leaf spinach or kale, peanut butter, plain Greek yogurt, banana, ice and then we switch up the frozen fruit of either pineapple, peaches, blueberries, strawberries.
The smoothie takes up the whole blender (~60oz)

If I'm still hungry after that we'll make a dinner similar to what we eat for lunch or have a salad.

I also had to learn how to resist and say 'no thanks' when people offer you delicious food at family gatherings.

My next goal is to get rid of all the blurriness on my face.

TL;DR - I was chubby with just working out, got leaner with eating better.

**Front Page Edits:
Here is the smoothie recipe: http://imgur.com/gallery/eBOti/new

Some people are speculating that my weight should have stayed the same from gaining muscle. I should have mentioned that my pant size went from a 38 to a 32 so there was considerable size and weight loss here. I'm not 100% sure what I weighed in 2010 but 240-250lbs was my heaviest.

With the beer-->wine thing, I should have mentioned that I scaled back my drinking all together. When I do occasionally drink, it's 1-2 glass of wine.