Hello all. I'm new to the board. I'm 30 years old, father for 2 (1 yo daughter and 4 yo son). I'm fortunate to have a decent job that allows me to work just 3 days a week, however I've taken far to much advantage of the situation and since my promotion to this position I've gone from a very well overweight 220lbs upt to almost 250 (248 three weeks ago).
My father died when he was 50...the night of his death his youngest brother had a heart attack, he was 38. That was 5 years ago, since then two more of his brothers both 50 years old have had bypass surgery. The genes in the family aren't great, but both of my grandparents are still alive at 84 years old. Lifestyle was the biggest problem for all of my uncles.
In January I decided to take out a larger life insurance policy, especially with the lack of longevity on my fathers side, and the fact that we had just bought a new house that neither of us could afford alone. I didn't want to leave my kids with nothing. While taking the physical for the insurance the doctor told me I was about 70 lbs overweight. I thought, you've got to be kidding, I haven't weighed 180 lbs since I was in early high school...his answer, well you've been overweight ever since. I thought, surely he is mistaken, maybe I could stand to lose 20-30...but 70?
When the blood work returned my cholester0l was on the borderline of healthy and high...the doctor explained that over 200 was bad, but close to 200 for a 30 year old was bad as well. So now the doctor is telling me I'm fat and my cholesterol is high
. I noticed one night after putting my son to bed that just carrying him up the stairs I was winded....laying in bed breathing heavily I decided that i wasn't prepared to be like this the rest of my life. The thought of my "best health ever" being 16 years ago as a 14 year old was depressing at best. So I made the decission to change.
At first I only cut out non-diet soda....then snack foods. The great thing is that I have NEVER liked snack foods. I would always prefer a chicken breast or fish filet to a pile of cookies or cake, yet if they were around in the mouth they would go! So getting away from sweets was easy (except the soda withdrals). So a month later I noticed that I had lost just a bit of weight, but not much, and I of course i was still every bit as winded as I was that night.
Two and half weeks ago I made a decission that I was going to do something about what kind of shape I was in. I started going to the gym to run on the tread mill. The first day I walked for 2 minutes then decided I would run a nice slow mile, you know nothing to hard.....except .56 into the mile my chest was on fire. My doctor had told me that I was safe to start an exercise routine, but here I was thinking I was having a heart attack. I backed off and in less than 10 minutes I felt fine. The next day I went back and ran 3/4 of a mile, but I was exhausted. At the same time my wife and I went to Sams, bought a case of mahi mahi, chicken and other healthier entrees that we could cook, as well as stocking up on veges (the few I like) and I made her throw out all the junk food from the house (only she and the kids eat them...and she can eat anything she wants but there is no since in starting the little ones on that stuff).
Last week I was determined to make it to the gym at least three times...I made it 4. I ran for 15 minutes each time (a little over a mile) and I walked for at least 15 minutes as well.
This week I made it to the gym Monday, ran a mile and a quarter, did my full 15 minutes of running, and my full 15 of walking. Today i over slept and didn't make it to the gym, but for once in my life I didn't let that stop me. Once my daughter fell a sleep for her mid morning nap I went down and ran on my wifes tread mill (its a little flimsy so i worry my frame will break it) the treadmill held up and I finished my first set of intervals, running a total of 1.25 miles of 30 minutes of intervals.
I've dropped 9 pounds in the last three weeks (from 248 to 239) and though I don't have any expectations of keeping that pace up, i'm tickled to see the scale moving down. My first day of running I was dieing after .25 miles, today I wasn't even breathing out my mouth until almost 1/2 of a mile. With all this running my appetite is through the roof lately, but i've done a pretty good job of not giving in, eating fruits and whole grains. I've not touched a soda in over a month (a few diets though) and my water intake has increased exponentially (I rarely took a sip of water before). I've not found myself out of breath a single time in the last 5-6 days...carrying my son up and down the stairs doesn't get me winded. Yesterday i had to carry buckets of horse feed around the farm for my father in law while he is away, a task that would have killed me a month ago, and I felt fine during and after.
These things might not seem like much, but they are noticable effects after just 3 weeks of working at this. My legs feel great, my feet feel great, I have more patients with the kids and sleep 100 times better at night. Perhaps 90% of this is placebo effect, maybe it's because I'm on more of a schedule during my days off (monday-thursday I'm off), maybe it's the fact that I am eating breakfast for the first time in my life. I'm not sure which is having the positive effects that I'm feeling, and I'm not even sure I want to know (especially if it's placebo effect).
Obviously I'm not a "success" story at this point, but I'm more motivated than I have ever been in my life, and I feel better than I have in several years. If that is motivation for someone on the fence, great, if not then hopefully as the days go by, I will have more to share that will be motivational for someone. Worst case scenerio is, i've put my goals out there for each of you and know I have expectations of improvement.
Male
Age 30
Weight at start 248
Current 239
Goal 185
Other Goals:
Run a 10, 9, 8, 7 minute mile
Complete a 5k (hopefully by this fall)
Complete a 1/2 marathon (by next fall)
Be forced to replace every article of clothing I have
Go out on the boat without a shirt on.
My father died when he was 50...the night of his death his youngest brother had a heart attack, he was 38. That was 5 years ago, since then two more of his brothers both 50 years old have had bypass surgery. The genes in the family aren't great, but both of my grandparents are still alive at 84 years old. Lifestyle was the biggest problem for all of my uncles.
In January I decided to take out a larger life insurance policy, especially with the lack of longevity on my fathers side, and the fact that we had just bought a new house that neither of us could afford alone. I didn't want to leave my kids with nothing. While taking the physical for the insurance the doctor told me I was about 70 lbs overweight. I thought, you've got to be kidding, I haven't weighed 180 lbs since I was in early high school...his answer, well you've been overweight ever since. I thought, surely he is mistaken, maybe I could stand to lose 20-30...but 70?
When the blood work returned my cholester0l was on the borderline of healthy and high...the doctor explained that over 200 was bad, but close to 200 for a 30 year old was bad as well. So now the doctor is telling me I'm fat and my cholesterol is high
. I noticed one night after putting my son to bed that just carrying him up the stairs I was winded....laying in bed breathing heavily I decided that i wasn't prepared to be like this the rest of my life. The thought of my "best health ever" being 16 years ago as a 14 year old was depressing at best. So I made the decission to change.At first I only cut out non-diet soda....then snack foods. The great thing is that I have NEVER liked snack foods. I would always prefer a chicken breast or fish filet to a pile of cookies or cake, yet if they were around in the mouth they would go! So getting away from sweets was easy (except the soda withdrals). So a month later I noticed that I had lost just a bit of weight, but not much, and I of course i was still every bit as winded as I was that night.
Two and half weeks ago I made a decission that I was going to do something about what kind of shape I was in. I started going to the gym to run on the tread mill. The first day I walked for 2 minutes then decided I would run a nice slow mile, you know nothing to hard.....except .56 into the mile my chest was on fire. My doctor had told me that I was safe to start an exercise routine, but here I was thinking I was having a heart attack. I backed off and in less than 10 minutes I felt fine. The next day I went back and ran 3/4 of a mile, but I was exhausted. At the same time my wife and I went to Sams, bought a case of mahi mahi, chicken and other healthier entrees that we could cook, as well as stocking up on veges (the few I like) and I made her throw out all the junk food from the house (only she and the kids eat them...and she can eat anything she wants but there is no since in starting the little ones on that stuff).
Last week I was determined to make it to the gym at least three times...I made it 4. I ran for 15 minutes each time (a little over a mile) and I walked for at least 15 minutes as well.
This week I made it to the gym Monday, ran a mile and a quarter, did my full 15 minutes of running, and my full 15 of walking. Today i over slept and didn't make it to the gym, but for once in my life I didn't let that stop me. Once my daughter fell a sleep for her mid morning nap I went down and ran on my wifes tread mill (its a little flimsy so i worry my frame will break it) the treadmill held up and I finished my first set of intervals, running a total of 1.25 miles of 30 minutes of intervals.
I've dropped 9 pounds in the last three weeks (from 248 to 239) and though I don't have any expectations of keeping that pace up, i'm tickled to see the scale moving down. My first day of running I was dieing after .25 miles, today I wasn't even breathing out my mouth until almost 1/2 of a mile. With all this running my appetite is through the roof lately, but i've done a pretty good job of not giving in, eating fruits and whole grains. I've not touched a soda in over a month (a few diets though) and my water intake has increased exponentially (I rarely took a sip of water before). I've not found myself out of breath a single time in the last 5-6 days...carrying my son up and down the stairs doesn't get me winded. Yesterday i had to carry buckets of horse feed around the farm for my father in law while he is away, a task that would have killed me a month ago, and I felt fine during and after.
These things might not seem like much, but they are noticable effects after just 3 weeks of working at this. My legs feel great, my feet feel great, I have more patients with the kids and sleep 100 times better at night. Perhaps 90% of this is placebo effect, maybe it's because I'm on more of a schedule during my days off (monday-thursday I'm off), maybe it's the fact that I am eating breakfast for the first time in my life. I'm not sure which is having the positive effects that I'm feeling, and I'm not even sure I want to know (especially if it's placebo effect).
Obviously I'm not a "success" story at this point, but I'm more motivated than I have ever been in my life, and I feel better than I have in several years. If that is motivation for someone on the fence, great, if not then hopefully as the days go by, I will have more to share that will be motivational for someone. Worst case scenerio is, i've put my goals out there for each of you and know I have expectations of improvement.
Male
Age 30
Weight at start 248
Current 239
Goal 185
Other Goals:
Run a 10, 9, 8, 7 minute mile
Complete a 5k (hopefully by this fall)
Complete a 1/2 marathon (by next fall)
Be forced to replace every article of clothing I have
Go out on the boat without a shirt on.
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