250lb 30yo male diary.

Well, I never made it to the gym today, but I did hang 20' of shelving (closets and utility room) I built two bar stools, and a shoe rack, all the while trying to keep a 1 year old and a 4 year old occupied (I bet I went up and down the stairs 35 times each way). The end result is I'm sweating harder than I would have if I had run 2 miles, and I've been going at this for about 3 hours. A month ago I would have been winded after hanging 5-10' of the shelving and called it a day. Instead I finished every project I had in that part of the house, and I think I'll go hang the towel holders and TP dispensers in the bathroom (sucks building anew house and moving in before everything is 100% done). Nice to have energy again, and Tom your right seeing that scale move south only makes it easier for me (mentally) to do all the housework i've been doing lately.

All this and I still plan to run at least 10-15 minutes tonight.

BTW, thanks 2/3 and M2M for your kind words and support!
 
Wel, it's 5:30 am, which means I woke up early enough to go to the gym...right now I'm waiting for my shorts to dry so I thought I make a quick post (I know what your thinking, Dave you haven't made a QUICK post yet?). Today the scale says 237. That's up 1 lb from yesterday but strangly satisfying. It's almost like I keep expecting to step on the scale and have it say 245. I didn't run yesterday but I figured the hours of working on the house paid for itself in calories. After today I'm going to sit down and work out my exercise schedule a little better. I'm just exercising off the cuff, and doing whatever feel like it works, but after today I'm going to have an actual schedule including resistance and HIIT. My goal is to be able to run in a few distance races, but I'll never stay at it long enough if all I'm doing it running. Already I have found that it is really easy for me to go run every other day, however with my schedule that would mean I only get to run 2 times a week. So I'm going to try to work something out where I run, then do hiit then run then lift and maybe rotate that order each week (week being Monday-Thursday).

Well, thats about all here for now. Wish everybody well and keep on losing.
 
Just got back from the gym and decided to get back into my "beginners" schedule. I was slated to walk:run of 2:7 X 3. I went ahead and did that, and it was the easiest run for me so far. I ran the first two sets of seven and felt absolutely great after both I was sweating but not out of breath. During the third set I ran 8 minutes just because I felt so good still (plus there was a good song on!).

So, thats 22 minutes of running if my math is correct. 4 minutes longeruitive. than monday (though monday was non-stop). Two weeks ago I ran 3:5 and it almost killed me. I'm actually looking forward to next week, and eventaully getting up to 30 minutes of running in a single work out, and 20 minutes of non-stop running.
 
milk jugs idea is good, but I'm lazy so I just go to the grocery store and pick up sacks of rice or flour and carry them around...lol. Of course, I'm down 45 lbs and I have a 45 lbs 5 year old so I like to carry him around every once in a while and think, hey, I used to be that much fatter. Keep up the good work and I know how you feel about the house, I'm still putting mine together slowley but surly after 4 years of living in it.
 
well its been a couple weeks since I updated, but I'm still "on the wagon". I had a bit of an indulgence a weekend ago, as I had family and friends in from out of town and we BBQ'd and drank every night they where here, plus my work schedule coupled with my vacation meant I only worked 3 days in 4 weeks. So needless to say I'm tickled to death to be at the same weight I was two weeks ago.

So, the eating could have been better, however I'm still running. Monday I ran my first mile UNDER 10 minutes since high school (12 years ago). I was excited to get it, but I was dieing so bad by the end of it it was almost felt like a loss instead of a win. Either way I can at least say that cardio/respiratory that I'm probably in better shape than I have been for 6-7 years. The 10 minute mile time will drop as I drop weight (I gotta believe hauling an extra 40-50 lbs around would make a HUGE difference. Thinking about carrying a 50 lb bag of dog food while running a mile is absolutely unthinkable, yet thats basically what I'm doing right now (and boy do i feel it)

I took today off from running, because I had some soreness in one of my ankles last night and this morning...I've done alot of damage to both my ankles in the past, including cartlidge and ligament damage, so I decided to take it easy. It feels 100% right now, so I will either run this evening or just take it easy and hit it again tomorrow. Either way I don't think i'm going to try to keep doing 10 minute mile pace right away, I'll go back to the 5-5.5mph pace and try to keep upping my minues (I was running 3 sets of 8 minute runs at 5 mph and that fell pretty good, and I felt at the end of the 30+ minutes that I had accomplished something). I'll probably try to get up to the point that I can run 3 sets of 10 minutes (at the 5mph) then I'll slowly start upping the speed that I am running them until eventually it is 3 10 minute miles.

Last week I did my first weight training since going back to the gym. Nothing major, dumbels and upper body mainly, but I have a routine to use this week so that should get more consistent.
 
Dave,

I have very much enjoyed reading your diary(so far). I am 27, and can relate to the "glory days" of high school. I also know what its like to have a wife that can eat whatever she wants with little exercise and maintain 110 lbs. Lucky girl. Me not so much. I really like your milk jug idea. I am just getting started on my journey to become healthy and trim, and will be checking back to your diary for motivation. Keep up the great work man!!!

Darren
 
Well, it's been 2 years. I'd love to be able to say that while I quit posting to the forum, I maintained my weight loss and got down to 185lbs......

I'd love to be able to say that, I can't, but I'd love to.

What I did do was gain back all the weight that I had lost, and then some. 3 months ago I could have retitled this thread 255lb 32yo male diary. Last year I had quite a bit of chest pain, since I have bad acid reflux I never know if it's the AR or something serious. Finally my doctor convinced me (and the insurance company) that it wasn't out of the question for a 32 year old to have a nuclear stress test (given my family history of young heart failures).

The result? I failed. At least the doctors thought I did. The tread mill part was no problem, but on the scan there appeared to be a part of my heart that was receiving no blood at all. The doctor immediately scheduled me for a cardiac cauterization, but I had to wait 2 days for it. That gave me 48 long hours of thinking about what happens next. Heart stints? Bypass? 32 years old and it's already this bad, whats going to happen when I'm 42....I'll already have the heart of a 70 year old man!? Needless to say I was pretty stressed out.

Two days and 10,000 dollars later I had the catheterize and all was fine. The nuclear stress test was declared a false positive (I later found out that this isn't that uncommon) and the cauterization showed no narrowing or blockages.

So, it was a bit of a wake-up call. My doctor reminded me, that even though my heart is in "great shape" my body wasn't, and that the nightmare I just "thought" I was about to live through would be inevitable in the next 10 years if I didn't change my lifestyle.

I did start a new job that keeps me on my feet and moving 10 hours a day. As opposed to sitting behind a desk for 12. This has led to a huge reduction in my blood pressure and a much lower stress level.

On to the weight loss. I've lost 11 lbs in the last two months (plus a few days) since making a commitment to change. It's not nearly as dramatic as my weight loss two years ago, but I think it is sustainable.

Currently I weigh 234 and I've been losing ~2 lbs a week for the last 10 weeks or so. I have a goal to be down to 225 by July 4th, which is doable at my current pace. 30# is a 12% reduction in my overall weight and something I can be pretty proud of, though it's only 1/2 of what I need to lose. I have weekly goals (2 lbs a week) monthly goals mid term goals (225 by July 4th) and long term (195 by Christmas).

I don't know if I would call this a success story, since I've been at this point before (almost 2 years ago exactly)....time will tell.
 
Back
Top