Hey all! I just started posting on these forums. I've been motivated by a lot of the diaries and pictures I've seen here so I decided to share my story as well. This first post will be sort of long, to catch everyone up on my story up until now.
It all started 3 years ago at the end of my summer vacation. I was at my absolute heaviest (315 pounds!) and after watching some of the summer Olympics, I was tired of representing the absolute worst of the US. I guess that might be an odd thought to have, but seeing those athletes competing and representing the absolute best, I guess I realized how far I had fallen.
Once I got back home, I started working out. It was a slow start, but over the next few months I was working out extremely hard. I worked out so much that I had to eat big meals to keep up my energy. This continued through the summer, and my weight loss was around 35 pounds.. During the last month of the summer I tried to give the Atkins diet a try. I lost an additional 20 pounds in the next month. I decided to end the diet, and ended up gaining a bit of it back, but I worked it off in the last few weeks of summer I had before starting college. My net weight loss now was 50 pounds, 265.
College was a disaster for me. I was doing just fine academically and socially, but my workouts were suffering big time. My appetite did not slow down at all though. I continued to devour huge meals at dinner with no way to burn it off. And the final punishing blow came when one weekend my friend was driving me home and we got into an accident. I ended up messing my knee up and had to wear a restrictor on my leg for a few weeks. This meant absolutely no workouts and huge meals. Over the school year I ballooned back up to almost 300 pounds. I was sad, but I was back to it during the summer.
I developed tendonitis in my knees from the accident and it made working out a huge chore. I found new ways to work out that weren't so stressful on my knees and lost 30 pounds back down to 270. I entered my 2nd year of college and found a huge repeat of the first year. I tried to stop my old habits but once again my workouts weren't heavy enough and my meals were too big and I went back up to 296 pounds. That's when it hit me like a big obvious ton of bricks. If you go back to doing what got you fat, you will be fat again; no matter how much weight you lose. I had always thought of weight loss as some sort of temporary diet and exercise program that finally ended and allowed you to return to "normal ways." But now I realize that it's not all about losing weight, it's about leading a healthy life.
The foods I eat aren't temporary, I'll have to stick to this my entire life. Sure eventually I can eat around 2000 calories again, but I have to moderate my food intake and always have some form of exercise.
This summer has been great for me. I've come to terms with how I must live my life, and for once the future looks bright for me. I'm currently the lightest I've been in who knows how many years, weighing in at 264 currently. Over the summer I ran my first 5K, finishing at 32:32 and beating my sister's time by a lot. My sister is about 5'2 115ish, so it was a huge accomplishment for me and it showed just how far I've come. (The first workout I did I tried running and couldn't go 50 feet!) Since then I've been running every day (my new passion!) and I feel great.
I landed an RA job at school and I start my training tomorrow, which will last a week. I'll be keeping up my workouts during this time and will be posting what I eat and how much I work out every day.
Sorry for the very long post, but I want to show that not every path in life is straight, but if you stick to it you WILL see the end one day. My current goal is to get to 240. I don't have a time frame for it really. I would love to get more comments from my family at my sister's wedding (oct. 6th) and I would love to turn heads by christmas time.
I'll leave you with some pictures.
View attachment 4298
Starting weight: 315
View attachment 4299
View attachment 4300
View attachment 4301
View attachment 4302
Current weight: 264
Thanks all! I'll be starting tomorrow by waking up at 7 and going for a nice jog!
It all started 3 years ago at the end of my summer vacation. I was at my absolute heaviest (315 pounds!) and after watching some of the summer Olympics, I was tired of representing the absolute worst of the US. I guess that might be an odd thought to have, but seeing those athletes competing and representing the absolute best, I guess I realized how far I had fallen.
Once I got back home, I started working out. It was a slow start, but over the next few months I was working out extremely hard. I worked out so much that I had to eat big meals to keep up my energy. This continued through the summer, and my weight loss was around 35 pounds.. During the last month of the summer I tried to give the Atkins diet a try. I lost an additional 20 pounds in the next month. I decided to end the diet, and ended up gaining a bit of it back, but I worked it off in the last few weeks of summer I had before starting college. My net weight loss now was 50 pounds, 265.
College was a disaster for me. I was doing just fine academically and socially, but my workouts were suffering big time. My appetite did not slow down at all though. I continued to devour huge meals at dinner with no way to burn it off. And the final punishing blow came when one weekend my friend was driving me home and we got into an accident. I ended up messing my knee up and had to wear a restrictor on my leg for a few weeks. This meant absolutely no workouts and huge meals. Over the school year I ballooned back up to almost 300 pounds. I was sad, but I was back to it during the summer.
I developed tendonitis in my knees from the accident and it made working out a huge chore. I found new ways to work out that weren't so stressful on my knees and lost 30 pounds back down to 270. I entered my 2nd year of college and found a huge repeat of the first year. I tried to stop my old habits but once again my workouts weren't heavy enough and my meals were too big and I went back up to 296 pounds. That's when it hit me like a big obvious ton of bricks. If you go back to doing what got you fat, you will be fat again; no matter how much weight you lose. I had always thought of weight loss as some sort of temporary diet and exercise program that finally ended and allowed you to return to "normal ways." But now I realize that it's not all about losing weight, it's about leading a healthy life.
The foods I eat aren't temporary, I'll have to stick to this my entire life. Sure eventually I can eat around 2000 calories again, but I have to moderate my food intake and always have some form of exercise.
This summer has been great for me. I've come to terms with how I must live my life, and for once the future looks bright for me. I'm currently the lightest I've been in who knows how many years, weighing in at 264 currently. Over the summer I ran my first 5K, finishing at 32:32 and beating my sister's time by a lot. My sister is about 5'2 115ish, so it was a huge accomplishment for me and it showed just how far I've come. (The first workout I did I tried running and couldn't go 50 feet!) Since then I've been running every day (my new passion!) and I feel great.
I landed an RA job at school and I start my training tomorrow, which will last a week. I'll be keeping up my workouts during this time and will be posting what I eat and how much I work out every day.
Sorry for the very long post, but I want to show that not every path in life is straight, but if you stick to it you WILL see the end one day. My current goal is to get to 240. I don't have a time frame for it really. I would love to get more comments from my family at my sister's wedding (oct. 6th) and I would love to turn heads by christmas time.
I'll leave you with some pictures.
View attachment 4298
Starting weight: 315
View attachment 4299
View attachment 4300
View attachment 4301
View attachment 4302
Current weight: 264
Thanks all! I'll be starting tomorrow by waking up at 7 and going for a nice jog!
