Health & Fitness • Page 78

It’s amazing how much you can learn about yourself in three days

 

Changing how I eat is so much harder than getting myself to the gym. Salty snacks are so hard to resist for me.

 

I should not have gone to Red Robin tonight

 

I get ya! I've tried to break it down to smaller changes and building from there which seems to be working for me. Rather than going cold turkey or big changes. I've cut out coke etc and drinking more water at work.

 

Yeah it's mostly when I watch a movie or show I feel like I need to have a snack so I might try to switch to just something healthier as I know if I try to just have a little of something it's not going to work lol. I've gone from buying out lunch at work to bringing something healthier everyday which I'm pretty happy with. Also it saves money which is good. We'll see I feel like everything is just habitual so if I can do it for a while hopefully it will be easier.

 

So when I graduated college, I was 22 years old and 5-11/roughly 265 lbs. I was definitely not skinny, but I didn’t feel incredibly overweight. I played basketball multiple times per week, walked around campus, participated in intramural sports, etc. So even though I was chubby, I felt good cause I didn’t treat my body like shit.

Fast forward six years later, I weighed 365 lbs. and between mounting stress at work and a diet that was more convenience than smart, I felt absolutely horrible. The last year or so has been a drain on me mentally too because I look at old pictures of myself and I didn’t realize how over a span of six years I gained over 100 lbs.

Over the last month I’ve really told myself I’ve had enough. I wanna feel like I used to. So I went to the doctor and got some advice based on my body type and health, and I just started a very simple low-fat, low-carb diet to ease into it.

I basically cut out soda and sugary drinks (I was a soda per day type person), started adding more veggies to my diet, substituted some chicken and turkey in where I would normally eat fatty meat, limited myself to one or two days of bread per week (I’m italian, I can’t go cold turkey on pasta and bread totally) and stopped ordering food out.

In four weeks, I’m down to 338 lbs. and most importantly, I feel so much better. No more bloating from the gassy/sugary soda, no more late-night cravings, and no more feeling sick after eating. Our bodies are absolutely incredible. This small change didn’t even involve working out or exercising. I work in an environment where I’m on my feet so I naturally burn 1000-1200 calories per day from just walking at work anyway. But just a small diet change without anything drastic and I’m already seeing results.

Just wanted to share my story because the last two months were really killing me from a mental and emotional standpoint for the first time in my life. I’m the positive, optimistic one in my family and friends, and too many people started noticing a change in me. I knew I had to do something. I know it’ll get tougher from here after the initial weight loss, but it’s a marathon not a sprint.

 

Congratulations! Cutting out pop and fast food/take out is literally half the battle in my opinion. Keep it up!

 

Anyone interested in some of the exercise supersets my personal trainer has been having me do on days we don’t meet up? Figure they might be good additions to anyone’s routine

 

Since the start of the year I’ve been doing intermittent fasting (16:8). I’ve been very strict about eating dinner before 7pm then being done with food for the day. I’ve also cut out sweets/desserts entirely.

I weighed myself today and I’ve lost 9 pounds

 

Two weeks now of pretty much no beer and very minimal carbs and sugar. I’m not going cold turkey cause, honestly, I don’t think I could handle it. But I am refraining from most cravings. The other night I wanted to eat a pizza more than anything and it honestly took all of my willpower to refrain.

Also, really gonna try to not use school as an excuse to stop going to the gym this semester. Even if it’s just 3 days a week. I think I’ve lost like 5lbs? But I’m definitely the heaviest I’ve ever been.

 

I lost 16 pounds training for a marathon over the summer, but I continued to eat like I was still training both before and throughout the holidays and gained 17 back. I am putting myself to task now and limiting carbs and how much I put in my body everyday while sometimes doing 2 gym sessions a day.

 

I had my annual physical/wellness check-up earlier this week and got some bloodwork done as part of it. Since my last check up in November of 2017, my cholesterol has elevated and is now considered 'borderline high' which kind of comes as a shock to me because I'm not even close to overweight, I exercise daily and for the most part I try to eat healthy (I eat a lot of grilled chicken and salmon). I do drink a ton of coffee with cream and sugar every day (although have for 10+ years and it never spiked my cholesterol). I also still eat a lot of lunch meat which I know isn't good for me, but again, have been doing that for a long, long time and it's never spiked my cholesterol.

Her overall sentiment was that my bloodwork was 'fine' but wanted to see me work to eat a low cholesterol diet with lean protein, fruits and veggies. Anyone got any good meal tips for the Mediterranean Diet, which is what my doctor suggests I try and stick to? Or any other food/drinks to definitely avoid?

 

I would try hard to cut out sugar from your diet as much as possible. More and more it’s being linked to cholesterol issues.

 

Other than coffee, I really don't have much sugar intake. I don't really ever eat candy and/or chocolate. I used to eat ice cream a lot, but I haven't had ice cream in months.

 

Trying to keep momentum isn’t fun

 

I've been going to the gym on my lunch break. My workouts aren't as long as they used to be, but at least I'm going again. I'm just not a morning person and im so exhausted after work and often get off work late, so lunch break it is. Last week I went zero times and this week I've been twice so it's already getting better. Weather sucks tho. My gym is on a large steep hill so that has made things difficult with the snow and ice.

 

As I always say, Lunch Break Gym is the best gym time!

 

So, since my doctor's appointment, i've tried to go all in on a new diet including fruits and veggies (which I really never focused on) and eating more chicken and salmon and have completely eliminated lunch meats and haven't had red meat since either. I've also eliminated any type of candy, cookies and afternoon coffee (used to drink anywhere from 16-32 ounces every afternoon).

In just two weeks, I've lost about 5 pounds. That said, I'm not trying to lose weight as my weight has never been an issue. Just trying to improve cholesterol, which I guess I can't even tell if I'm doing that unless I take another blood test?

 

So I've been going real hard at the gym lately and it's finally starting to show. I've always had a really hard time putting weight on, but I'm finally getting able to hold mass. Everyone gets pissed at me when I complain about being skinny but seriously look at the picture on the right.....my arm was so thin a feather could have snapped it in two!

 

I’m a fellow hardgainer. I’ve been able to put on some muscle but still working at it. Any tips from your experience?

 

It's not to appetizing to most, but I've been eating a SHITLOAD of oatmeal. A huge bowl at breakfast and then I'll put a cup of raw oats in my protein shakes. Helped a ton with putting on the pounds.

 

Just dropping in because I felt the need to talk to people about what i’m in the middle of.

I’m almost 25 and have never been anything besides a range of slightly to severely overweight. For the most part I have done alright to succeed socially to a relative extent in spite of my weight.

Despite this, I have been hampered with all of the difficulties associated with leading an unhealthy lifestyle. I just wanted to say that i’m a couple of months into a new bigger picture lifestyle approach and diet, and my absolute confidence in changing my life is the first time i’ve ever felt anything besides a cautious optimism in this regard before.

For years i’ve never felt ready or comfortable to fully live my life to it’s fullest potential, never felt accepted or appreciated or valued by anyone as anything besides a sort of background or periphery character. Clearly signs of debilitating self image issues that so many struggle with.

Anyways, just wanted to share this while i’m still early on in a full way of life upheaval, that I am 20 pounds down and getting very close to being under 300 for the first time since high school. Not that number watching is the end game here, but a clear depiction of the change you’re making within yourself will always hold a little bit of value.

Lastly, I was considering documenting my physical transformation as well as the general bits and pieces of how my life is changing, so I may or may not be linking some instagram pictures to the post your picture thread on here.

Sorry if this is unorganized word vomit, my brain is going a mile a minute tonight and I felt like doing some sharing.

 

Awesome stuff. Keep up the great work!

 

Broke my toe doing jiu jitsu and after six weeks I'll finally be getting back into the gym. Anyway, always listen to your body, but don't take your preferred method of exercise for granted, because I'm losing it over here haha.

 

Switched to keto for the cut phase of my gym challenge and it’s not been nearly as difficult as I thought.

It’s mostly just kinda boring.