Start of my journey

50extra

Hello everyone, my names Jeff and I have finally decided to do something about my health, most importantly about my weight.

I just turned 32 on January 17th and that was pretty much when being fat became too much for me.

A little background

During my school days I was a fairly serious athlete. I have won divisional gold medals from track and field in the overall category and still to this day ~15 years hold a shot-put record at the school I went too. My events back in those days were the 100 meter, 200 meter, 4x100 meter relay, shot-put and discus. I was able to achieve this with zero preparation or training just what I had naturally.

During my later school years I played a ton of hockey, I severely broke my wrist (3 surgeries and 13 months in a cast) and basically turned into a goon after that. Playing hockey was one of the best times of my life and I miss it quite often. I topped out at Midget AA and quit when I got "too cool". Ended picking it up again when I was about 24 y/o but blew my knee out twice and hung up the skates for good.

I was always a big kid in school but never fat. I always carried too much weight but it never seemed to bother me being a competitive athlete. I graduated high school somewhere around 170 pounds.

When college came around I was pretty much in full party mode, at the end of college I would guess I was up to 200. Once I started working is where it really came unglued. At some point around 25 I stepped on a scale and was 248lbs in my gym gear. I really got motivated and started to train for triathlons. I got back down to around 210lbs and did two short sprints and quit. I was training 4 to 5 times a week to maintain this weight. Right around here I broke up with my live-in girlfriend and really started eating right and being much more active. The lowest weight of my adult life was 189 pounds and I felt great!

Then came the office job and family life.

I ended up getting back together with my high school sweatheart who is now my wife and we have a 1 year old (on Jan 28th) daughter. When we were dating it was a ton of eating out and having fun, not so much being healthy. In February 2010 I weighed in at 189 pounds and over the next 6 years have ballooned to 252 pounds at maximum. I only have myself to blame for this but the major contributing factor is that I took an office job in Siberia. Years or fried foods, heavy bread and copious amounts of European beer has got me to where I am today.

Now when I left home two weeks ago I was down to 240-242 depending on the day and have finally come to the realization that if I don't start now, I am not going to be able to lead a healthy happy life with my children.

I have started to use MFP and plan on keeping too it. The goal of chatting about it is to keep me on track.

Goals
As of now my realistic goal is to get to 199 pounds. I don't have a specific date as crash diets in the past never work.

Please help me with this journey I don't know if you can see my food posts or not but you will notice that healthy food is often hard to come by here. The sanctions on Europe from Russia make getting fresh produce difficult much of the time.

I look forward to any comments, criticism, help or suggestion. I would love to be a cheerleader for others as well.

50extra

Thx total, I have one started under motivation, is that the wrong spot? I'm new to this site.

totaldetermination

there isn't really a right or wrong spot .

But it is not the sort of thread that is usually posted under 'motivation'.

50extra

I will move it over in the morning

totaldetermination

I guess it depends on what sort of 'audience' you want.

If you post it in a group (such as the one I linked to), then it will be a smaller group of people reading it. It will probably be the same people reading it regularly, and they will get to know you. You might also read their threads as well, and get to know them. It's a bit more personal.

If it is on one of the main boards (such as the motivation board) then it will be read by much more people but it might be different people reading it each time. If that is what you prefer then it really is fine to leave it on the motivation board .

Shull_rachael

You can do do this!

50extra

Thanks Rachael, I took Totals advice and have moved to this link

community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10323110/50extra-my-weight-loss-journey-with-all-the-embarrassing-details#latest

TamaraKat

Welcome to MFP!!! Just remember that it gets hard but it is so totally worth it! And everyone here is pretty nice and friendly so you will always have people encouraging you to keep going Me included.

Ngegee

Best of luck, there is no secret path to success just keep motivating yourself

50extra

Thanks you two. I really am sick of being fat and thankfully I have never lacked enthusiasm to get things done. I am looking forward to this journey.