Mid life overhaul at 46

helocat

Been on the board now for a few weeks time to introduce myself.

46 male
6'
244lbs start weight (6 weeks ago) Today I am 228.4lbs
GOAL 1: Sub 200lbs
GOAL 2: 190lbs

I decided it's time to work on myself for a change vrs. my business. Father of 3 teen boys that are all very active. Gorgeous fit wife of 18yrs. (She at 46 still looks like she did at 24 when I met her) Family with a history of heart issues, I dont want to experience my father's two heart attacks he had around my age. Just like him at my age, I have a high stress job and sit at a desk almost all day. I am have been working hard to level my stress though the solid staff I now have in my business of 17yrs.

My how:

Food:
I am doing a Ketogenic diet

Exercise:
Cardio on a Peloton trainer bike

Motivation:
Not shaving until I hit my goal. The beard motivator. It's a PITA to take care of, can't wait to cut it. But every look in the mirror I am reminded of my goal. I am also motivated by one of the greatest true heros, Mike Murphy, US Navy Seal and Medal of Honor recipient. (deceased) The SOCOM community talks repeatedly of the human body being able to go well past the point it says its done. I am reminded of this as soon as I am thinking I can't take anymore. I think of what Murphy and others have done and know I have it easy, and push though. So far it's working for me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_P._Murphy

Diet:
I started the diet just under 8 weeks ago. A switch in me just flipped and said "Change". So I did. Read up on Keto and started doing it. It's odd eating all the fat, at first I was going crazy with bacon but quickly discovered there can be too much of a good thing. I found the MFP from watching a great informitive 1hr video on Keto on bodybuilder.com (http://www.bodybuilding.com/content/ask-the-expert-panel-ketogenic-diet.html) They talked about tracking your food with MFP so I signed up righ away. Of course the app is helping considerably.

Ace in the hole: My wife is a Registered Clinical Dietitian and works in the local large teaching hospital with just over 20yrs of being an Clinical RD. Yes all these years she has put up with my poor eating and minimal exercises. She is beautiful and always been fit, runs every other day regardless. Me shaped like a pear. At first she rolled her eyes and gave me crap about starting this diet, since about 3yrs ago I put about 6 months of effort in for weight loss and cross fit then dropped it. (my biz needed me more and time was not there) However now going into week 4 she started to come around a bit. She prepares most of the food for our family and knows exactly what is Keto and what is not. She actualy has been using Ketogenics for the past 5+ yrs clinically for treating coma, alzheimer's, epilepsy patients. But for her mostly coma and has had a high success rate. She clearly understands the diet but her vote is still out for its use for weight loss. (She wants to see more carbs consumed) But she is supporting me now and I think I am her guinea pig in a way. I am 100% fine with that.

Exercise:
Since I used to ride a road bike a bit I liked the idea of spin training. I bought a Peloton bike trainer. Not cheap at $2k and $40 month but gambled I would do it due to the entertainment value and the metrics the bike shares. I am a competitive person so seeing my output in class AND others motivates me. I was correct. Dec. 4th was my first ride, I liked it so much I did a second one the same day. Since then I have 8 rides in each progressing with output. The metrics are outstanding! Seeing my numbers and having the bike log everything right down to my heart rate is amazing. The last three rides I picked someone on the leaderboard (it shows where your Kw output total is and everyone else's and ranks you) and chased after them, pushing myself beyond my comfort spot. Each time I have caught them. The NYC based trainers on the live feeds are outstanding and very motivating. With packs of 120-150+ riders in each class I have managed to stay in #50'ish spot every ride. Last 45min class I burned 660 calories. Not bad for a 46yr old out of shape. (lots of 20 and 30 somethings in the class, with wide varying fitness levels) My other motivation is I am going to do a big supported week long road ride in Sep. 2017 were you average 70-100 miles every day. I have done this ride in the past 2x and it's like Summer camp for adults, so looking forward to it. I am also getting my Mt. Bike tuned up and look forward to getting some MTB rides in when it warms up. In my 20's I used to MTB ride about 4x a week and love it. But Road Biking for me is the most consistent for fitness and makes MTB more fun as I have the cardio in place for it.

Next plan is to go ahead and join a gym. I want to start strength training. Thought about buying some weights for the home but I have never trained properly and do not know the correct forms. Going to just invest into some 1:1 trainer time to learn how to do it correctly. There is a gym near my business and it makes sense to just go there. (Small town gym nothing fancy only drawback in my eyes EVERYONE in town seems to go there. I am not looking for socializing.) Like everyone its going to be just the challenge to carve out the time to go. I plan to schedule gym working out like an offsite meeting in my calendar mid afternoon. I hope that will force me to make this a new habit.

Plan is in place, I am following it. Now to just keep at it.

sbrandt37

Congrats. It sounds like you are off to a great start.

The key to maintaining it is to find things that you can do long-term. That requires small sustainable lifestyle changes, rather than big one-time changes. Keto, not shaving, insane workouts, etc., all sound somewhat less sustainable to me. When you move to maintenance, I encourage you to focus on transitioning to things that you know you can continue to do long-term. Otherwise you will be fighting the same forces that got you up to your starting weight in the first place.

In any case, good luck with it. It sounds like you are on a roll!

helocat

sbrandt37 wrote: »

Congrats. It sounds like you are off to a great start.

The key to maintaining it is to find things that you can do long-term. That requires small sustainable lifestyle changes, rather than big one-time changes. Keto, not shaving, insane workouts, etc., all sound somewhat less sustainable to me. When you move to maintenance, I encourage you to focus on transitioning to things that you know you can continue to do long-term. Otherwise you will be fighting the same forces that got you up to your starting weight in the first place.

In any case, good luck with it. It sounds like you are on a roll!

Great feed back. Yes it's a lot of change, but have gone into it slowly a bit. First started with the diet, then added in the cardio few weeks later. One thing I did not share was once I hit my primary weight goal, I am going to go to a low fat and moderate carb diet with an eye on calorie intake. I do have a long term plan. I have the sub 200 goal set for by the first of April. Main thing I am focusing on is the full rewire of how I look at food and fitness. I am hoping by making these habits, it will become a natural thing for me. Also using the long term cardio goal of a week long supported bike ride, I know for a fact its a ton of fun IF conditioned to make that ride. That is a huge cardio motivator! Besides my road bike weighs sub 19lbs. Its crazy to have such a light bike and 40lbs extra gut weight!