On my struggle with transitions and lessons learned

shaunshaikh

Back in December 2010, I began trying to lose weight with the help of MyFitnessPal. My wedding was going to be in about 7 months and I wanted to be the best version of myself for it.

Before then, exercising and diet (or lack thereof) was primarily the result of competing in sports. I was an elite wrestler in high school (which contributed to my relationship with weight loss and food, no doubt). In college, I did not compete at the highest levels, but I was always active in various intramural sports. I exercised because I wanted to perform better and I had plenty of free time to do so.

However, my transition to working full time upended my routines. It was harder to get into sports and took more effort. The eating habits that I had which were fine when I was in college were now all of a sudden putting weight on me at an alarming rate. I was eating out a lot at work, which was good to make relationships, but hard on my waist line. In high school, I was in the mid-to-high signle digit body fat range weight in 150-165 at any time. In college, I was more like 160-180. All of a sudden, 3 years after graduation I was 200, a weight I never thought I would be.

MyFitnessPal did a great job educating me on portion sizes, and I was deeply engaged in the community here and all the resources available online to help tweak and improve my diet and exercise routines. By my wedding in June, I was in the low 170's, 14% body fat, and had a great exercise and diet routine where I stopped paying attention to weight and focused more on my physical fitness. I was confident I could maintain this forever.

However, I enrolled in an MBA program while I was working, because it was something I wanted to do before I had kids. During that MBA program, my wife got pregnant. I also got a promotion at work in sales, which meant a lot more stress/pressure and travelling/eating-out. As you can see in the graph above, I gained 50 pounds during the time I did my MBA. I was struggling to sleep, much less exercise. Time was so strained, I felt like it was impossible to simultaneously be a good employee, student, husband, and father, so I made cuts to almost every area -- friends, hobbies, and unfortunately diet and exercise.

Upon finishing, there were multiple fits and starts of trying to get back on a new routine. However, nothing I did was sustainable. I used my kids as an excuse way too much. Oh, I work too much so any free time I have I need to spend with my kids. After they went to bed, my excuse was I'm too tired to exercise. It's too hard to eat healthy when you have to feed kids food they'll actually eat. I'd selfishly blame my wife for making food that was easy rather than healthy for dinner. I'm not a morning person, so I can't get up enough.

After all that excuse making, I have to say that the reason I was able to turn things around again was the inspiration of my peers. People like me, working, with kids, making huge improvements. People at work, people from high school, etc. Just people sharing their progress made me realize it was possible.

So I started with tracking on MFP. Then making the necessary habit changes to make my health sustainable. By this time, I KNEW what needed to be done to lose weight from all my previous research, it was just finding the motivation to actually do it. The hardest thing for me to overcome was getting into an exercise routine. And it's not because I was lazy, it was because I was embarrassed. I've never been out of shape like this in my life. I've been an athlete my whole life. Now I get gassed walking up stairs. But, because of inspiration of others, I realized it was time to stop focusing on what the exercise was or looked like, and focus on just getting it done in a way that worked around my work and family life. And I was so happy to find out that it made me feel great and gave me energy to live my life in a more effective way in all areas.

I'm nearly 2 months in on my way back, which is just barely the beginning. I've lost 15+ pounds (I haven't weighed myself in a week in a half because of Hurricane Harvey taking electricity from my house, so it could be more). The best thing I can say is that I feel very comfortable with my diet and exercise regimen -- it feels sustainable, it's something I look forward to.

I share this not just to share my story, but to also commiserate with anybody else who's gone through what I have. I know I'm not alone, and I'd be so happy to be friends anyone who wants to fight this fight with me and encourage each other.

I also want to emphasize the importance of sharing what great stuff you've accomplished, you never know who you're going to inspire. I can't thank the people who inspired me enough -- it is probably adding years to my life. Thank you to all the people here who have done so much great progress and reached your goals, small and large. You're proof it can be done.

joinn68

Sorry about Harvey. Hope it gets better soon.

I totally emphasize with you. One of the reasons I decided not to travel anymore and not to have very stressful jobs is because I realized I couldn't handle those "transitions". Though times and difficult to maintain a routine on the road. Welcome back to MFP and good luck!