Day one of my 100 pound journey.

rabernathy2012

Well, its not actually day 1. More like day 4 but its taken 4 days to get my body adjusted to a new way of eating. Its taken me some courage to finally admit to myself that I am no longer that primed college athlete or the active young 28 year old that jogged 5-7 miles per day. Im obese. Severly obese. There was a time where 250 pounds was unspeakable. Early this week i was tipping the scale at 315 pounds. Its embarassing. Its humiliating and it has affected nearly all parts of my life.

Every effort the past several years to curb this has only been met with set backs. Ive gone on numerous diets. Nothing has worked for any length of time. Atkins, low calorie, paleo...

Exercising, I have sadly discovered, is nearly impossible to undertake at age 44 and at 314 pounds. But Im diving in. This time is different.

Ive made up my mind. I love my family. I love my kids. I love where I am in life, and to shorten this because I'm to lazy and fat to do anything about it is inexcusable. I want to be attractive to my wife. I want to have confidence again. I want to sit in a roller coaster with my kids. Im tired of being the largest person in any room. I want to look in the mirror and not feel disgusted with myself. I want my kids to be proud. I want to live to see grandchildren.

Today is Day one. I may come back and update this every so often, and I may never read this again. But if you see me a year from now. Ask me if Im 100 pounds lighter and back in shape. IF im not. Then share your dissapointment to me. Show me this post. remind me that I have everything to lose and nothing to gain by being an obese, lazy, unattractive slob.

100 pounds. One year. 215 pounds. Thats my goal. Somebody help me.

pinuplove

44 is definitely not too old to undertake exercising! Some of the fittest guys here are 50+ and got there at your age or older. Hopefully they'll chime in

You've listed all the right reasons for doing this. No reason you can't follow through. As far as your one year timeline, that may or may not happen (think lifelong change here!) But you can definitely be much improved

kelly_stevens81

I am on day 256 of my 100 lb weight loss journey. Just switched over to maintenance. Good luck!

RaleighCaldwell

Rabernathy2012, my Dr for years told me to lose weight, so one visit I asked him HOW I should go about it. He simply said; "when you decide you're ready to lose weight, you will".

That decision came to me in May of 2017 when I saw a picture of myself at 356#. Yes, I saw myself in a mirror each day, but the day I saw that pic I knew it was time.

I experimented with many different ways of eating until I found one I could work well with, so on August 1st of 2017 I started my journey. Today, I am officially 80 pounds down, have lost over 4" in my waist line, and my muscles are starting to show again since I've begun hitting the weights and doing cardio.

If I can do this, you can as well my friend!!! But, you have to decide you're ready and then make a plan. Set yourself a set of goals... An end goal is good to have, but don't focus on it, focus on the next 5 pounds or the next inch in the waist...

You can do this, let me know if I can help!

concordancia

For exercise, just ramp up carefully. You need to push yourself, but not injure yourself. I have a bad back and usually end up overdoing it, spend a week resting, usually go back to McDonald's for food because it hurts to stand in front of the stove, then I am out of the habit, and a few month later I go through it all again.

This time, I am moving more slowly towards my fitness goals. I watched how many steps I was getting for a couple of days and added 1000 to get my goal. Then, I worked on getting those steps faster. Finally, I added in another 1000. Once I get to 10k with this strategy, I will start adding strength training.

88olds

I could have written that. Well, I was 285 lbs, and never an athlete. I did run a couple of miles regularly once upon a time though. And I was 44 with 2 little kids at home. I was going to fat myself to death. I was going to leave 2 little kids with no dad because I wouldn’t shut my pie hole.

But I didn’t. This morning I weighed 172 lbs. I’m 67 now. And I’ll proudly point out that I used to run my kids ragged in Orlando. What you’re doing, can be done.

I want to urge you to do two things.

Start a food diary. Make it the center of your efforts. People mistakenly think weight loss is about the most rigidly enforced austerity program. It’s not. Lasting weight loss is about mindful eating, limits and choices. The key to controlling the process is tracking your intake. Sure, it’s a pain. Especially at first. But tracking will see you through the rough spots. Track every day, good, bad and ugly. The process is more important than the numbers.

Then there’s the time factor. You might want to rethink the year time frame. I know MFP spits out that you’ll be at X lbs by Y date. I hate that. Time driven weight loss is a way to turn success, losses, into failure, not on time. What if you only lose 60 lbs in a year? Disaster? I’d say not. But read this board every day and you’ll see lots of people wrecked by the time factor. You will get to goal when you get there.

Learn to live in a way that facilitates a healthy weight. Get the scale moving on a downward trend and ride the trend. Make modest adjustments as needed. Good luck.

klmurphy2255

Good for you for tacking back control. It is so hard to do. Something you said struck me... "I'm tired of being the largest person in the room." Amen to that!!! I hate that i always feel everyone is looking at me and not for any good reasons. I wish you much success and cross my fingers for myself because I, too, am on a 100 lbs journey.

falconeer37

I believe in you. It’s going to hard and you’re going to be tempted to give in, but you’re strong enough not to. One day at a time!

thelifeilove1

A many times loser and re-gainer, my advice is to make changes you can live with and use caution not to make such drastic changes you burn out. Log every bite, the good and the bad, you're doing it for your observation, not what others on here think about you. I'm around 8 months into my latest go round, and have made a choice to make small changes that result in a slow, but much more tolerable, plan of attack. Good luck to you whatever method you try.

nmcrowley

48 years old and still kicking it. It’s tough though and gains are lost quickly. Hit me up for any advice or insights.

melissa6771

You can do this, one day at a time. Put the weight loss into smaller chunks to make it seem not as overwhelming. I've lost 86 right now, in 6 more pounds it will be 100 from my highest weight. I want to lose 8-13 more then into recomp for me. 3 more will put me at my original goal, 8 will put me at ultimate goal, 13 will put me at a surgeons goal to have some surgery done. Feel free to friend me. My diary is open, I work out almost every day if not every day. I find having friends on here very motivational. More so than the forums. Together we can all do it.

SephiraAllen

April 14 of last year I weighed 390 pounds, today, I'm at 274. I'm also 44 and though I'm not a huge exercise fan, I'm currently doing a challenge thingy at my gym so I've been going 2-3 times a week. It's definitely not been easy, but it's totally doable. Look into doing TRX if your gym has it. It's not super intensive (I mean, it can be, but they can modify it easily as well).

In the beginning though, don't worry so much about working out. If you can add some extra walking into your day, that is fine, but if you can't exercise at all to begin with, don't feel like you have to. When I was first starting, I couldn't do a lot of stuff, though I did swim laps for a couple months (was the only thing that didn't darn near kill me). But other than that, I didn't exercise at all (other than whatever walking I was doing during the day). I lost 100 pounds within about 9 months just sticking to my calorie goal.

Don't stress if you have an off day. Just get back to it the next day. If you are craving something, find a way (as much as possible) to work it into your calorie goal for that day, or save it for a "cheat day." Just don't have too many of those, especially when you are first starting out.

As others have said - make sure you log everything (even on the bad days) and just take each day as it comes. Stick to goals that don't make you totally miserable. Better to lose a little slower than overwhelmed and quit.

You can do this!!

sschauer513

I was there too 400+ and got tired of all the pills keeping me alive so I changed 16 months down 120+ still have more to go but love being able to shop at regular stores, not be winded and crush it at the gym. You have the why part down to lose weight now you just need the how part. Find the lifestyle you can sustain the weight will come off.

rabernathy2012

You guys are all so encouraging. I didn’t know how much I just needed to hear some of your own experiences. I’m still trucking along! Logging every morsel. How do I share it publicly?

Hungry_Shopgirl

rabernathy2012 wrote: »

You guys are all so encouraging. I didn’t know how much I just needed to hear some of your own experiences. I’m still trucking along! Logging every morsel. How do I share it publicly?

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/201687-how-do-i-make-my-diary-visible-to-other-users-

Step by step on how to open diary.

lorrpb

I started working out at 59 and 301 and now at 62 and 155 am in the best shape of my life and maintaining normal weight for 1.5 years . Good places to start are walking, water fitness if that's available to you, and strength training. Start where you are and progress each day. When I started I could barely make it 1/4 mile and now I can easily walk 10 miles without rest. Follow the MFP instructions for setting up your calories, get a food scale, and start logging. Read success stories forum, lots of good stuff on there,

PS Print out your first post and stick it on your fridge or computer.

jacesmom4930

You’re not alone! I don’t want to speak for anyone else but I can relate to how you feel and I suspect most of us on MFP have felt the sting of
Disappointment in ourselves as well.

Keep logging in and reaching out for support! It makes all the difference in the world!

Feel free to friend me. I’m also a part of the 40’s motivational group and they’re AWESOME! Super supportive bunch of daily loggers who have lots of laughs.

mdouhan

I am in the exact situation as you are but need to loose 200 lbs so let’s stick together, motivating each other is the best way to stay on track I am on day 7 of a looong journey

miz_ppyn

im on day 10 i found it really hard for the first 4 days suffered with migraines and no energy. but day after day its slowly getting easier. good luck on your journey. and keep us updated

Sherri_VA

You've got this!

SaraMakingChanges

Hey there, I sent you a friend request. I’m on a similar journey but started with a lot more to lose and I’m on day 280ish... 75 lbs down still over 100 to go. Hope we can connect. All the best to you on your journey!