39/M/35% BF. Stakes higher this time around, looking for others on similar journeys.

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Sh0shin
Sh0shin Posts: 4 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hello friends, looking for camaraderie and accountability as I try to enter my 40's (6 months away) a healthy, athletic person. I grew up lazy and with no food education. Lost 60 lbs in my 20's with the help of a trainer and nutritionist, kept most of it off for a long while with the discovery that I actually like biking and hiking and martial arts... then found more excuses to eat poorly and exercise less as I got older. I've been wearing the same three or four outfits for two years because I'm too ashamed or prideful or something to try on and purchase items marked XXL.

A few weeks ago I injured my back badly just pouring out a bucket of water and it was a wake-up call. I'm now at a fitness level where I can't count on my body to perform whatever I ask it to, and that needs to change. I'm looking forward to looking better, and that does matter to me as I start a new client-facing business, but more than anything it's time to get and stay healthy so I can enjoy my life for as long as possible, with complete autonomy (in a literal sense, I guess).

I'm at a naturally high risk for heart disease and some other obesity-related ailments, and knew a heavy guy who dropped dead at 39 from a surprise heart attack. It's time to start acting my age- making positive choices and permanent changes.

I guess I should disclaim that I'm vegan, but not a jerk about it. Just a personal choice.

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  • buttoai20
    buttoai20 Posts: 1 Member
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    Hey!

    First of all, good on you for being a vegan. I wish I could do that. Also, I am a lot like you in a way. I'm twenty years old and trying to lose 55 pounds. I hope I can do it, but I don't know. I find weight loss extremely overwhelming. I think that's why I've only ever lost about ten pounds before I just started gaining it again. There was one time, my freshman year of college where I lost the 55 pounds (I go to a military institute and our whole first year we experience "military initiation"), but the weight loss wasn't healthy so it didn't stick. I was just so stressed out all the time and it made me too sick to my stomach to eat much.

    I really need to lose this weight the right way. Not only to prove to myself that I can have a healthy relationship with food, but also to keep it off. I'm so afraid that one day I'll wake up when I'm old and gray and realize that I've never loved or appreciated my body. I'm going to France to study for a semester in the spring and I'm trying to use that as a bit of extra motivation, but what I really want is to just be happy with the way I look and finally feel like I'm not wasting the prime time of my life.
  • Sh0shin
    Sh0shin Posts: 4 Member
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    Good insight. I've lost weight in plenty of unhealthy ways (including crash diets, intense overtraining, and sketchy drugs from sketchier doctors) and always regretted it. I think sometimes those kinds of diets are more about punishing yourself for past failure than working towards a positive goal.

    I really like the MFP approach, though I'm a little less hardline than a lot of people here. At this moment I'm mostly trying to identify foods that are both satisfying and filling, and to draw smarter connections between what I eat, how I spend my day, and how I feel.

    Enjoy France! I spent a semester abroad years ago and came home the happiest and healthiest of my life. There's a lot of interesting writing about French attitudes towards food and lifestyle in general, which basically boil down to quality over quantity.

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