There But Not Finished!!!!
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pg3ibew
Posts: 1,026 Member
Hi, my name is Pete.
Let me give you a brief history about myself before I tell you about my lifestyle change. I got married 22 years ago at 170 pounds. Had 3 kids, started to get content(LAZY). Slowly worked my way up to 280 pounds about 10 years ago. Dieted and got down to 220. Got LAZY again and worked my way back to 250 pounds right around Christmas 2011. As I prepared to go to an affair two weeks prior to Christmas, I fought with all of my clothes to find something that fit right. Could NOT find a thing. Right then and there, I decided I needed to lose weight, get in shape and stop making excuses. I was on blood pressure medicine, cholestoral medicine and my doctor was telling me I had type 2 diabetes and wanted to put me on medication for that as well. Up until this time, I never had any of these issues.
I woke up the next morning and started my lifestyle change. I weighed myself and saw the 250 pounds staring at me and I was ****ING pissed. I mean REAL ****ING pissed. I threw out all of my medication(probably should not have, but did anyway) and refused to go back to the doctor because she wanted me to take medication and I am not a fan of pills. In my mind, pills like these are for weak people who don’t want to get in shape and lose weight.
I spoke with my Lovely wife(RACKIE515 is her MFP name. Friend her if you like. She is gorgeous.), she agreed that she needed to lose a few pounds as well and we would start this journey together. I never set a goal weight.
We started with slow changes. Brown rice, wheat bread, more salads, grilling chicken, things like that. We decided that we will continue to eat everything we always ate, just cut back and make small changes. And went back to the gym, full time, for real. We determined that the gym would be a MUST if we were going to change our lifestyle.
I said I would not get on a scale until I felt comfortable again. 2 weeks later on Christmas Eve, the same clothes that I was cursing at, were fitting nicely. I knew I had accomplished a little. I was happy. We go to my sister’s for a massive dinner of all you can eat style dinner that Italians are very proud of. I do all of the cooking at her house with my dad. Dad is very surprised that I am not picking at everything I am cooking(cause I usually eat as I cook). I make it through dinner eating a little bit of everything, even dessert. I am very proud of myself. Christmas Day was the same thing at Lisa’s(my lovely wife) Dad’s house. We go to a New Year’s party at a friends house and I do the same thing, eat everything, but in moderation. Very proud of myself again.
On January 7 of 2012, I am looking for a website to track my calories. My son hears me and says to try MYFITNESSPAL. Lisa laughs and says I don’t need it. I look it up on the computer and make a screen name and immediately start logging. At this point, I weighed myself and was 245. I lost 5 pounds in that 3 weeks before starting MFP. Not bad. Lisa is still insisting I don’t need MFP. I persist and start logging. Totally lost, but determined to figure it out. I log my age, height, weight and all the other good stuff. At this point, I tell Lisa that I will not eat anything unless it is weighed and/or measured. She looks at me strangely, like, I ain’t doing all that work. I tell her that everything will be weighed and/or measured before it is put on my plate or I won’t eat it. Either she will do it or I will do it, but it WILL be done. I set my weight loss at 2 pounds per week. I do not remember my allotted calories at this point, but I thought, there is no way I can stay under that number. As soon as I started logging foods, I quickly realized there are many many things we eat, that we take for granted. Oils, dressings, butter, all sorts of things. I was determined to keep my logs as accurate as humanly possible. And knowing full well, that nothing is perfect in life, I always cheated myself, opting for the higher calorie choices from MFP when there were multiple choices and lower calories burned when it came to exercise. I dropped weight at a pretty steady clip. 2-3 ponds per week. Always saving Friday night dinners out with Lisa as out CHEAT nights. We go to real restaraunts(no fast food) and eat real foods. Anything we want. I order my food, appetizers, dinner and dessert. Immediately cut them in half and ask for it to be removed from the table and put in a TOGO box. This works wonderfully. And I still get to eat anything I want. But it is very hard to count those calories. So, I would come home and try to figure it all out to the best of my ability.
Late January
I am losing weight and people are starting to notice. My clothes are all big on me. People are asking me what I am doing and I try to explain MFP to anyone who asks. Most people laugh at me but are impressed with my lifestyle change and some even say it won’t last. The gym is getting a bit easier. I started out barely being able to complete 15 minutes on the tread mill. By this time, I am up to 30 minutes and a reasonable incline and decent walking speed. I refuse to use any weights.
May, My Birthday the 15th. 2012
I am 200 pounds and everyone is telling me to STOP losing weight. Lisa included. Everyone is saying I look great and should start maintaining. I said that if I got down to 200, I could certainly get down even further. At this point, I still have not touched a weight in the gym. Strictly tread mill for me. I am up to 60 minutes at a 15 incline, varying my speed from 3.7 to 4.0.
June, Father’s Day. 2012
I am 190 pounds and everyone is starting to yell at me, Lisa included, that I should stop at this point. I say NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I look at the healthy weight for someone my size and see 174 pounds at the high end of the scale on the chart. I figure, why not give it a try. So, I figure it is time to slow down my weight loss and start lifting weights as well as cardio. I set my goals to 1 pound a week and start alternating weights one day, cardio the next. And I start running on the tread mill. I start by running a half mile. Within 30 days, I am up to 2 ½ miles running. I stop the running because I just do NOT like running. I am going good with the weights. Just doing the circuit training. I wanted to do chin ups. I could never do a chin up. Determined, I walk over to the chin up bar on my first day of weight training and struggle like a son of a ***** and I am able to do just one. I figured that was a good start.
The weeks go by, I am still losing weight, but very slowly. Which is fine by me. As long as I am not gaining. I slowly increase my weight on the machines and go back to walking on the tread mill, increasing my walking speed to between 4.0 to 4.4 and staying at the 15 elevation. More impressive though, is my chin ups. Slowly, I get 2, then 3, then 4, then by July 4th I am able to get 5 chinups in one shot. WOW!!!.
August 26, 2012
I am at 174 pounds, the high end of the healthy weight range for a 45 year old male at 5’10” tall. But the Healthy weight range, none the less. WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone is still yelling at me, but I don’t care. I am still doing my weight machines in the circuit training. I could now do 3 sets of 6 chin ups and I do 6 sets of 15 pushups as well. Still alternating days of cardio and weights. And yes, I am a member of PLANET FITNESS.
Here are some of my accomplishments.
Chest size: 50” down to 42”
Waist size: 44-46” down to 32-34”
Neck size: 18 ½” down to 16”
Blood pressure: Way to high, down to 123 over 73
Cholestoral: way too high, down to normal range
Blood sugar: Way too high, down to normal range
All new wardrobe and I need another one now!!!!!
2 suits had to be taken in and now need to be thrown out for new ones.
I have ABS. Real abs. I can’t believe it.
I am still trying to quit smoking, I am struggling with that but have cut down to about a half a pack per day.
My RANT.
I am here to tell everyone that YOU CAN DO IT. Stop making the damned EXCUSES. I know all of them and have used every one of them.
I have a torn ACL and can’t run.
I have a torn bicep and can’t lift weights.
I don’t have time for the gym.
I can’t afford certain foods.
I could never lose that much weight. I am big boned, my body won’t let me. BLAH BLAH BLAH.
My metabolism is slow. All Bull crap excuses.
JUST PLAIN OLD HARD WORK AND DEDICATION. And I weigh and measure everything I put in my mouth. Everyday, all day. I will continue doing this until I can measure by eye. Which means I will do this forever, because my eyes are ALWAYS bigger than my stomach.
I didn’t go to sleep at 174 pounds and wake up 250.
I didn’t go to bed at 250 and wake up at 174.
I am glad to say that Lisa finally came around and joined MFP. As well as a few other friends. FRANKIEDB is another friend of mine that joined and is doing awesome.
Unfortunately, I was able to get 2 of my morbidly obese friends to join and they quit after a week or two. They are obviously not ready. Hopefully, they will come around.
[img]http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo269/pg3ibew/Weight Loss/DSC01263.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo269/pg3ibew/Weight Loss/DSCN1402.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo269/pg3ibew/Weight Loss/DSCN1400.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo269/pg3ibew/Weight Loss/DSCN1116.jpg[/img]
Let me give you a brief history about myself before I tell you about my lifestyle change. I got married 22 years ago at 170 pounds. Had 3 kids, started to get content(LAZY). Slowly worked my way up to 280 pounds about 10 years ago. Dieted and got down to 220. Got LAZY again and worked my way back to 250 pounds right around Christmas 2011. As I prepared to go to an affair two weeks prior to Christmas, I fought with all of my clothes to find something that fit right. Could NOT find a thing. Right then and there, I decided I needed to lose weight, get in shape and stop making excuses. I was on blood pressure medicine, cholestoral medicine and my doctor was telling me I had type 2 diabetes and wanted to put me on medication for that as well. Up until this time, I never had any of these issues.
I woke up the next morning and started my lifestyle change. I weighed myself and saw the 250 pounds staring at me and I was ****ING pissed. I mean REAL ****ING pissed. I threw out all of my medication(probably should not have, but did anyway) and refused to go back to the doctor because she wanted me to take medication and I am not a fan of pills. In my mind, pills like these are for weak people who don’t want to get in shape and lose weight.
I spoke with my Lovely wife(RACKIE515 is her MFP name. Friend her if you like. She is gorgeous.), she agreed that she needed to lose a few pounds as well and we would start this journey together. I never set a goal weight.
We started with slow changes. Brown rice, wheat bread, more salads, grilling chicken, things like that. We decided that we will continue to eat everything we always ate, just cut back and make small changes. And went back to the gym, full time, for real. We determined that the gym would be a MUST if we were going to change our lifestyle.
I said I would not get on a scale until I felt comfortable again. 2 weeks later on Christmas Eve, the same clothes that I was cursing at, were fitting nicely. I knew I had accomplished a little. I was happy. We go to my sister’s for a massive dinner of all you can eat style dinner that Italians are very proud of. I do all of the cooking at her house with my dad. Dad is very surprised that I am not picking at everything I am cooking(cause I usually eat as I cook). I make it through dinner eating a little bit of everything, even dessert. I am very proud of myself. Christmas Day was the same thing at Lisa’s(my lovely wife) Dad’s house. We go to a New Year’s party at a friends house and I do the same thing, eat everything, but in moderation. Very proud of myself again.
On January 7 of 2012, I am looking for a website to track my calories. My son hears me and says to try MYFITNESSPAL. Lisa laughs and says I don’t need it. I look it up on the computer and make a screen name and immediately start logging. At this point, I weighed myself and was 245. I lost 5 pounds in that 3 weeks before starting MFP. Not bad. Lisa is still insisting I don’t need MFP. I persist and start logging. Totally lost, but determined to figure it out. I log my age, height, weight and all the other good stuff. At this point, I tell Lisa that I will not eat anything unless it is weighed and/or measured. She looks at me strangely, like, I ain’t doing all that work. I tell her that everything will be weighed and/or measured before it is put on my plate or I won’t eat it. Either she will do it or I will do it, but it WILL be done. I set my weight loss at 2 pounds per week. I do not remember my allotted calories at this point, but I thought, there is no way I can stay under that number. As soon as I started logging foods, I quickly realized there are many many things we eat, that we take for granted. Oils, dressings, butter, all sorts of things. I was determined to keep my logs as accurate as humanly possible. And knowing full well, that nothing is perfect in life, I always cheated myself, opting for the higher calorie choices from MFP when there were multiple choices and lower calories burned when it came to exercise. I dropped weight at a pretty steady clip. 2-3 ponds per week. Always saving Friday night dinners out with Lisa as out CHEAT nights. We go to real restaraunts(no fast food) and eat real foods. Anything we want. I order my food, appetizers, dinner and dessert. Immediately cut them in half and ask for it to be removed from the table and put in a TOGO box. This works wonderfully. And I still get to eat anything I want. But it is very hard to count those calories. So, I would come home and try to figure it all out to the best of my ability.
Late January
I am losing weight and people are starting to notice. My clothes are all big on me. People are asking me what I am doing and I try to explain MFP to anyone who asks. Most people laugh at me but are impressed with my lifestyle change and some even say it won’t last. The gym is getting a bit easier. I started out barely being able to complete 15 minutes on the tread mill. By this time, I am up to 30 minutes and a reasonable incline and decent walking speed. I refuse to use any weights.
May, My Birthday the 15th. 2012
I am 200 pounds and everyone is telling me to STOP losing weight. Lisa included. Everyone is saying I look great and should start maintaining. I said that if I got down to 200, I could certainly get down even further. At this point, I still have not touched a weight in the gym. Strictly tread mill for me. I am up to 60 minutes at a 15 incline, varying my speed from 3.7 to 4.0.
June, Father’s Day. 2012
I am 190 pounds and everyone is starting to yell at me, Lisa included, that I should stop at this point. I say NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I look at the healthy weight for someone my size and see 174 pounds at the high end of the scale on the chart. I figure, why not give it a try. So, I figure it is time to slow down my weight loss and start lifting weights as well as cardio. I set my goals to 1 pound a week and start alternating weights one day, cardio the next. And I start running on the tread mill. I start by running a half mile. Within 30 days, I am up to 2 ½ miles running. I stop the running because I just do NOT like running. I am going good with the weights. Just doing the circuit training. I wanted to do chin ups. I could never do a chin up. Determined, I walk over to the chin up bar on my first day of weight training and struggle like a son of a ***** and I am able to do just one. I figured that was a good start.
The weeks go by, I am still losing weight, but very slowly. Which is fine by me. As long as I am not gaining. I slowly increase my weight on the machines and go back to walking on the tread mill, increasing my walking speed to between 4.0 to 4.4 and staying at the 15 elevation. More impressive though, is my chin ups. Slowly, I get 2, then 3, then 4, then by July 4th I am able to get 5 chinups in one shot. WOW!!!.
August 26, 2012
I am at 174 pounds, the high end of the healthy weight range for a 45 year old male at 5’10” tall. But the Healthy weight range, none the less. WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone is still yelling at me, but I don’t care. I am still doing my weight machines in the circuit training. I could now do 3 sets of 6 chin ups and I do 6 sets of 15 pushups as well. Still alternating days of cardio and weights. And yes, I am a member of PLANET FITNESS.
Here are some of my accomplishments.
Chest size: 50” down to 42”
Waist size: 44-46” down to 32-34”
Neck size: 18 ½” down to 16”
Blood pressure: Way to high, down to 123 over 73
Cholestoral: way too high, down to normal range
Blood sugar: Way too high, down to normal range
All new wardrobe and I need another one now!!!!!
2 suits had to be taken in and now need to be thrown out for new ones.
I have ABS. Real abs. I can’t believe it.
I am still trying to quit smoking, I am struggling with that but have cut down to about a half a pack per day.
My RANT.
I am here to tell everyone that YOU CAN DO IT. Stop making the damned EXCUSES. I know all of them and have used every one of them.
I have a torn ACL and can’t run.
I have a torn bicep and can’t lift weights.
I don’t have time for the gym.
I can’t afford certain foods.
I could never lose that much weight. I am big boned, my body won’t let me. BLAH BLAH BLAH.
My metabolism is slow. All Bull crap excuses.
JUST PLAIN OLD HARD WORK AND DEDICATION. And I weigh and measure everything I put in my mouth. Everyday, all day. I will continue doing this until I can measure by eye. Which means I will do this forever, because my eyes are ALWAYS bigger than my stomach.
I didn’t go to sleep at 174 pounds and wake up 250.
I didn’t go to bed at 250 and wake up at 174.
I am glad to say that Lisa finally came around and joined MFP. As well as a few other friends. FRANKIEDB is another friend of mine that joined and is doing awesome.
Unfortunately, I was able to get 2 of my morbidly obese friends to join and they quit after a week or two. They are obviously not ready. Hopefully, they will come around.
[img]http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo269/pg3ibew/Weight Loss/DSC01263.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo269/pg3ibew/Weight Loss/DSCN1402.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo269/pg3ibew/Weight Loss/DSCN1400.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i382.photobucket.com/albums/oo269/pg3ibew/Weight Loss/DSCN1116.jpg[/img]
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Replies
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Glad you stuck with it!!! You look great!0
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Glad you stuck with it!!! You look great!
Thanks0 -
Wow! Nice job! Congratulations!0
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Wow! Nice job! Congratulations!
Thanks0 -
Really awesome! Both of you!0
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seriously impressive. as a 40-year-old male who would like nothing more than to be at goal weight for my age/height, this is inspiring. thank you for posting.
Edit:
i'm a smoker also--roughly a pack a day.
do you plan to quit? (i always imagined quitting when i hit goal weight; you are the perfect person to advise me on this subject)
are you fearful of overeating once you do quit? (i know i certainly am--most people i know who have quit clearly gained weight)0 -
You both look fantastic!!0
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Awesome!!0
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Amen! love the preaching Congrats on the steller success0
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Awesome work, you both look great! Congrats!0
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Wow, great story and you BOTH look terrific !!!!0
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Thanks to everyone. And sorry about the Preaching. I just get tired of hearing excuses from everyone. This weight loss thing and lifestyle thing can be done by anyone who tries. I am living proof of it.0
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thanks for sharing...0
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Wow, great story and you BOTH look terrific !!!!
Lisa looks alot better than me LOL0 -
Great story. I feel like friends and family always freak out when your losing weight. My mom is telling me to stop but I'm only at the high weight of my weigh range. I'm mentally getting her ready by talking to her; I'm letting her know about my ultimate goal weight and how important it is for me. You are doing great and your wife is beautiful. Congratulations on your success. Thanks for posting your story.0
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Great story. I feel like friends and family always freak out when your losing weight. My mom is telling me to stop but I'm only at the high weight of my weigh range. I'm mentally getting her ready by talking to her; I'm letting her know about my ultimate goal weight and how important it is for me. You are doing great and your wife is beautiful. Congratulations on your success. Thanks for posting your story.
You keep going. you are doing great. Unfortunately, I was fat for so long, people just got use to seeing me fat and can not fathom that I am actually at the high end of the NORMAL weight scale. They all say the chart is way off. I say, NOOOOO, our preception of FIT is way off.0 -
Great Job! I didn't have as far as you had to go...but it doesn't matter the distance; I still ran the race! Cudos!!! Keep up the great work!0
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GReat stuff. I particularly like how you clearly show the key elements of consistency, awareness and self belief. No secret ultra special diets needed, no amazing workout routines, special DVD's, just common sense. Awesome how both you and your wife did this together. Inspiring stuff. BE well.0
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Wow you look incredible! And your wife is beautiful! You're seriously inspiring, you show that no matter your ability anyone can exercise and lose weight. I wish you the best of luck in your future, and i will remember your story through the tough weight loss moments!0
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Thanks for sharing a great transformation story.0
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