My success but need motivation

draekin13

Sorry this is all over the place between 2 kids (4 and 1) full time school and working 50 hours a week I am hardly able to make any coherent thoughts.

I decided in June of 2012 I needed to lose weight. I have been large my whole life. I have a very dense body and have always been able to hold a lot of weight with no real problems. I remember as a kid having to buy "husky" pants and never being able to find the right size as I grew up because they were always too long. In middle school I started to have severe knee issues and remember going to the doctor when I was probably 13 and weighing in at 240 lbs and around 5'2. Getting in to high school I finally started to grow up, my sophomore year I went from 5'4 to 6'0 and was doing weight lifting for my physical education class. I was over 300 lbs but I was lifting a lot of weights at that time and was actually the most fit I had ever been. I moved in with my sister and bro-in-law when I was 15 for reasons I won't try to explain here but having to do with my parents splitting up. My junior year I put on more weight but was still weight lifting. Probably around 325 lbs but I was benching 250 dead lift 450 squat 330 and could leg press over 700. My senior year I really got in to cooking. I had decided I wanted to become a chef after I graduated. I practiced a lot and sadly ate most of it. My dad all through school got on me about my weight but he was quite overweight himself even though my family was full of firefighter/EMTs. I never found the motivation to lose the weight. After graduating high school my grandmother who was going to help with my schooling decided that being a chef was not a man's job and wouldn't help. I played video games a lot and eventually started making money by playing them. It equated to a part time job. I put on a lot of weight. When I was around 20 I was probably pushing 400lbs. I met my wife while working at Circuit City and lost a little bit of weight but hovered between 350-375. Now having 2 kids and working IT and going back to college for my BS in IT I didn't have time for anything for myself. I finally saw that I couldn't play with my toddler son the way he wanted to and he too was beginning to get quite overweight. I finally decided something had to change after being this way for 28 years. I started riding my bike I had gotten a few years ago and then my wife found MFP. I have used a few calorie counters in the past but would always seem to lose motivation when I would get down around 315-320 lbs. MFP finally stuck for me and am now up to 320+ days logged in. I am now down 70+ lbs and am feeling great but losing motivation. Before it was for the kids and sadly more so that we were taking a trip to Hawaii, and now that trip is over. I am disappointed in myself that doing it for the kids doesn't seem to be enough for me. I think I just need some more encouraging.

Here is a pic from July of 2012 (after losing 15ish lbs) and April 2013.

Roger_Vaughn

if you are not doing it for YOU then you are doing it for the wrong reason. 70+ lbs is AWESOME and you just need to focus on what your goals ARE!!! if you focus on the goal, the you can do this!!

SerenaFisher

Great weight loss!

LinOtt

Best reason for loosing weight is for yourself! Great effort! Why don't you set some goals which will "grab" you! Involve the family.....surely you want to see your grand kids some day?

cutiepie2628

awww man great freaking job...

cerexflikex

Chef not a man's job? There are tons of male chefs out there. Anyway, you've done great, the change is very visible there. Sometimes the motivation we start with, isn't what keeps us going.

Maybe set some small goals, like this 1st goal can be to lose 10 more lbs. And another goal after that, maybe to get into a size smaller pant. Just a thought. Also I've made my workout plan sort of like a habit. I feel strange if I don't go to the gym, now that I am used to it. Good luck!

draekin13

Thank you everyone. I guess I need to figure out what my goals really are again. dthonator you are right I really need to be doing this for myself. I am just such a selfless person when it comes to anything. I even had a hard time buying myself clothes after all my old ones were so big they were falling off of me. I think most of my problem is I eat out of stress and my job and home life are extremely stressful. I need to learn how to destress. The trip to Hawaii helped in that department but the wife isn't up for moving there.