3 Months of Significant Change

I've never been truly fat, but I have also never been thin. I've always occupied that uncomfortable middle ground where sucking in your stomach makes people think you're thin, and shirts and pants are JUST snug enough to be uncomfortable. I am naturally athletic, but haven't taken part in any type of activity outside of walking for years.

Earlier this year, I decided that I'd had enough of the body I was living in. Most people I know have always considered me 'thin,' but this spring I was at 181, my highest weight ever, and around 24% body fat. I have been more active in 2013, taking regular long walks (5-10 miles) and riding my bike to work, but it was time to step that up too. The big issue for me has always been my diet, and years of takeout were catching up.

Because I am very competitive and hate doing anything halfway, I made significant changes in two areas of my life.

Exercise
-I joined a fitness studio a block from my work. I started going on April 25 and have been 72 times since then. I average almost 5 visits a week, usually Tuesday-Saturday. They only have classes, so I know what time I am going and when it will be over which is great for planning purposes. Classes are an hour and 15 minutes; 30 cardio, 30 strength and 15 yoga. It fits nicely into my schedule and the proximity means it's easy to utilize.
-I joined a soccer league and play once a week for 50 minutes. I play mid-field so there is a significant amount of running.
-I walk my dog 10-15 miles on Sundays.
-I started walking to and from work, a total of 3.5 miles a day, instead of biking.
-I started running one or two mornings a week, generally around 3.5-4 miles with a focus on improving my splits. I am in the 7:35 min/mile range at the moment.

Diet
-A coworker introduced me to MyFitnessPal and I began logging on May 1. I try to pre-plan my day and enter it in ahead of time to see where I will fall.
-The fitness studio I go to also offers nutritional counseling, so I worked with one of their nutritionists to carve out an aggressive diet reducing my cholesterol (per my doctor) and providing enough fuel for the increased activity while keeping strict watch on fats and carbs.
-My diet is now primarily vegetables and fruit, with carbs, fats and protein coming from chicken, fish, brown rice, quinoa, walnuts, cheeses, Greek yogurt etc.
-I pre-plan my home menu for the week so I know what I have to prep the night before, leave out to thaw etc. It keeps me from making poor decisions when I get home from work or the gym late.
-I stopped ordering takeout nearly altogether. I think I have ordered out twice since April.
-I started shopping at a market near my work that carries bulk produce. Like the plate example, I now fill my fridge with vegetables and fruits first.
-I gave myself permission to snack on whatever I want, whenever I want in whatever volume, provided it falls into the 'healthy' category. Example: most nights after dinner I throw a few frozen bananas, some strawberries, soy milk and a drop of honey into a blender and make banana 'ice cream.'
-I also gave myself permission to not dwell on treats. Eat a cupcake? Log it and move on. Not obsessing means I don't get into the guilt spiral where I then eat 5 cupcakes.
-I take Sunday off from any kind of dieting rules and eat whatever I want all day. I still enter it into MFP, but don't obsess over it.
-I stopped drinking as much alcohol, going the quality over quantity route. I love beer but the empty calories in crappy beer were not worth it. Now I will have 1-2 good beers instead of 5 crappy ones.

Mental
-I tell myself every single day that this is for ME and nobody else. Pleasing anyone else is not what I am after.
-I gave myself permission to be unapologetic about working out and changing my diet. My wife is not interested in changing her diet or starting to work out, but I can't let that effect me.
-I did not alienate myself from my friends to steer clear of food. Rather, I remind myself that I am doing this for me and that no I really don't need to order 'normally' because I am with other people. They're my friends and they will understand.
-I told myself I will talk about my changes honestly with anyone who wanted to know.

The Future

I am now at 153 pounds with 10.3% body fat. I still have improvements I can make. I need to hydrate better; I generally drink only a 24oz water bottle in the course of a day. I also need to sleep more to speed recovery. I sleep about 5-6 hours a night, but would like to improve to 7-8.

And the results? Here are a few photos. Please excuse the pile of clothes and fat cat dining in the background. The last photo is from my fitness studio, they did a before and after for their transformation wall.

I am not a big message board contributor, but I have been looking through all the success stories here since discovering the community and have been completely inspired by the amazing transformations. I am not a self-promoter at all naturally, but I wanted to contribute the work I've been doing for myself so others might find their own inspiration in some small way.

Before (May 15)
These were taken just over two weeks after I started going to the fitness studio.






After (July 11)
These were taken 11 weeks after I started going to the fitness studio and changed my diet.







For Fun
The top 3 lines are % change, the bottom three are numerical improvements over baseline.