To be my true self.... My Story

Someone that has helped me out a lot suggested sharing my story and to find more support, never thought about doing anything like this but I figure I need more in my aresenal with being healtheir and help is always a good thing. I've been poking around a few websites that are avaialble and MFP seems to be a great community of people with great tools to get the job done.

Over a year ago I decided to become my true self. I always had these daydreams of being... well...a sexy good looking guy! In reality I have always been the fat guy/friend and it unfortunately just makes general life unpleasant. It was also bad enough that I most likely wouldn't have lived to see my 30th birthday if I continued on my same path, leaving my sweet little girl behind.

At my heavist I was about 340 pounds. Looking at pictures of myself I'm rather disgusted at what I let myself become. So I began to count calories ( at this point not caring about what I was eating just as long as it was below a certian amount) and try to do some home works outs. I actually dropped down to about 300 pounds this way but then lost motivation and became depressed. Life wasn't going very well and I stayed at that weight for some time.

Around October of 2012 is when my marriage started to fall apart. We tried to fix things and around Christmas time I had watched the documentry "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead". The main story actually didn't do much for me, it was the story of the truck driver who was basically embarrased to be around his own children. I felt that way with my Daughter to be honest so i decided that I want to be there for her, always. To be able to play with her at the park or even worse, for her not to be embarrased of her father. Doing something extreme like that seemed like the perfect thing for me to change myself, and it was.

I started the jiuce fast a few days after my Birthday in Jan. and unfortunately in the middle of this is when my marriage ended. Regardless of how sad and depressed I become I continued on, I wanted this for myself. In the span of 9 weeks I droppped 72 pounds :noway: . I know in some ways it wasn't very healthy for me to do that but I was happy with the experience, it changed my perspective on food and my really unhealthy eating habits.

After the fast, when I settled into my new life and got through all the paperwork and the divorce I started going to the gym. I wasn't really counting calories or anything but was doing my best to make healthier choices and to work out. I got up to the point of doing workouts 4-5 days a week. Then in October of 2013, I ran the event called Tough Mudder and made it through alive. I struggled through some of the course (which was basically 11 miles of hell/fun, depends on how you look at it ) but I still did it. Going from a morbidly obese person to completing that in less than a year was amazing for me, I couldn't believe I pulled it off.

After that I continued to go to the gym and even though I continued to weighed about the same my clothes continue to get smaller so I was still happy.

Now comes the present time. I haven't been doing that well healthy wise over the past 2-3 months with my eating and workout habits. I don't find myself with many friends (mostly my doing) and mostly a homebody now. Unfortunately I have been getting a little more depressed again.

Something clicked with me again the last week and I decided it's time to get off my butt and continue on! I am really going to be didicated to my health and dropping the weight. To be what I feel, is my true self.

Here are my current stats:

Male - 27 Years old - 235 Pounds - 5 ' 10

My goal is to be 180 or so. At the very least a fair amount below 200 (haven't weighed below that in about 18 years).

I'm going to be drastically cleaning up my diet (i've already started a little, need to change a few things and come up with some better meal plans) and hitting my macronutrients and working out more (thank you BTW to Sara and SideSteel for all the wonderful information I have already found on these subjects).

My calorie goal is going to be 2100, I've used some online calculators and from my expieriencies in the past I feel good with this number.My TDEE for weight loss seems a little bit higher on the calculators (with the below workout plan included as light activity) so I dropped the number a little. I'm going to try and take a 40/30/30 approach to Protein/Fat/Carbs, main focus being on Protein and trying to consume 1g per pound of body weight.

For workouts I'm only going to start at 3 days a week doing a (mostly) full body routine with a majority being heavier compound excercises with 15 minutes of cardio at the end. I really want to keep and try to gain some muscle even though it's difficult on a calorie deficit. Depending on the results over the next month or so I will change and go to more days a week and changing my routines. Right now I would rather keep the intensity down a little more so I have something to turn to when I'm getting closer to my goal weight to keep the fat shedding off.


So that's me!

I'm really looking forward to being apart of this community and hope that I can provide support for others and looking to find the same to keep myself on track. Always open to suggestions and constructive criticism!

Oh and sorry for the really long first post. :blushing: