Thinking of "starting today"? You might want to check this out - pics inside!

Thanks - nice of you to say. This thread pops back up every now and then and I'm always happy if it helps someone.

Thought I'd update this for those who are still out there. 2015 has been interesting - I've been trying to focus on health, strength and mobility. In that process I've lost a few more lbs though that's not really the goal. So far I've been pretty happy with the results though - my body fat is definitely down and I feel good. Hope everyone is doing well...

Nataliegetfit wrote: »

Wow, It is hard to see you are the same person. It is a huge change. I am sure you feel so much better and can do so many things you couldn't do or that were hard to do. I bet you can do lot of fun things with your family too. How has the maintenance been coming? Does your family like to do active things together? I am so glad that you made that change to start that day and wrote about it. It has helped a lot of people realize that they can do it one day at a time making good decisions about their health. Keep up the good work you are doing. You are worth it and your family is lucky to have you as a role model of how to live.

That's very nice of you to say and I definitely appreciate it.

And to answer your questions, maintenance was actually really good. It was incredibly scary at first, but I moved my calories up slowly and was really surprised at the amount I could eat and still maintain. So that was important. I say "was" because I've moved into a new phase - I'm logging a very small deficit each day now, but not nearly what I had been, and focusing on resistance training with some cardio mixed in on "off" days. Mainly this is to try and recomp a little - to "look" better, which wasn't a primary goal of mine when I was initially losing all of that weight. So that's actually been really interesting. I've been at it for about 8 weeks now and I can already see and feel a difference. That part is very rewarding. I've been working with a trainer/coach/fitness professional online to develop a routine for me and to help guide me through many of the nutrition and mindset issues that inevitably come up during a transition like this and that has been a really interesting process.

And yes, the family likes to do active things together. What is kind of sad when I look back on it are the times when they would go out and do something and I simply wouldn't (or couldn't) participate. Those times were tough and they aren't easy to look back on even now. Being able to do things with them is very rewarding. I feel like an active part of my family's life now rather than an interested bystander. Hopefully my kids are picking up in it subconsciously. My wife has - she's taken up running this year and has already done a couple of 5k's and is currently working on a 10k. That's really exciting to see.

So yes, it's been a great year or so. It was, at times, very hard. But other times it wasn't. The thing I'm working on now is realizing that I'm not "done" and I may never be. Rather, I'm in a constant state of improvement and refinement.

Sorry for the rambling - I'm operating on 3 hours of sleep!

subhaautowares wrote: »

So motivated, great job. Did you ever had to lay off your exercise or diet routine due to any health issues. If so what did you do during that period, how did you motivate yourself? What is the time period you have given to achieve your target weight?

Thanks everyone!

@subhaautowares - great questions.

1) Did you ever had to lay off your exercise or diet routine due to any health issues. Yes. In the last year and a half I've had all the usual things that people get like colds and flu and so on. Also I've had pretty serious back issues and other physical things that have come up such as crazy dental work and even a kidney stone. I'm 44 so that physical stuff happens more often than it used to. It's all part of the process. However, having said that, I will say that I was, and continue to be, very careful about avoiding injury simply because I know how a layoff can affect you mentally and take you out of the habit of regular activity.

2) If so what did you do during that period, how did you motivate yourself? I just tried to focus on diet during those periods. I think the longest I've been "off" from exercise is a week but I've had plenty of times when it was 3-4 days. During those times I just was extra diligent about hitting my calorie goals. It's really all about the food in terms of scale-weight loss, so you can go extended periods of time without physical exercise and still lose weight if you need to. But I also would try to do something - anything - whenever I could just to keep my body moving. Even if it's just parking farther away at the grocery store.... I just kept telling myself that there are no excuses and that being sick was not an excuse to quit and give up all the hard work I'd put in.

3) What is the time period you have given to achieve your target weight? Great question and this is one of the biggest keys to my success to this point (I think anyway....). I told myself that I was going to just take a year out of my life and do the best I could during that year. As a matter of fact, I didn't even think about it in terms of a "year" - I kept thinking 12 months. For some reason that just seemed like a smaller amount of time... haha. Seriously though, I just kept telling myself to do the best I could during that short time frame. I figured that even if I "only" managed to lose 1 pound per week, at the end of the year I'd be 52 pounds lighter than I was, and that seemed like a solid accomplishment. Just this line of thinking took a TON of pressure off of me mentally. If I lost a half a pound one week, it was fine. If I lost 2 lbs it was great. But more than anything else I saved me from that crushing disappointment of expectation - when you get on the scale and think, "man, I must have lost 5lbs this week!" when in reality it was 1.5lbs. This truly kept me sane and kept me going. But in the end, it's not about motivation, it's about determination and commitment.

jpaulsims wrote: »

Very inspiring story, thanks for sharing it here.

Thanks!

Thanks everyone!

mrron2u wrote: »

Your story is very inspiring and I feel like you are telling my story - at least the first part as I weigh about what you did when you started. I look forward to doing this before/after thing a year from now and look to these success stories for inspiration. Thanks so much for sharing!

Looking forward to that post!