My Story

I am a 57 year old male, 5 ft. 9 in. tall, and weighed 225 pound when I started all this, and this is my story.

I'll start my story about the time I got out of the Army in 1989. in them days I could run 2 miles in 14 minutes, do 70 pushups in 2 minutes, do 70 situps in 2 minutes, and weighed 165 pounds.

A couple years after getting out of the Army, a drunk driver ran a stop sign and broadsided my car. He hit my door so hard that the side of my car caved in about a third of the way and impacted my left side causing internal injuries. I had broken ribs, an collapsed left lung, a ruptured spleen, a ruptured diaphram, 2 partially dislocated shoulders, and my stomach went through my diaphram into my chest cavity.

They did surgery to remove my spleen and put my insides back together, and they told me I could not exercise for at least a year because thats how long it would take for everything to completely heal up. I got lazy and never really started working out again after that, and over the years just kept putting on more weight.

A few years back i was diagnosed with diverticulitis, and it kept getting worse so I had to have surgery to remove about 8 inches of my colon. In order to get the surgery I had to get heart and lung clearances. The heart study showed that I could have had a mini heart attack at some point because there was a small spot at the bottom of my heart that was slightly enlarged. The lung study showed the beginning stages of COPD, and that I had lost 30 to 40 percent of my lung capacity (a normal person at my age only looses 10 to 20 percent). I have smoked for over 40 years, and am currently using electronic cigarettes to ween myself off of real cigarettes.

I also have had a couple of occourances of blood clots, and am currently on blood thinners.

Anyway, all these things got me thinking about loosing weight and becoming more active, so about 6 or so months ago I stumbled across activity trackers on the internet. I though they were just a gimic, but i was still curious about them. I picked up a Jawbone UP24 just to try it. I set it all up and set the weight setting to lose 1 pound per week, and the step goal setting for 7,000 steps per day. I started logging my food, getting my steps in, and tracking my weight.

Well, I have been losing about 1 pound per week ever since, and not only that, but I have increased my fitness level quite a bit so far. I can do 2 to 3 mile walks at a 4 MPH pace (which keeps my heart in the cardio zone), and I can ride my bicycle up to 10 miles in the cardio zone. My lung capacity has noticeably improved as well, and I have lost almost 30 pounds so far. My goal is to get down to 170 pounds, so I am almost half way there. In another 6 months or so, I am certain that I will make my goal and increase my fitness level even more.

These activity trackers make it so easy because they do all the math and track all your stuff for you, so all you have to do is log your calories, and follow what it tells you to do. They even vibrate if you have been inactive for a certain period of time to remind you to get up and walk, and they track your sleep too. I have since moved up to the Garmin Vivoactive.

I hope my story will motivate others not to wait until they start having health issues before getting to a proper weight and fitness level.

And another thing I would like to mention is not to lose more than 1 pound per week. If you do it gradually, you are far more likely to keep the weight off and still be able to get all the fuel your body needs.

Bob