It's never too late

jvcinv wrote: »

I thought I would share a little here about what I've done over the past 53 weeks.
The before picture is me in May of 2016, 57 years old and 352 pounds.
The current photo was taken yesterday and my weight is now 178 pounds.
Yes I've lost 174 pounds, I'm half the size I was a year ago.

I'm posting this just in case there are others who are a bit on the older side and like me had completely given up all hope of being able to lose weight. I tried very hard on several occasions only to stall after 20-30 pounds. My diet used to be about as bad as you can get, high carb's, high sugar, highly processed. Something snapped in me last August and I began yet again on a quest to lose weight, but this time I stumbled in the right direction, and found lifestyle changes that were I have to say not that hard to adopt.

The big changes were brought on by various forms of fasting.
I've eaten no more than once a day during this time. So at a minimum a daily 23 hour fast.
I've also done three extended fasts ranging in duration from 5 to 14 days.
For the past 4 months I've eaten my one meal per day but also fasted for a day or two each week or every other week. So essentially I have mixed things up a bit and tried various fasting strategies. Whenever I felt that my body was getting too adapted to my current routine, and that weight loss was stalling, I changed things up and it seem like every time I made a change there was an immediate uptick. I'd say these changes were made roughly every 2-3 months.

The other big change was that at the same time I started these various fasting strategies I completely changed my diet. As much as possible I eat only fresh whole foods coming directly from plants or animals. I prepare it myself, fill up on vegetables, salad, meat fish dairy and fruit. I gave up sugar (natural and artificial), processed grains and seed oils. Although I eat only once a day it is a glorious meal that really fills me up and is quite satiating.
I know many around here are big on counting calories, weighing and logging and such, (and hey whatever works for you is great) but I've done none of that. The main reason I didn't is because I decided up front to only do things that I was sure I could sustain as a lifestyle change, and that just isn't me. Perhaps I'm lazy.
What I did do on this whole journey was to focus on listening to my body. For example while I'm eating my delicious tasty meal I eat until I feel a certain level of fullness and then don't hesitate to stop at that point. The key for this type of once a day eating is to reach a feeling of fullness and satiety. That's what carries you for 23 hours to the next meal.

The last major change is that for the past 6 months or so, as I became more able to move about I started walking which turned into running. I now run between 25-35 miles per week which is capped off on Sunday morning with a long run of 2 to 2.5 hours duration. I love running, how it makes me feel, the type of changes in body shape it is bringing about.

Okay that's it, I don't want to blather on. I simply wanted to share these changes in the hope that if there are any older morbidly obese folks who have completely given up who read this, that they might know that there is a way out. It's not to say that I'm all done, I'm still working on reaching the best version of myself that I can be. Although I'm satisfied with my weight I want to continue to work on fitness, hopefully get rid of excess skin and remaining belly fat as much as possible.
Even though I'm still looking to improve I'm putting this down in Success Stories because at this point I have succeeded to do what I frankly thought was impossible only a year ago.
Good luck to all.