Weight Loss

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Countryboy
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Joined: November 8th, 2010, 9:37 pm
Location: Central Ohio
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Weight Loss

Unread post by Countryboy »

Allen, let me personally congratulate you on being willing to start working on your weight. Too many people simply lack any self-discipline. It also disgusts me how tv and the media try to normalize and condone being fat.

I've been outside the US before. While there are overweight people in every country, it is shocking to go to other countries and see tons of people who are not fat and then come back to America and see the obesity.

The older I get, the more concerned I am about my weight and fitness. When I graduated high school, I weighed 135 pounds. When I was 20, I was working 2 full-time jobs and fell asleep driving home and had a bad auto accident. My leg was crushed. I spent almost 8 months on crutches, and it really took a few years to really gain back my mobility and to be able to walk without limping. (I quit drinking alcohol when I was 20 also, 6 months before my accident, so I have never had to deal with alcohol affecting my weight.)

I used to smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day. I quit smoking when I was 30.

I've never married, and I don't eat right. While I don't eat much fast food, I used to eat a lot of sandwiches and ice cream (my guilty pleasure) and pizza and I drank a 2 liter of Mt Dew every day.

By the time I was 34 or 35, I was pushing 165-170 pounds. My leg ached constantly. I was having to buy new jeans because the old ones were too small - I've never had to buy new jeans unless the old ones wore out.

Where I live, a couple uber rich college alumni donated the money for the college to build a $70 million athletic facility. One of the strings attached is that anyone in the community is allowed to also use the facility free of charge. So I got signed up and started hitting the gym once or twice a week for a few months. My weight didn't change at all.

So I quit drinking soda pop. I didn't change my diet or exercise habits, I just started drinking water instead of soda pop. Immediately, I lost 10 pounds. So I started paying more attention to my diet. The pounds slowly started dropping off.

Then in the fall of 2013 I broke my foot. I also went to Ukraine for Apimondia, and spent 2.5 weeks there. The food in Ukraine is excellent. They don't have a lot of fast food or processed foods. Almost everything is fresh and healthy. Between healthy food and plenty of exercise running around everywhere on crutches, when I got back I weighed 145. So I really started buckling down watching what I ate and exercising regularly and counting calories, and by early 2014 I had well defined 6 pack abs and weighed 138-140 pounds. It took me roughly a year to go from 170 down to 140.

I'm not going overboard on watching my weight, and don't count calories anymore. While I still don't eat right, I try to eat fairly healthy and only eat bad foods in moderation. (I've never been one for candy and sweets.) I don't eat much bread, and eat more salads and eggs now. I'll still eat tuna fish or sardines on crackers for a meal. My weight stays pretty consistent at 147-148. I'm 5'8".

You know what's interesting. The leg I crushed in the auto accident doesn't ache and burn anymore. Below 160, it stopped aching badly, but would still hurt a little, especially if I was on it all day. At 150 or below, it doesn't hurt.

I have an uncle who married into the family. He's 5'10 and weighs 220. I think he is 63 or 64. He's obese, and he actually thinks he is a healthy weight because every time he has a doctors checkup he still weighs the same.
He's diabetic, and has to take insulin shots. (10 years ago he was in the hospital and got down to 180 - interestingly, he didn't need the insulin shots anymore. As soon as he got fat again, he needs insulin again.)
No matter what he is doing, he only has one speed...slow. (He's incredibly lazy.) If he goes out to feed the chickens, he is soaked in sweat by the time he is done. If he is on the tractor and brush hogging for 3 or 4 hours, he is completely exhausted and won't do anything for the rest of the day except sit in his chair and watch tv. (And complain about how tired he is from working so much that day.)
When he eats, he just dumps food on his plate. He doesn't put servings on his plate. He just starts dumping food on his plate. It reminds you of slopping hogs. Eating is one of his highlights in life, and he eats plenty of candy, meat, pastas and breads.
He's eating himself into an early grave, and he can't keep up on the maintenance on the property. I personally think he could do a lot more if he stopped carrying that extra 40 or 50 pounds of worthless weight. (I'd get worn out pretty quick if I had to carry around an extra 40 or 50 pounds all the time too.)

Obesity and morbid obesity disgusts me. I consider it to be a sign of laziness and a lack of self-discipline. Maybe that's just my Christian background coming out - sloth and gluttony are looked down on. And I know that it isn't all that hard to lose 20 or 30 pounds by doing little more than watching what you put in your mouth. Your diet is about 90%, and exercise is about 10% of it.

So kudos to you for starting to put some effort into weight loss. And I encourage folks to count calories. You never realize how many calories you are putting in your mouth until you start counting them.
B. Farmer Honey
Central Ohio
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