Greetings from the land of Downunder!

[Qeidren]

It's true what they say: 'You will rise or fall to the level of the company you keep.' The few friendships I had, did not have health-conscious relationships with food or fitness. At my heaviest I was 105Kg (230 lbs), but there was never any significant impact on my health, so it wasn't a problem, and as long as it wasn't a problem I didn't worry about it.

 

This year though, after a particularly bad breakup, and looking for some change I decided to do everything that would have resulted in a fight before: I got a new haircut and some clothes she would've hated, picked up a new hobby, and I opened up the Samsung health app on my phone. It may not have been the best place to start, but for the first time it wasn't an onerous chore, I was eating better and losing weight and I had all the lovely data to show the how. From July to the end of September I went from 88 (194) to 75 (165), just by watching what and how much I was eating (having a super-active day job helps). Plus, with the activity tracker, I knew how much was not enough when I'd had a big day or how much of a midnight snack was too much. My eating habits changed, my choices got better and I was racing towards my goal weight faster than planned, without starving myself or constantly craving things.

 

Then, two things happened. Last month, I was rushed to the hospital with, excruciating, unspecified abdominal pain. Later diagnosis confirmed that I have a gall stone 21mm (7/8" approx) in size. The truly unfair thing here is: I have never lived my life on cheeseburgers and icecream, my gall bladder just happens to be shaped a little odd so it has a pocket at one end. The insult cherry on this injury sundae is that it goes off at completely random intervals. It will probably be another 8-12 months before I get another attack, even if I live off KFC and Bacon for a whole week.

 

Then, last week I woke up one day unable to turn my head. It's happened before, but I put off dealing with it in depth because replacing my far too old mattress with a new one cleared up the weekly bouts of back spasms.

 

Both of these things are going to require fixing. The former requires surgery, and I'm here to deal with the latter before it comes to that. The picture attached to this post was snapped by a coworker tonight while I wasn't paying any attention to my posture. That's me, in clothes that are now nearly 3 sizes too big, standing in a comfortable pose that I can hold for hours, but if I try and do it on the other leg it's not nearly as easy. 

 

My goal always was that when I got down to 75Kg I would start focussing on fitness more, but now I have a more specific goal: improve my posture, strengthen my back, and prevent myself from becoming a sitcom caricature: the 40 year old man who throws a disc every time he moves the wrong way.

 

Right now I'm looking at starting with the Druids, and if I'm choosing a race it would have to be halfling. I'm not that short, but I do like to enjoy nice things, like food and music, and share them with the people I care about.

[Elastigirl]

Welcome! Doing yoga , stretching and building back muscles are aweome ways to get a better posture.  I feel like most of us have that issue with the neck bending over since we spend so much time looking at our phone. One suggestion I read was to hold the phone up a bit higher at eye level. I never remember to actually do that though

[Navka]

I definitely feel you on the "friends and family not health conscious" thing.  It's very difficult to find motivation or know what you need to do when people actively try to make you feel silly for caring.

 

I've known people with a similar condition to yours and can't imagine how difficult it must be to feel like your body is betraying you at random. It sounds like you are already doing great, though! Best of luck!