Leaping in

[jonfirestar]

Hi, 

 

Okay. So I got a little carried away... Believe it or not this is the short version. It's been a while since I have written anything other than work email or support ticket so I hope it doesn't put you to sleep. 

Here goes. 

 

I'm a 33 year old IT guy with an overactive imagination.  The truth is I've been overweight my entire life but for a short span of about a year. My life hit an all time low in my early 20s and, at that time, I turned to fitness and spirituality to cope. When my life was at its worst I was happiest with my body and soul.

10 years later and my life is pretty good. I have a good job that I love and I am earning enough money for me to be happy. I have a loving fiancé. Someone without whom I feel incomplete.

I am also the heaviest I've ever been. I am beginning to feel the effects of it. My horrendous diet has robbed me of all my energy and has left me permanently tired. On top of this I suffer with crippling social anxiety made worse by my low opinion of my body image.

So one Thursday afternoon I decided to change. It was an unremarkable Thursday. I'd eaten a popular brand of fried chicken fast food for lunch. The same lunch I'd had almost every day for six months. It had tasted like salted ashes. I'd long ago stopped enjoying it. I was eating it just because it was there. That night I came home and made a salad for dinner.

I'm a pretty damned good cook. The irony is that when I don't care what I eat I really don't care. It was the first time in six months I'd taken time to think about what I was putting into my body and what I was tasting. It was a salad because that is what I had. No excuses. I enjoyed the fresh crunchy veg more than the last ten fried chicken lunches.

That was only a few weeks ago. My mentality is to leap and ask questions later - if I spend too long thinking about something I talk myself out of it. A lifetime of failed 'diets' meant I had strategies. My goal was to eat well. Make real food and to eat enough. Far too many people go from 5000 calories a day to 1200 and wonder why they want to eat their arm off. I fail on that path. I consider it a fool's errand. I wasn’t interested in making large dramatic changes but small sustainable changes. Naturally, when I start to eat healthier I get more interested in what I am making I begin to take care with my cooking and enjoy what I’m putting into my body. I wanted to nurture that rather than try to punish myself for being overweight.

 

Once I started, I wanted to focus on the second thing my previous attempts at weight loss had lacked. Fitness. I only know how to get in shape one way. That is the way I learnt when I was young. Of course, I’m not 23 any more but I am not in quite as poor shape as I was then. I am heavier but I have kept reasonably active. Cycling but mostly walking. I love to walk. It is frustrating that I can’t run 10k without caving in my knees or that I can’t deadlift 350lbs or squat 500lbs - once I could do all that and I loved every second. I have to remind myself that, when I started years ago, I couldn’t sit on the rowing machine for even 10 minutes. So starting where I am now is better than where I was then. It will just take time, persistence and commitment. Experience told me that I’d enjoy the activity and I do! Even at over 300lbs, I love to lift weights and do strength exercises. I’m taking up cycling again.

 

Social anxiety sometimes cripples my progress. It is why I fell out of shape the first time but I hate to make excuses for myself or my actions. “I put on weight because X happened. I stopped exercising  because Y”. When it comes down to it I everything that I did happened because I chose that path Right now, I am choosing the other path. The steep, rocky but much more fulfilling path. I’ve about had it with feeling too tired to move.

 

So I found this place. I’ve been on my own in this fight for a few weeks and hope that I can find some kindred spirits to help on my journey. Reaching out for help and support is also not something I've done before. I’m losing weight, working out and feeling more alive than I have in years.

 

Well that got a little out of hand ;-)

Here are my grand goals:

 

Reach a healthy weight, (I am currently 305, but started at 330. Its not fun!)

Maintain that weight.

Not to stress about the scale every day. Eat well do exercise and take it slowly. I didn’t put the weight on in a week and it sure as hell won’t take a week to lose. The numbers will catch up.

 

Eat only Good Food. Good to Eat, good for me.

Eat Real food. Made by my fair hands, from scratch, if possible. 

Make the best choices for me when I am not eating home cooking. 

 

Begin a strength and cardio fitness program (started)

Maintain this program for at least 4 weeks to condition my body to the new types of activity

Start to ramp it up (honestly my biggest trouble is taking it slowly. I’m much more likely to hit hard and burn out than not to try something).

 

Regards

Jon

[bker1370]

Welcome aboard Jon

 

It sounds like you have a pretty solid idea for what you want to accomplish and how to get there.  Your timing is also excellent as we are just gearing up for the next 4-week challenge cycle.

 

Here is Spezzy's post on suggested first challenge goals although it sounds like you have better ideas for your own first set of goals.

 

Also, if you have not looked around much you may wish to think about which guild you might want to join eventually.  A guild is just a way of grouping us by our primary fitness focus.  The various guilds are, in short, as follows:

  Rebels - beginners and/or those who choose not to pick a specific guild

  Adventurers - those into more daring or extreme sports

  Assassins - bodyweight exercises, gymnastics, parkour, etc.

  Druids - meditation, yoga, etc.

  Monks - martial arts of some kind (with or without weapons)

  Scouts - endurance sports (running, biking, etc)

  Warriors  - lifting heavy things (general weightlifting, powerlifting etc)

  Rangers - DO ALL THE THINGS (this is my guild, we do a little of everything...  or at least try to--a condition known as RangerBrain)

More detailed descriptions of the guilds can be found here.

 

If there is anything else I (or anyone else) can do to help you out just give a shout and we will be here to help and support you in any way we can.

[jonfirestar]

Thanks!

 

I've been poking around for a few days. Much like yourself I kind of find myself drawn to the Ranger class I like to try all the things! I already seem to have a bit of RangerBrain.

 

I've read about the 4-week challenges and yes I've had a few ideas I've been kicking around. Nothing I've formalized yet but I'm ready to do just that and jump on board!

[SpecialSundae]

Welcome to the Rebellion!

 

Looks like you've made a great start and @bker1370 has given you a great introduction to the guilds!

 

Best of luck with Rangering and feel free to drop over to Warriors if you ever want to just focus on the weights.

 

Sundae

[jonfirestar]

21 hours ago, SpecialSundae said:

Welcome to the Rebellion!

 

Looks like you've made a great start and @bker1370 has given you a great introduction to the guilds!

 

Best of luck with Rangering and feel free to drop over to Warriors if you ever want to just focus on the weights.

 

Sundae

 

Hey Sundae,

Thanks for the support! I do love to pull weights so who knows maybe one day I'll find the cure for RangerBrain and hop over!