Want to take ownership of my own health

[DND]

Hi all.

I'm new to Nerd Fitness and to forums like this in general, but I'm hoping that a supportive community like this will help give me a place to go when I fee like stepping off the path I'm getting on. A little about me: I'm 34/about to turn 35, am 5'8'', and have gotten very obese over the past 5 years, basically since the first of our children was born and I started working full time after grad school. I've always been "heavy" as people like to say, though I've had a couple of instances in the past where I was able to lose between 15-20 pounds.

Now, though, I am the biggest I have ever been, 254 lbs, and it's a serious impediment to my happiness and my ability to live life on my own terms. My knees and feet hurt, I sweat all the time, I feel my weight when I try to get up or otherwise be physically active, and all that is to say nothing of how generally unattractive I feel. So, there's that.

But, that's as negative as I want to get. I'm joining NF and this forum because I want to change all that, take ownership of my own health, my own body, and my own weight. Coming here, reporting on progress, and sharing advice on what works, what doesn't, and how we can take better care of ourselves and each other is why I'm here and why I'm doing this. A buddy of mine is getting married a year from now, and my goal is to be down from 254 to 180 for his wedding. If I'm doing the math right in my head, that's 74 lbs in a year. A lot of the success stories here inspire me to believe that's not only possible, but very doable with the right attitude. The second piece of course is to stay there for the rest of my life. To change the habits and behaviors that got me here, and overwrite them with better ones for good.

So, away we go. A couple of things come to mind immediately: (1) my job involves a lot of dining out--any tips/tricks people have for managing to eat in (usually pretty nice) restaurants without falling off a cliff, and (2) one of my most brutal habits is stopping someplace for fast food while out running errands or on my way home from work--do folks have replacement habits or techniques they've found helpful in changing that kind of behavior?

Thanks. I'm looking forward to this.

[Barmacral]

Hi, a quick one might be to get a bag of nuts from the bulk food store, and keep that in your car to snack on. It might keep you from going to that fastfood place while out running errands.

[RandomWanderer]

Welcome! I'm 34 also and I just joined a few weeks ago. You will definitely find both a very supportive community here and a community always ready to hold you accountable and keep you going