Call me Ishmael. No, wait. That's taken already.

[moose004]

Call me Lewis instead, because that's, y'know, my name.

 

I'm new here.  I am 46 years old, married to the same wonderful woman for almost 12 years now, with one daughter aged 7.  I live outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, and I work out of my house for a major IT consulting firm, right now doing software testing for a big financial company.

 

I am fat.  I've always been fat, or at least pudgy.  I was a fat doughy klutzy kid and teenager, I put on 40 pounds in college when I discovered the joys of pizza, and I've been at or over 300 pounds for the majority of my adult life.  The one significant break in that was 10 years ago when I picked up a bad cellulitis infection on my right shin and that led to a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.  I freaked out and we went on Atkins.  I lost 55 pounds, down to about 260, but I wasn't able to stick with it and I gained it all back.  I haven't managed it very well for the most part, I'll admit that.

 

A few months ago, I realized I needed to get serious about things.  My work performance was suffering because my brain was fogged all the time due to glucose.  My moods were swinging all over the place.  My wife, who's dealt with cyclical depression herself, was spotting the signs of it in me.  So I went to the doctor and got on medication (metformin and Lantus).  And about the same time, we picked up a puppy.  He's a now-5-month-old Great Pyrenees/German Shepherd mix named Bear (aka "Panzerdog"), and taking him for walks started getting me back into exercise.  So I started going back to the local YMCA where we have a membership.

 

Now, from what little I've read on the site, I don't know that I'm a full-on Revolutionary...I'm using the weight machines at the Y alternating with swimming and walking the dog anywhere from a half-mile to a mile-and-a-half a day, I'm just not in shape to do push-ups and stuff like that.  But at the start of April I weighed 328 at the doctor's office, and at the start of May I weighed 313 on the same scale.  Today at the Y, I weighed either 306 or 296 depending on which cheap bathroom scale I used.  So I go with 306.  That's 22 pounds down in two months through medication, diet (I still don't eat right, but I do eat a good bit less), and exercise.  I'm using Runkeeper and WeightTraining.com to track my exercising because I'm kind of OCD about stuff like that.

 

Now, I am also a nerd.  I have been a PC gamer since 1988 and my original 7.14 MHz dual-floppy Leading Edge Model D.  I've played World of Warcraft for over eight years and my mains are a 90 Tauren warrior and 90 dwarf hunter, both on Feathermoon-US (an RP server).  I used to blog about WoW at http://panzercow.wordpress.com when I was more active.  I'm also currently into Planetside 2, iRacing, Neverwinter beta, SWTOR, and EVE when I feel like dropping a month's subscription money and reactivating my account.  I go back to the days of the original blue single-volume basic D&D book (circa 1977) and am still kicking myself for ditching a complete set of first-printing AD&D 1st Edition books, including a Deities and Demigods before they had to pull stuff out due to copyright reasons.  Oh, and I've had a ham radio license since 1992.

 

I don't want to be fat anymore.  I don't want to be depressed anymore.  I don't want to be a klutz anymore.  I don't want to feel cripplingly self-conscious walking across a pool deck or wearing a pair of shorts.  I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.  I want my brain to work again.  I want to be here to see my daughter graduate and maybe walk her down the aisle one day.  I'm 46, I'm too young to feel like this.

[Guest Dirty Deads]

I know how you're feeling. I had always been big and was 330 in 6th grade. I did get to 235 thanks to metformin and boxing, but a bad relationship followed by the death of my mom lead me to my current 375.  Great success so far. Whenever you feel yourself slowing down and not wanting to go (it happens to us all) remember, you have no good reason not to go. So, get some solid goals set up and let us help you reach them. Make sure you report to us how you're doing often, especially if you're not doing well.

[SirHammerlock]

Hey Lewis,

 

to say I know how you feel, too, would be presumptuous, since I started weight loss at 184 pounds. But I had that feeling, too, depressed, unhappy with my body, and I didn't want to look in the mirror anymore. I felt tired and weary almost all the time and had problems concentrating. After I had tried to lose weight a few times before, I discovered NF and decided to give it a try for one month to see if I got results. And along with Paleo, I actually did, and I can say, I have never felt better in my life (as long as I can remember). So, let me tell you: It is totally worth it! Whenever you have troubles in motivation or you're hitting a plateau, just remember what you said: You never want to be like that anymore. YOU CAN REALLY DO IT! And, as Evil Midnight Bomber posted, refer to the NF-Community, if you're having problems, because you are not alone, and we all have problems from time to time keeping going.

[Duality]

You've come to the right place sir. Welcome to NF. The people here are NF are the greatest, they'll help you on good days, bad days, regular days, everyday, there's always someone on with good advice to help you overcome any obstacle you face.

 

If your determination is strong and you dedicated yourself, you can acheive what ever you wish.

 

G'day sir.

[WriterGuy]

I can honestly sympathize with you. I have been feeling the same way for quite some time, but I can honestly say that this is the place to ground yourself and go for a more stable life-changing set of habits.