Bringing my defattification project to the Rebellion

[Bernard Marx]

Hello,

 

My name is Pauly, and I'm 28 years old. In the midst of an interesting conversation about hip hop artist names, a friend tossed out that I would be P-Dazzle, and since it was the suggestion that made me laugh the longest, I've adopted that as a moniker and we'll go. A search engine jaunt in search of an answer to a question I had brought me to the NF archives, and after following chains of links from post to post, I decided this is where I want to be.

 

Just about one year ago, my daughter was a month away from being born, and I was getting closer to 300lbs than I had at any point in my life (285lbs). I was sitting at my desk one day and listening to my older coworkers compare notes on their prescriptions, drug costs and diseases. This one pays that much to treat their type 2 diabetes, that one has x dollars a month for cholesterol meds, and y for blood thinners to prevent another heart attack. This other one does depression, blood thinners, acid reflux, and sleep apnea treatments, while the one with a walker from their recent knee replacement is trying to get enough in their FLEX account to cover an elective gastric bypass to reduce the pressure on their overstressed joints,  These people are only 10 to 20 years older than me!!!

 

I realized that if I let myself stay on the path I was on, I was going to be just like them. I'd set a horrible example, and leave my little girl to come into a world and a western lifestyle and diet that makes obesity all too easily with no tools or inspiration to buck that trend. Odds are, that path will kill me long before she's done needing me in her life. I started watching Netflix documentaries about various perspectives on the US obesity crisis to inspire myself to change, and while some of them overstate their claims to gin up support for their positions, I realized that in many ways, without a significant education in nutrition and fitness, the deck is stacked against health. The sheer number of diseases for which the risk can be reduced, or the disease can be prevented with proper nutrition and exercises is staggering. From that point on, I've been working to get that education.

 

I started working on my diet first, and for the first year, I've simply been trying to make one small change at a time to switch to more fruits and veggies and fewer items high in sugar or hydrogenated oils. I have been counting calories as a means to accountability (I don't flip out if I go over, but I look over my journal every week and see what I've eaten that may not have been the best choice, and what was good. That donut on Tuesday, well that didn't help me, but the two eggs and a banana on wednesday were good kind of thing). Going through diet alone and trying to ensure a caloric deficit brought my weight down to 253 as of this morning. Ultimately, in the long term, I'm looking to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 flat. I'm not sure exactly, but right arount 200 is the top of the normal BMI range for my height.

 

I felt joining the NF boards today would be appropriate, because after working on diet alone, today I took the first steps to adding in fitness. My work prioritizes wellness as a way of controlling healthcare costs, so we have onsite gym facilities and personal trainers (that I haven't really taken advantage of in 5 years except using the locker room to change when I bike commuted a few times). This morning, I had them perform a fitness assessment to help me find my strengths and weaknesses. With a body fat % of 28.5, I definitely have some room to go, and let's just say that my numbers of push ups and pull ups were the stuff of Presidential fitness test nightmares for chubby kids across the country. At least for the evaluation, the trainer did most of them in a semi private section of the gym so she was the only witness to my worst performances. That's why we do this though, right? To get better. My initial plan was to follow the trainer's plan for a couple months until I've made my trips to the gym habitual, and then I think I will use the resources right here to adjust it to fit better after I finish that first month. 

 

At this point, my second child (gender as yet TBD) is coming in late May, and I for sure want to follow through on this and set my habits for a lifetime so I can have them grow up with a solid role model, and I want to make the most drastic changes in the next few years so hopefully, they grow up never even remembering when daddy was unhealthy.

[K-Prime]

Welcome to the boards! And congratulations on the growing family. While I don't have any kids, I'm extremely close to my goddaughter (she's 3 1/2) and I totally get wanting to set a good example. Kids are also a lot more fun when you can run around and play with them.