I grew up playing sports all the time. I think that’s the only reason I didn’t get obese as a kid. When I was in junior high school and high school, my eating habits were pretty bad, and I was getting dull just by playing sports. In high school he did powerlifting for three years, but I can’t say I learned. how to train how Eat. I mostly went as heavy as possible with every workout until something hurt.
I rarely exercised in college, and my poor diet caught up with me and made it worse. That’s what happens.’ For six years, I started losing weight every New Year’s Day, but like most people, I stopped by February or March. I wasn’t feeling very well, but when I thought about losing weight, dieting, and exercising, I was overwhelmed and it was tough. Ultimately, I settled on the “I’m going to be a short, fat, bearded weirdo” mentality.
In September 2021 my wife and I went on vacation. I (halfway through) promised to lose weight and take care of myself when I got back. However, we took his ATV tour and ended up on a zipline tour followed by snorkeling in caves and cenotes. About halfway through the zipline segment, my body temperature went through the roof. I was dizzy, blurry, and couldn’t breathe. I was worried whether I would be able to return to my daughter.
I recovered, but the feeling stayed with me. I was 255.2 pounds when I got home. I’m not sure if it was my heavy, but I took that as a starting point, aiming to get down to 170. I knew I didn’t want to feel like I felt in that jungle.
rethinking food
I’ve tried a few different “weight loss journeys” in the past and never hit a dead end. I think it led to burnout syndrome. This time, I started slowly, repairing my relationship with food.
I started with intermittent fasting to help create dietary boundaries. Initially, I was losing over five pounds a week. I also focused on macro splits and started learning how to read nutrition labels (a lot of googling and self research and trial and error here and there.
Take it easy at the gym
For the first few months, my only exercise was an occasional walk on the block. About two months later, I started going to a local gym. Instead of jumping in and trying to be super heavy and super hard right away, I lightened it as slowly as possible.
Over time, I slowly added more exercises and increased the weight I lifted. I did sets of 8 to 12 repetitions.
I hit 170 pounds in June 2022, about nine months after starting, and have been working on maintenance ever since.
Even now, when I look in the mirror, it’s pretty shocking. The main reason is how I see myself, what I imagine when I think about myself because I was so heavy in his 8-10 years. Taking care of my body has greatly improved my mental health. I feel better physically, emotionally and spiritually. I sleep well
I had reached my goal and was able to maintain that weight pretty well, so I needed a new challenge. I have a weight class, which makes training interesting. I will be competing in his 165 lb bench press and deadlift at the end of April.
My advice to anyone starting out is to show up for yourself every day. What you do today, tomorrow, next week may not show immediate results, but a month from now. Your new self, your self in 6 months, etc. will benefit from what you are sowing now. Focus on changing your life, not just the endpoint of a number on the scale.
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