Over the past five months I've been secretly doing some rebuilding. After years of passively taking this thing I've rebuilt apart I finally started putting it back together this past June. I've hinted at it in my "Summer projects" thread - it's the top secret project I said IU would not reveal until it was completed (though a few forum members knew about it for a month or so). And it is now completed (or the first phase and second phases of it are, anyway). I am EXTREMELY pleased with how this rebuilding project has gone.
...And it had nothing to do with the T-Bird or any other car. Nor is it my house or any other building. It is not a mechanical or inanimate object of any kind.
It's me. I have rebuilt me. From the ground up.
Some history:
Back in late January 1998 I was involved in a serious car accident that left me injured and unable to do my job as a mechanic. Since then I'd kinds bounced around between a few unfulfilling or low paying jobs and finally started TC Electronixx years ago, which kept me alive until recently (I won't go into details about it, I"ve already posted about that).
Anyway, during those years I had let my body completely go to hell. I became very lethargic, gained a shiznitload of weight, and let virtually every muscle in my body atrophy to the point I couldn't walk across a parking lot without being winded. My athsma got bad to the point I thought I had COPD. On top of this, I had become addicted to both painkillers (Percoset) and anti-anxiety medication (Ativan), both of which had been prescribed to me by my doctor since the accident. My life, in a physical sense, was circling the drain at the same time it was heading down the shiznitter in an economic sense (the TC Electronixx thing). I was in such bad physical shape that I actually had to get the handicapped sign for the car. After getting it I was too ashamed to actually use it, but it did get that bad.
For years I said to myself "Someday I'll turn this ship around" but that "someday" kept growing more distant. Then in late June I had an epiphany. I don't even know what it was that caused me to say enough, but on the first day of summer I woke up and said "This is the day". I immediately went on a crash diet and gave up all pills that day. The pills were easy. One sleepless night was the extent of my withdrawal, and I have not looked back at them since (I still have an unopened bottle of percoset in my dresser drawer, dunno why I even kept it).
The diet was harder. Much harder. I had become quite used to eating whatever, wherever, whenever, I wanted. My eating habits were disgusting (but very pleasant at the time). The first time I stood on that scale I scared myself. I figured I weighed ~260 pounds or so. My eyeballs almost hit the floor when I saw I had let myself balloon to 293 shaging pounds. The only thing that kept my jaw from hitting the floor was that my gut prevented it. I set my goal that day: Drop at least 93 pounds. I wanted to see a "1" in front of my weight number again, instead of the "3" that I came very close to.
It wasn't just diet. I wanted to lose the weight, but I also wanted to get back into shape. A few weeks into the diet I bought a home gym, I was walking (and when the weather was good, swimming), and just recently I bought a treadmill.
Anyway, after a bit under 5 months, on Saturday, November 7, 2009 I finally hit that goal yesterday. I got on the scale and it displayed 199 pounds.
That's a loss of 94 pounds in under 20 weeks. I went from a size 44 pants down to a size 34 (and still shrinking). I was so fat I actually refused to wear jeans, and was wearing jogging pants, but I had to buy a pair of dress pants to go to my brother's wedding last year and they were size 42 and tight, so 44 sounds about right when I started the diet. My "XL" leather jacket which was previously too small now hangs off me.
I feel 20 years younger and look at least 10 years younger. I think I'm in better shape now than I'd ever been (I was skinny before, but not "in shape"). And since losing the weight and getting into shape I have not needed my athsma puffer at all. Not even once. And all back pain from the accident is gone, except for some minor discomfort after a particularly hard day at work. I think I've found the cure for back injuries: Let the muscles completely disappear, then let them grow back from scratch!
Anyway, here's the chart I'd been keeping, tracking my weight loss. The first week had a silly amount of weight loss, but that's to be expected when you suddenly cut about 30,000 daily calories from your diet (plus I was probably retaining a lot of water). After that first week I averaged about 5 pounds a week, until recently when I reigned the diet in a bit to prevent continuing losing weight when I hit my goal (I wanted to achieve the goal, not smash through it). So here are the results, in numbers, of my "Back away from the fork" diet:
(http://www.foxthundercats.net/images/weightloss.jpg)
Congrats dude.
Congrats!
Man, that is awesome. I'm sure you probably feel worlds better, and have more energy too.
I've always taken for granted my weight, because i've been skinny since I was a kid, but now I'm starting to put on a few pounds, and while I like the idea..I want it to be muscle, not flab in gut or legs lol.
I think my biggest thing is the amount of soda I drink...it IS starting to get a little out of hand...10-12 cans a day.
Anyway, congrats!
Congrats on the hard work,and taking the effort to actually make things happen.How about a new pic?
This is an awsome thread, seems like many people out there could benefit from your plan. No matter how you live, it always results in things you dont like about yourself. Getting up the ambition to change is something many refuse to do.
I like the fact that you stopped the pain killers and you can move around now without getting winded.
Sounds like progress to me man!
Next summer is looking even better now isnt it? You should be a totally different person.
maybe i should rebuild myself,, my interpersonal attitued about things that get to me.
either way, I am happy for you.
I have a friend who let himself go so long that i fear he will be the death of himself. No clothing fits that are locally available. Food bills dominate his budget , computers enable him to stay stationary, yet he has no job and is on social secuity disability. He's only 35. I worry about him so much but in the same breath i dont waste time telling him he did it to himself. Depression is his main problem and over time to include a half dozen stents near his heart, he's just about all fugged up for getting any life back he wasted.
survival of the fittest , looks like your there!
Nice, so think you might be all energetic enough to make a few special "final run" sequential kits? :P
Congrats on making such a difficult but beneficial life change. :)
I've been looking at a 3 for the first number on my scale for the better part of a decade now. I don't like to, but I've had a LOT of trouble keeping weight off when I lose it. I can get down to the 280lb range pretty easily but I have a lot of trouble keeping it there or lower. My natural weight (and by natural I mean without controlling myself and nothing more) is between 330 and 340lbs. I'm 6' and built pretty large, so that's a 42-44" waist on me.
You're living my dream man. I don't want to get under 200, but if I could weigh in at around 225 I would be one happy man. At this point I would be happy to just keep it below 260.
Congrats on the achievement. I bet you feel like a whole new man.
Very Impressive, congrats! Glad to hear you did it the old fashioned way too!
Congrats, awesome!!!
I just realized, you weigh less than me(6' 1", 205), I'd be happy to loose 15lbs...
Congrats :D
You're reminding me that I have to loose some weight. I weighed 155 for the longest time (I'm 5'8") and I weighed myself for the first time in two years and I now weigh 168 :punchballs:. I've gotta loose about 15 lbs. I think I just need to start jogging again since I sit all day at work....
Congrats!
I've been trying to loose some weight too. I'm 6' 230lbs and I would be happy being below 200.
Sorry for taking so long to reply, guys, I've been crazy busy and have only been able to nip in and out of the forum on my Blackberry lately. Thanks to all for your support and warm comments. They mean a lot to me. I can't reply to everyone, but I've picked out a few posts to reply to:
It's strange... I have been expending much more energy (between exercising and the new job) and taking in much less energy (probably 1/4 the calories I used to take in) yet my energy reserves are much, much higher.
I took my weight for granted for years. I was skinny as a rake (6'3", ~180 lbs) right up until that car accident in my late 20's. I'll never take my weight for granted again. As for soda, I used to drink a half dozen cans daily. I gave it up entirely and now drink a half dozen bottles of water a day (I drink bottled water only because I don't trust my well, not because I'm a bottled water drinking snob)
It is progress of the best kind. And as a side effect I made my car slightly faster to boot :mullet: What is it they say, you gain a tenth for every 100 pounds of weight you take out? Now my car should be under 20 seconds :hick:
Indeed. Not only will I be much healthier, I'll actually have money :D
I hadn't had any heart problems yet, but I was a ticking time bomb. My getting winded so easily had to be hard on my heart (or more likely was a result of an overworked heart). Anyway, heart disease runs in my family - my grandfather and several uncles dropped dead from sudden heart attacks. One uncle was only in his late 30's. I did have one thing in my favour, though - they were all heavy drinkers and smokers, and I am neither (I gave upo smoking about 8 years ago).
Not a chance. Enjoying the freedom of not dealing with people too much to ever look back ;)
I can honestly say I can relate. It's not an easy task. I have quit smoking, I've quit the painkillers, and I have lost all this weight, and I can tell you that by far the weight loss was the most difficult of the three. People say I made it look easy by dropping so much weight so fast, but it was not even close to easy. Even my best friend (the television) was against me, constantly bombarding me with fast food commercials. At least smoking and drugs have social stigmas that encourage you to quit, but trying to diet you're constantly assaulted with "peer pressure", so to speak. The big reason I succeeded is that I am one pig-headed son of a bitch, and when I set my mind to something it gets done or I kill myself trying. My problem was in finally setting my mind to doing it. For years I'd said to myself "Some day", and that day kept just out of my reach until now.
I remember 168 pounds... I think I weighed that when I was 14 or so :shakeass:
When I first started this diet I was not gonna tell anyone, for fear that if I failed I'd look a fool. The weight came off so fast, though, that I had to tell friends & family, else everyone would think I was dying of cancer or something. Even once it became obvious that I was succeeding I kept it secret from the forum because I figured it'd be more dramatic if I posted after the weight loss rather than during it. Now I've just got to contact Subway, lie my ass off and say I lost the weight by eating their cardboard subs, and try for a Jared-esque endorsp00get deal :evilgrin:
Anyway, I will post some before & after pics later on...
Major Congrats Thunder Chicken!!! You're an inspiration to those of us who need to lose the midsection. No offense intended to anyone here, I'm referring to myself.
congrats TC I got alitle chubby in my year of being unemployed but now that I've been back to working I've lost some weight mainly my gut and replaced a lot with muscle. feeling a whole lot better in the process makes me want to do more but time seems to be shorter when I get home from work :mad:
That is awesome Carm... I am hoping someday soon, I can make a similar post...
but a good friend of mine once told me that even though it would be nice to lose the weight, my husband and kids love me and that's what really matters. I try to remember that every time I look in the mirror.... it's the only think that keeps me from going crazy over it.
OK, here are some pics. As you can well imagine, I was rather camera shy because of my size, so "before" pics are hard to come by. These two are the only "before" pics I could find (first pic was taken two years ago at my brother's wedding, so I was actually even heavier than shown here, second pic was taken last winter)
...and these are the "after". The first was taken a month ago on Canadian Thanksgiving, at about 208 lbs. The second was taken just moments ago at 198.8 lbs (I'm actually wearing the same clothes in this pic that I was wearing in the second "before" pic, above). The third is my documentation of my current weight :mullet:
[SIZE="7"]Wow[/SIZE], words escape me, so that's all I got.
hells yeah! congrats!
Hooooly shiznit!!!!! You look like a totally different person. Good job man!!! :cheers:
And good thinkin' on the dropped ET's as a result :hick: :rollin:
WIN!!
Great job and congrats!
Wow is that even the same person? Congrats:D
congrats.
i too need to drop about 100 pounds, 5'9, 280...mind if i ask what your diet consists of?
Awesome!
Absolutley incredible... very inspiring!!
Congrats man! That's awsome that you where able to stick to it. About 6 years ago I was the best Man in my sister's wedding, I made it a goal to lose some weight and I did, I lost 40lbs. in 3 or 4 months. But I did it all wrong, I over did diet pills. I took two different types of pills, I was so jazzed up I couldn't sit still and if I tried my eyes felt like they where bouncing in my head. Well the over dose of caffeen caused me to have problems with my inner ears, I retained fluid in them and eventually ended up having to have the stapee bone removed in both my ears and a prostethes put in its place. I still have ringing in my ears but at least I can hear again. On top of that I've gain it all back and more, now I'm at my heaviest 240lbs and at 5'9" I'm way too heavy. I know I need to lose but it's hard to get my mind set on it and to stick to it. And I'm not going back to the diet pills so hopfully when I finally get on the ball and get this weight off I'll be able to keep it off this time. Again congrats!
that's some good progress right there Carm.
Holy dude, congrats!!! big improvement man, you must feel great now.
Very nicely done. I've already taken the before pics, just gotta start losing weight and get some after pics. Lol.
Amazing!!! I would imagine you feel alot better/healthier.
The difference in the way I feel is incredible. I have far, far more energy. I can zip up and down the stairs repeatedly with no breathlessness. I haven't touched my athsma puffer since starting the diet.
That brings up another few benefits of losing the weight. First, the athsma. I was at the point that I would have an athsma attack at the slightest physical exertion, especially in cold weather, and even worse if there was the slightest hint of smoke in the air. It was this issue that caused me to get the handicapped permit: Walking through a parking lot on a cold day and getting a sniff of exhaust smoke would send me into a thermonuclear athsma attack. I was convinced, and my doctor was leaning that way also, that I had COPD. Turns out I was just really, REALLY out of shape. I lost most of the weight and did most of the exercises in warm weather, and by doing so I made my heart and lungs that much healthier that I don't have athsma attacks at all anymore, even in the cold and with wood smoke thick in the air. I probably still have athsma, but I've yet to trigger an attack, even when jogging. And the jogging: I had never, EVER jogged, even when I was a kid. I walked a lot, and rode bicycles a lot (even into adulthood), but never jogged. A few weeks ago I started jogging and have been getting better and better. I went two miles yesterday in minus ten (celsius) weather, running at 5.5-6 MPH (according to my GPS) and didn't kill myself. Six months ago I'd have killed myself just by thinking about jogging two miles.
Another health benefit: My digestive system is actually working. Before I started eating better I washiznitting the shiznitter 5-6 times a day, and when I went it was urgent. My doctor thought I might have colitis, as I'd been like that for years (even before putting the weight on). Turns out it was just that I was eating too many really, really bad foods (something I did before getting fat, too, just smaller portions). Now I'm eating better I have been quite... um... regular (there's a sign of age, talking about regularity). Before, even the slightest urge for a BM quickly turned into a frantic search for a shiznitter, quite literally so fast I'd have to break a sentence off. Now I can hold it in all day.
Dougy Fresh:
My "Before" diet on a typical day would have been like this:
Breakfast: 4 eggs (no yolks, I can't eat egg yolks), 1/4 pound bacon, a toasted english in, a can of grape or orange soda, and a half dozen chocolate chip cookies. Often before even getting out of bed I'd polish off the last bit of the 8-ounce bag of chips I'd started on before bed.
Between breakfast and lunch I'd just constantly eat: Cookies, chips, candy, chocolate bars, etc. A few more cans of soda.
Lunch: A full box of K-D
Between lunch and supper I'd constantly snack again
Supper: depended on my mood, but quantities were very large. For example, if I ate tacos it'd be a half dozen of 'em. Sloppy Joes would be a half dozen. Hamburgers, I'd eat two, with a huge plate of fries. If it was pork chop night I'd eat three. T-bone steaks? Two 16-ouncers. If I went fast food it'd be a 4-piece KFC meal with fries, gravy, and soda or a Baconator combo from Wendys. Pizza, I'd eat half to 3/4 of a 16" pie PLUS a half a 12" garlic fingers. You'll note vegetables are not mentioned here. I ate very few vegetables.
Dessert would depend on what was handy. Apple pies, pound cakes, cookies, etc.
A few hours after supper I'd be foraging again, usually doing something stupid like tossing two pounds of chicken wings into the deep fat frier or driving to a fast food joint for a Big Mac meal or something equally gross. A few hours after that I'd toss back the better part of an 8-ounce bag of chips (the remainder would be finished before breakfast tomorrow morning).
The next day I'd do it all again. Cripes, I think I just gained eight pounds typing that out.
The diet days would go like this:
Breakfast: A bowl of Mini Wheats, or Shreddies, or something similar. Maybe, on a weekend, I'd have a couple of yokless eggs, a few slices of lean ham, and an english in. A can or glass of fruit juice.
Dinner: One pork chop, or one small T-bone, or one extra-lean hamburger. Some corn or carrots, and a "Noodles & Sauce" side dish. Bowl of garden salad. Once a week I'd treat myself to a sub (rarely Subway, usually Quiznos or a local deli). Even less frequently I'd sneak into a KFC for a chicken sandwich (not a combo, just the sandwich). I figured as long as I was having junk as a meal it wasn't as bad as having it for a snack.
That's it. I completely cut out ALL between meal snacks, desserts, and soda. When I say ALL snacks, I mean ALL. Not even "low-cal" or "low fat". This was just as much about kicking the snacking habit as it was losing weight. The only sugary drinks I had were juice, which has just as many calories as soda but at least the "juice" calories bring some vitamins to the party, whereas soda is like drinking malted battery acid. I also drink about a million bottles of water a day.
You'll note i did not starve myself. I merely cut out all extraneous food. That was the key to my weight loss. You may also note I skipped lunch. That's because before I got the job I wouldn't roll out of bed until 10:30 or so anyway, and had supper at about 3:30 to 4:00. When I started working it coincided with my getting near my goal, so I added lunch to the daily routine (a sandwich, or homemade sub, or frozen Lean Cuisine thing, plus an apple or orange). I added the extra meal becaue A) I was burning more calories and B) I wanted to gently glide into my goal weight, not crash into it. Simply put, I didn't want to keep losing weight at the rate I'd been losing it, for fear I'd keep losing it. You can actually see in the chart in my original post how the slope leveled off toward the end - that was on purpose. Now you'll see it continue to drop slowly until I hit the middle of my target range (I will update it weekly, on Mondays or Tuesdays), then it will fluctuate for awhile as I try to find my "sweet spot", food intake wise.
Once I do, I will continue to monitor my weight and catch any potential problem as it starts, instead of letting it get out of hand and then trying to undo the damage. As God is my witness, I'll never be fat again...
Good for you man, it sounds like you have put alot of thought into it. It defenately sounds like you'll be able to keep it off. Sometimes that's as hard as losing the weight in the first place.
man, thats awesome. i had to crash change my diet 4 years ago when i found i was type 2 diabetic. went cold turkey on the pop. same with fast food. never was much on candy sugary stuff but i had enough weak moments. i eat alot better than what i did but not as good as i should. sweets/treats are kept at a minumum so as to guide my 4 year old in the right direction. most snacks are fruit or yogurt. sometimes fruit chews or he'll share a fresh tomato with me. milk, juice (cut with water) or water is what he gets to drink. ZERO pop/soda for him. i was thin all thru highschool then slowly balloned up when i could eat/drink whatever i wanted being on my own. beer and junk food built the gut then junk maintained it. went from 180 in hs (1985) to 300 about 10 years ago. i thank god for being laid off permamnent from my "desk" job and going full time on my feet all day. i could go on and on but CONGRATS!
How are you liking the new job? What you've done is something I don't think I could do. I used to weigh around 245, but at 6'4" that still isn't bad. The doctor at my last physical said I should weigh at least 215. Right now I'm around 185 and before I got fired from my last job I was at 155.
:rollin::rollin::rollin::rollin: