I've read this thread several times and not responded, but now might be a good time too...
I'm 47, 5'11", and recently weighed in at an all time high of 275 pounds. I have been blessed with and enjoyed excellent health all my life despite being a smoker and being overweight. Things needed to change and I started on both issues 2 weeks ago.
I immediately cut out sodas, I'm feeling a dramatic change from that already. I'm down to 8-10 smokes a day, I should be completely free of them late next week. I've cut out the starches, fructose, and processed foods out of my diet and feel far better already and I've already lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks.
When I was a Marine 20 years ago I was in great shape but a GSW to my right knee made running long distance (my favorite exercise) almost impossible. I tried to counter the loss of running with weight training but it never seemed to maintain my condition like running did so I started gaining weight. By 2000 I had gone from 175 when discharged to 210 and I continued to slowly gain weight until 2008 when my wife passed away. I had stayed around 240 for the 2 years prior but dropped back to 225 after her loss, mostly because I didn't have a beautiful Italian woman pushing pasta on me all the time.
Moving to Minnesota, the land of starches, and having 2 teen-age boys in the house has made the weight come rushing back in a "big" way until I hit the shocking number - 275!
Several things have motivated me recently - health in general, wanting to see these boys grow up, wanting to be healthy and energetic again, and wanting to look at pictures of myself without being shocked. Another motivator that I didn't expect was driving a road course. I hadn't done so in 6-7 years and when I did I realized just how much more strain it put on my body with the extra weight. Holy crap, it wore me out after 5-6 laps!
My Firebird is going to take about 2 years to complete and now as I build it I'm going to rebuild my body so I can enjoy it once complete! Getting down to 175-180 is where I want to be and of course, smoke free. I will post updates as I go along!
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