I've been lurking for a while but in the last few days I have decided to get serious about my weight loss. I am 24m 6' and 248 pounds, %23.3 body fat. Before summer I was down to 224 but I have gotten off track in recent months and gained all of the weight back.
Growing up I was always kind of "husky" until I hit puberty and became fairly lean. I was extremely active and athletic playing multiple sports so I was never concerned with what I was putting in my body.
When I began college I fell into some bad habits. Terrible sleep schedule, lots of fast food and binge drinking on weekends. I didnt play college sports so my activity levels dropped off somewhat even though I still went to the gym and played intramural sports. Then I found out my girlfriend, who I had been dating since junior year of high school, was pregnant.
By my sophomore year of college I had a son and a wife, we were lucky enough to be able to live together on campus in a family housing unit. Which was great honestly, but this is when my health started to turn. I spent all of my time in class, studying, or with my family.
I slowly started gaining weight until I caught myself and started running again and going to the gym. My wife is always extremely supportive and never shames me in anyway, unless I ask her to. Having been an athlete and working primarily in male dominated fields, to that point, tough love is something I am accustomed to.
Entering my senior year of college I found out my wife was pregnant again, even though she had an IUD. By the time I graduated I was 22 with 2 kids. Oh and our university notified us that they decided to shut down family housing units because they could make more money by housing international students there.
So we were essentially homeless and forced to move in with my mother-in-law (not as bad as it sounds) but the four of us living in one bedroom was not ideal, my son literally slept in a closet. At this time my wife was also accepted to a doctorate of nursing program (youngest ever accepted to this particular program at 21yrs old) so I spent all of my time at home with our newborn daughter and 3 yr old son.
This was when I really started downhill. My hobbies shifted from sports and exercise to netflix, video games, gardening and of course spending time with my kids. Basically things I could do from home. I started to kind of go crazy as a stay at home dad so I ended up applying for a masters program in environmental health and safety which I absolutely loved, graduated this past May. I also got an internship with a prestigious non-profit in my home town and quickly turned it into a part-time job so we were able to move into our own place in a great location. Things were (are) going great in literally every aspect of my life except my fitness.
I think I just got so caught up in school, work and raising a family that everything else just fell to they wayside. Now that my son has started kindergarten and my daughter is in daycare and I have some time to myself I have had an epiphany as to just how badly I have let myself go and it's starting to drag me down in other areas as well.
For about 2 months now I have ridden my bike to work (13 miles round-trip) at least three days a week. But I wasn't counting calories at that time I pretty much just used it as an excuse to over-eat, I hope I've learned my lesson. I already cook almost everything from home and meal-prep to accommodate my family's busy schedule and any juice I drink is watered down to be 1 part juice to 3 parts water. I've also cut out all alcohol for the time being. I've downloaded my fitness pal and plan to log my calories every day, I noticed that since the last time I used it I can no longer search for items and recipes on the web but have to input everything manually, whats up with that?
The majority of this post was just trying to get it out there and create some form of accountability for myself. I'm mostly looking for some good health, nutrition and fitness podcasts or youtube channels to listen to while I'm at work or exercising at home. Any suggestions would be great. You all are so supportive and inspiring I am just glad to be part of this community. If you've invested enough time in this post to get all the way to the bottom I would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and critique.
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2En7ESo
No comments:
Post a Comment