I am turning 40 tomorrow, I was saying to my wife a while ago I got less than 12 hours left of my 30’s! I am not a good ager, it took me six months to get over turning 30, lol. They say age is just a number, and some days my number feels like 102.
I have spent the last 13 or so years fat and unhealthy. I have not been under 200 lbs since 1999. In 2010 when I was scared straight by a heart attack scare and proceeded to lose 30 lbs and maintain that for 9 months, I got to literally 200.3 lbs. Certain numbers on the scale have become a very big head trip for me. Something I have been working on for quite some time. Getting under 210 has been tough for me since mid 2011, and before that it was 200. I weighed in on xmas eve at 235 after a high of 246 in early September. It’s been an up and down year.
I have spent the afternoon looking through old pictures, some of which you will see below. I have taken literally hundreds of “before” pictures over the years. I have been blogging about fitness/health/weight loss for over ten years. Here is a post from Dec 2002. I have been struggling with this journey for a very long time. After the struggling I have gone through in December with migraines and two go rounds of the flu, in the past I would have given up, or started a new blog, or worse. I am not running away and hiding, and I am not giving up. The plan was to start P90x on the second, and thats still the plan.
For nutrition, I am going to continue on with Weight Watchers. I am switching to the online version for a couple months just as a cost saving measure (I can get 3 months online for the price of 1 month of meetings). I had been struggling with the same 4 pounds for 10 weeks, as of Dec 13th or so, when due to sickness I went off the rails. I will be rejoining weight watchers, Tuesday at the latest. I do enjoy the weight watchers way of nutrition, I find it liveable and I don’t feel deprived when eating this way. I will continue this way of eating, and after 3 months of doing it online will re-evaluate from there.
So, as I mentioned I was just looking through some pictures I have taken over the past few years, and I will post some of them below.
Here’s a pic from a few years ago. Most pictures of me the last 10 years are not going to be great pictures, as I have been anywhere from 30 to 70 lbs overweight. But here’s one that, as I said to my wife, should have been enough to get my ass in gear and get healthy.
This is from August 2007, I hate it. Look at my belly. And its bigger now than it was then .
Here is a comparison pic from a few days after I spent 8 hours hooked up to an ekg machine, and a few months later. The last pic is prob the best shape I was in during the whole decade of my 30’s.
I stayed no more than 208 lbs into the beginning of Dec, when life just piled up on me and I went off the rails. I had lost two family pets, my grandfather, and some other life issues had piled up on me and I just got overwhelmed and said F it, and gave up.
Similar picture to the one up above, again from a few years ago.
From summer of 2010
When it comes right down to it, I need to get healthy. For myself, and for my family. There were friends of mine that jokingly thought I might not see 40. Crossed my mind a few times over the years. I have the use of my legs and my arms, I have no excuse not to get myself moving and to just get it done. Just because I spent the last 14 years unhealthy, doesn’t mean i can’t spend the next 40 healthy. It is up to me and me only. This has to be my focus in 2013.
I spent 5 months off of work in 2012 due to heart, blood pressure and migraine issues. This is yet another reason to get healthy, so not to negatively affect my career. Weight issues do not necessarily cause my blood pressure and migraines, but it surely doesn’t help.
I am ready to take responsibility for, and control of my health. I will be doing the P90x fit test tomorrow before the birthday revelry. I will be starting either Tuesday or Wednesday. Before pics, and fit test results to come tomorrow.
Sounds like you’re on the right path and off to a good start. Keep up the great attitude, keep running, and you’ll be a new man by the end of next year. Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!!! I love p90x! If you’ve never done it before, you’ll get the hang quick and Tony’s jokes will get old fast, my BIGGEST suggestion is mute it and put on your own music!
Good luck.
Happy birthday. Don’t ever give in. It’s never too late. There’s a film clip that does the rounds. It says, ‘it’s not how hard you hit but how you get hit and get back up that is the mark of a champion’. Well, those aren’t the exact words but it’s the gist of things. It sounds like you are a true champion because you keep getting back up.
I have enjoyed reading your blog these past months and look forward to reading it some more in 2013