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Necro

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*WARNING: The following entry contains a fat man with enough hair to make a grizzly bear blush shirtless. While neither obscene nor considered indecent, if you find such sights unpleasant, you have been warned.*

 

So as some of you guys know, way back in 2011, I had jaw surgery. I had a very serious underbite, to the point that, on top of slurring my speech, it caused breathing problems, eating problems, and if left unrepaired, would grind my teeth down prematurely and give me chronic migraines, so both of my jaws were broken and repositioned. I spent time with my jaw wired, and about three months relearning how to eat and how to talk, still on doctor’s orders not to do any exercising of any sort to keep the stitches from popping out.

 

I don’t have the talent to be a professional athlete, but I love competing, so I’d always be playing sports and pickup games in high school. I wasn’t a pinnacle of health, but I was still in good shape, around 210 lbs., and faster than you’d expect a man of my height and weight to be.

 

Unfortunately, that time without exercise sapped me of almost all my energy and muscle. As soon as I got the okay from the doctor to exercise again, instead of easing back and rebuilding myself, I decided to rocket right into a pickup softball game with my buddies later that day, and was dumb enough to take my usual position back in centerfield instead of asking for something like first base or pitcher where I wouldn’t be running around much. Long story short, I spent a significant amount of time lying on my back after the game, completely exhausted. I also had a sore right leg, which I figured was just being out-of-shape.

 

That right leg soreness lingered whenever I’d exercise, so I just figured I’d need to exercise is a bit more strenuously to get it back into shape. This was a very bad decision, to put it lightly. The pain got worse, more frequent, and spread over more of my leg, and once the school year ended, I made an appointment with a doctor, and a few X-rays later, I learned that the pain wasn’t because I was out-of-shape, it was because I had a stress fracture in my tibia that probably first started as fairly minor injury from that softball game. Because of my treatment of it though, by the time I got the diagnosis, the doctor said that it was bad enough that it was a miracle I hadn’t had a more serious fracture as a result of it yet.

 

So, cue two months stuck in a walking boot. This also meant that I missed out on the intramural flag football because it’s hard to play football in a walking boot, which really hurt since I had been putting together a team with my friends.

 

How does any of this relate to my weight loss? Well, part of relearning to eat after my jaw surgery was eating only soft foods for a long time, which destroyed all of my good eating habits. Then between the surgery and the boot, every single one of my good exercise habits disappeared too. As a result, I was eating worse, eating more, and doing nothing to work it off. I went from a fit 210 to an unhealthy 248.

 

Once I got out of the boot, I was determined to do two things: Take it slow this time so I’d never have to wear it again - something that seems to be going well so far, if the intramural softball championship is any indicator - and get down to a healthy weight. I was determined I wouldn’t let myself get over 250 lbs.

 

tumblr_n7udp1lguU1sjr5s6o1_1280.jpg

 

The first photos I took one year ago today, the first day I decided to start losing weight. I haven’t done anything drastic, I’ve mainly just cut down my proportions(Especially on lunch, which is less a meal and more to tide me over until dinner now), turned regular unhealthy meals into occasional treats, cut out a ton of snacking, and eliminated any drinks other than water and protein shakes. Not even gatorade or milk, just clean, healthy water(Which I’d consume copiously; I’m one of those weirdos that drinks before every bite of food, and I go through more in a day than most people probably do in a month. I bought one of those 24-packs of 16 oz. waterbottles once, and I got through all of it in a week just drinking normally).

 

Exercise hasn’t been anything strenuous, 30 minutes on an exercise bike when time permits, the tension exercises the doctor gave me to build up my leg, and at least 60 sit-ups and push-ups a week, split up into ten rep intervals spread across the week so I don’t strain anything.

 

As of this morning, I’m down to 215 lbs. I feel happier, healthier, lighter, faster, and my mind even seems clearer and more efficient too. My goal is to get down to 200 lbs., then start building myself back up(As slim as my belly’s gotten, my chest is still boobs instead of pecs, and my arms are still chicken wings). I’m proud of 33 lbs. in a year though, especially considering that I feel stronger, meaning I’ve added muscle, so I’ve probably burned a lot more fat than 33 lbs.

 

So why am I sharing this? Mainly because there’s not a lot of stuff like this. There’s a lot of weight-loss encouragement, but almost all of it is either from subscription-based diet, some radical change in lifestyle, or some miracle drug weight loss supplement. There’s nothing that tells people “You can get healthy without buying our meal plan or our vitamins and hiring our personal trainer!”. All of it is commercialized to try and make money off of people that need genuine help and encouragement, not placebo effect vitamins and a former NFL player that doesn’t know fitness beyond what his coaches told him yelling at them.

 

I’m not going to lie, it’s not easy, and it’s not quick. You have to work at it, you have to want to do it, and you have to be patient. I didn’t see any real changes until a few months ago when I looked at those old photos from last year. It’s a gradual thing. But it’s not as hard as you think it is, and it’s not as slow as you think it is.

 

I had every excuse in the book not to lose weight. I had injuries that kept me form exercising, I had a busy schedule that kept me from exercising, I had a sedentary workload that kept me in a chair, I had a college dining hall with really unhealthy food options, I have an underactive thyroid, which not only makes it difficult to lose weight and easy to gain it but also makes it had to develop muscle and makes you fatigue easily, I have a ton of stress in my life(Stress is proven to negatively impact weight loss), I have insomnia(Sleep deprivation also negatively impacts weight loss), I’m a large man from a family of large people, if you can think of an excuse for why someone can’t lose weight, I have it. And I still lost a decent amount of weight in one year.

 

 

If you’re happy with your body, if you’re happy with your weight, then that’s great. Ultimately, that’s the most important thing. Being comfortable with your body and your health is more important than anything else with it. But I wasn’t happy with my body or with my health. I got discouraged a lot, because everyone else I knew was either fat and happy being such, or naturally thin and healthy. But I kept working, and I got results, and I want to show those results for other people who, like me, felt alone and discouraged because everyone else they knew was happy with their body, and everyone else they knew was either further along than them, or happy being overweight, which there’s nothing wrong with, but when you see people you like enjoying something that you’re trying to cut out, it’s hard to resist joining in.

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Oh my gosh, I love you for this entry.

 

Glad that you like it :D 

 

 

Way to go, man, way to go! I totally need to be more like you with exersising! B-)

 

:music:

 

Go for it! It's a tough habit to start, but definitely one of the best ones I've developed. It also gives you some great time alone with your thoughts. I love to watch baseball while exercising if I can, but generally I can't, and the amount of time it gives me with my mind free to think and organize itself is just as rewarding mentally as the exercise is physically!

 

 

Looks like you got a new phone too. :P

 

In all seriousness, congratulations!

 

Yes I did :lol: This also showcases how dramatic a leap forward my new phone ended up being. Not only were its pictures much better in terms of contrast and lighting, but they're much higher resolution - while the 2013 photos are full-size, the 2014 photos had to be scaled down significantly to keep it in the image limit!

 

And thanks! :D

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Good stuff dude! My only comment would be the sit-ups/push-ups you're doing. Sit ups are....well, I mean they're almost pointless - definitely not the best core exercise you could be doing. I know you don't want to strain anything, which is fair enough, but hitting some squats/front squats would be more effective. Just 5 sets of 5-7 reps three times a week would do the job, and you'd be hitting your whole body with the move.

 

Push ups are a decent exercise, the only downside is that there isn't much room for progression - you're using your bodyweight, so the weight isn't changing (well, it is, as you've said - it's going down ;) ). Increasing the weight lifted is vital to gaining muscle (and burning fat as a result), so replacing push ups with bench press (again, 5 sets of 5-7 reps, 3 times a week) would allow you to progress the weight you're lifting (and is generally regarded as a better exercise that hits multiple areas.

 

As you say, you don't want to strain anything, but if you were wanting to mix it up in future, you could do something along these lines. But yeah, sit ups aren't really worth the time they take - if squats are too much, maybe try out some leg raises instead? Until recently, my 3-times a week workout was:

Squats

Deadlifts

Bench Press

Overhead Press

Curls

Bent Over Rows

Dips

 

4 sets of 5-7 reps (at a weight that means you hit failure at around that mark) on all exercises, except Bench Press and Squats which have 5 sets. This was my beginners workout (and is the one most people use), which I've now progressed into an upper body/lower body split 4 days a week. But yeah, this is getting weight-y which ain't really your focus right now.

 

Keep that cardio focus, though. Maybe do some HIIT. Also (depending on how obsessive you want to get about it) you could calculate your macros, find out exactly how much carbs/protein/fat and calories you need. You can find out the amount you'd need to stay at your current weight, and from there work out how many you'd need to be steadily (and permanently) losing weight, whilst maintaining the muscle you have right now. Requires tracking everything you eat in a spreadsheet, so it's a bit obsessive, buuuut it basically guarantees success.

 

You've clearly had success as it is, so you could just keep doing what you're doing. This is all just food for thought - the core aspects of fitness/bodybuilding which (for some reason) are not common knowledge, because companies prefer to sell their diet shakes and fad workouts rather than helping people to LEARN about stuff. A personal pet peeve for me are diets which work in 'points' - so a cake is worth so many points, an apple is worth some other amount, and you're allowed so many a day. It's so patronising and, if you're doing numbers, you might as well teach people about calories and macros - REAL things.

 

ANYWAY. GOOD JOB. But I'd find an alternative to sit ups. :D

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Really appreciate all the info - anything I can get to help is appreciated! Not all of it is applicable since, at the moment, my money's being stretched thin too many ways, and I have an internship instead of a summer job so can't add to it, so buying weights is out, but the rest of it I should be able to apply :D

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Had to come back to this entry to do this:

 

blogstamp.jpg

 

Do bzpeeps still do these?  Ah well, I missed out on the first wave.

 

I don't see why they shouldn't. If they don't, then it can be a cool underground retro thing!

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