Weight Loss, The longest journey starts with a single step!

[AeternoSolus]

Hi everyone, I am 52 and work in security with 3 others on our shift. Which means I do very little in terms of exercise, and when at home I do even less being a single man and a gamer. I was 19 stone 12 back then, and had been 21 at one stage. Well, back in June I was diagnosed as borderline diabetic. My doctor said loose weight and eat right and it might never be a problem. To that end me and my team stopped bringing in cake, crisps, biscuits and all the other junk we would eat throughout the night and this was in addition to our meals. On 4th July 2014 we started our diets.

The first thing I did was buy a food log and set myself on 1500 calories a day. This I thought would of been impossible considering the amount I use to eat, but keeping the food log has made all the difference. I see how many calories I am eating for each meal and adjust the next meal accordingly. I cannot stress how much easier this has made my diet, being able to see what I have eaten each day actually makes me feel less hungry. I do have free days where I don't calorie count and can eat whatever I want. But funnily enough even on free days now I just tend to have one big meal, and then after I usually wish I'd had the salad instead

I am now 16 stone 12, 3 stone lighter and have lost half of what I want to. The weight I have lost is equivalent to 19 bags of sugar. Yesterday I carried 24 bags up-stairs and nearly knackered myself, but at the start of my diet I was carrying 38 bags of sugar extra weight and I thought nothing of it (although my body did with backache). Now 19 of those bags have gone and I feel so much better. My waistline has gone from 52 down to 43, another 19 bags (3 stone) to go and I will have reached the weight I want to be. Here's a thing, go to your cupboard and take out 2 bags of sugar and feel the weight. Imagine what another 17 on top of that is like and that's what I have lost so far. Makes you think!

To anyone out there looking to start the seemingly impossible task of weight loss I say, "Go for it". The longest journey starts with a single step. I thought for years "I must lose weight" and never did anything about it, how I wish I'd started sooner. Now when I look back I am not lamenting the wasted time when I could have been losing the weight, I am thinking "YES, I am doing it."

Make the decision, take the first step. The steps will get easier and easier believe me, and in 4 months you could be looking back at the you you use to be, and you too could be thinking "YES, I am doing it!"

Good luck to you all.

AeternoSolus

[Windswept1]

Well done, that's a very inspiring post and the better you feel the more motivation you will have to carry on.

[AeternoSolus in reply to Windswept1]

Hi Windswept1, you are perfectly right in what you say. Many people eat because they are unhappy with their size, so they eat more to comfort themselves thus gaining more weight. It is a vicious circle that can be incredibly hard to break. But once you take the stand and say "no more", eat right and exercise the weight starts falling off. Then once it starts falling off you feel so much better about yourself and more motivated to continue. I'd almost got to the point where I thought I could never be thin again and began to accept my life and probable early death.

My dear brother Bob died 5 years ago aged 59 through a diabetes related illness. He and I were so much alike, in interests, looks and body size...he was MY hero and I loved him dearly. After that I worried that I might suffer the same fate but felt powerless to change. Then I was diagnosed as borderline diabetic and it was the kick up the backside I needed. I made the decision there and then to change my life.

I don't want to get preachy here, but I do believe in God, and I believe that nothing bad can ever happen to us as everything works towards God's plan. It is only my limited human perception that labels things good or bad. I have been blessed enough to be forewarned about my diabetes, so I had the time and the opportunity to make the life changes I desperately needed. Many people don't have that kind of warning to inspire them and have to find the motivation within themselves, and there can be an incredibly hard thing to find.

I prey that someone can take inspiration from the things they read in my posts and others and find that kick they need to make the life changes for weight loss. In a short time they would feel and look so much better and that in turn can motivate them to keep going.

XX

[ceejayblue]

What a great post, well done. Many people lose sight of the fact that weightloss is a long journey for most of us, so its a marathon and not a sprint and there may well be various little stopping points or detours along the way.

Its good that your colleagues have joined in with you, its great to have support from friends and families. Keep up the good work.

[AeternoSolus in reply to ceejayblue]

Hi ceejayblue, you are right about family. I must say I neglected to mention them in my post. My sister Theresa has been great, because of my work (12 hour days and nights) she makes up all my mixed salads for me so when get up to go to work I can just grab it from the fridge. She also gets all the ingredients, my yogurts, my weight watchers meals and everything else I eat from the shops for me. The support I have received from her, my Mum Dorothy (Who is 97 this year) and my brother Mike has been fantastic. They encourage me all the time and my Mum always asks on my first day at work what I weighed (that's when we weigh in at work to see how we are doing).

They had made a huge contribution to my weight loss and I can't thank them enough.

XX

[Fitforit75]

That's absolutely fantastic! Well done and keep it up Keep posting - its lovely to hear when people are successful, and happier for it. X

[AeternoSolus in reply to Fitforit75]

Thank you, I must say when I was thinner I was a very out-going and bubbly person. As I gained weight I became withdrawn and quiet. I never go out now suffering from Social Anxiety, in ten years apart from work I've gone to two weddings and 1 barbeque and suffered at each. I never ate anything at them thinking people would be judging me because of my size. I don't have any friends outside of work cutting myself off as I got bigger.

Being overweight can have a dramatic effect not just on your body but on who you are. People can shun you because you are not the person they got to know. They cannot understand the change in you and say things like "snap out of it", but you cannot just shake the weight off because it's there. Another problem is the self worth and body image you have in your mind, it gets in your head and makes you eat more because you feel so bad about yourself and becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.

I am feeling much more positive about myself now. I have booked to go to the company New Years Meal and party in January for the first time ever in ten years. I am looking forward to buying myself new clothes nearer the time and hopefully I will be another 2 stone lighter by then. This will be the first test of my Social Anxiety in about 5 years. I will be with my work colleges....friends, I've never really considered them friends because I couldn't fathom the idea that they could like the fat me. But I realise now that they are my friends, they liked the fat me and hopefully they will like the fun bubbly thin me.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is anything wrong with being overweight and I don't think anything less of anyone who is. Some people are perfectly happy and well done to them, but I was one of those who wasn't. I let it take control of my life and push me into a reclusive world where I never went out.

Things now though are looking up for me. I hope and prey that even one person can read these words and be motivated to take that first step.

XX

[Zenette]

Thank you for sharing your story of success. It has given me hope, at a time when I feel like quite a failure and am very uncomfortable with myself. I am tired of being a prisoner of my 'fat ways'! Treasure your new life!

[AeternoSolus in reply to Zenette]

Hi Zenette, hope is a wonderful thing, it can keep you going when it seems there is nothing left to go on for. But believe me when I say you are not a failure, trying and not succeeding doesn't make anyone a failure, just the act of trying makes you a success. No one considered Captain Scott a failure even though he and his team died on the return from the South Pole. Eddie the Eagle is a hero and the fact that he finished last in the 70m and 90m ski jump events doesn't matter, he had a dream to be there and he succeeded against all odds.

If you believe you are a failure, then you will fail. Every time you try something and don't succeed you can say "I am a failure" and it gives you a "get out of jail free card" to accept that failure because that is who you believe you are. But the truth is that "failure" is just another word we use to judge others and demean ourselves. It's another cuss word like "idiot" or "tosser" and it should not be used in the personal sense, you can fail but that doesn't make you a failure.

Instead, say "I tried", and if you don't succeed then try again, then again, and again. Keep trying till you succeed, find the reasons you want to be thin and write them down, put them where you can see them, remind yourself everyday, because if the times comes when you say "I am not trying anymore" that is when you will have failed, not others, but yourself. You deserve the life you want, but the truth is it starts with you, and you have the power to make it happen, even if you don't believe it.

Treasure your life, I am sure you have some wonderful things in it.

And please please please believe you can make it happen, it might be hard and it will take time, but you have to believe in yourself.

With much love XX

[Zenette in reply to AeternoSolus]

Gosh, you are quite something ... I think you could make a career of inspiring others!

Thank you so much. I will print out your reply and use it as daily reading.

I don't need reminders of why I want to be thin though: I carry the biggest reminder with me 24/7 (i.e. myself) and am aware of it non-stop.

Somehow my mind/body sees hunger as a major enemy and at the slightest hunger pang I reach for food, well and thoroughly killing it there and then. My survival instincts must operate in overdrive ...

Thanks so much again for being so kind and sincere.

Zxx

[dreamaldives]

Lovely to read. Thank you for sharing. Well done! I hope you are holding your head high and walking around with a big smile on your face - what you've done is amazing...and it sounds like it's only going to get even better. Very inspiring....

Dreamaldives

x

[returner]

HI AeternoSolus,

Very well done and you are just so right. Even at only half way through, it must feel almost like you're walking around in someone else's body. Just imagine what it will feel like when you get to your target weight.

And your starting point has been similar to mine, chuck out the junk! Strange how quickly you find that you don't miss it, isn't it? Strange how your tastes change and you find that you're NOT just gagging for some chocolate or some cake.

I really couldn't face the thought of eating things that I would previously have merrily shovelled in!

[AeternoSolus in reply to returner]

Hi returner, you are so right about how quickly you can change your cravings. My family still buy cakes, biscuits and junk, I see them in the fridge everyday but it doesn't enter into my head to eat them anymore. If I am on a free day I may partake in a cream cake or such but usually I'll just have a main meal and nothing else. The last few free days I haven't even touched alcohol even though I have 6 bottles in the fridge outside, in fact I haven't drank any alcohol in about 3 months

Wow, you know I hadn't realised that before. When I go to the fridge for breakfast, lunch or dinner I looking for the yogurt, the salad or the weight watchers curry. It never enters my head to go for the chocolate spread, the jam, the bacon or all that other stuff I use to hoover up.

That realisation put a smile on my face

Many thanks.

[AeternoSolus in reply to returner]

Hi again returner, I wanted to respond to what you said.

"Even at only half way through, it must feel almost like you're walking around in someone else's body"

I was getting to the point in my work where I just didn't want to go on patrol anymore, if someone offer to go for me I would always say yes, or I would find any excuse to use the company vehicle. I was starting to wonder if I could actually continue doing my job anymore. I use to clock-watch hours before my patrol thinking "Ug I have to go out in 2 hours...1 hour...30 minutes", dreading the time.

Now though I am like a different person. I don't think in advance about my patrols, when it is my turn I just get up and go. I am not returning out of breath with aching legs and back. Things are just so much easier for me now and it is like walking round in someone else's body. I am so looking forward to hitting my weight goal. I just passed the class 2 obese rating and entered class 1. That doesn't sound like much but I started at class 3. I will never be what the charts say is normal, as normal for me is 12 stone 1. If I drop below 13 stone 5 it comes off my face and people have asked me in the past if I am ill. I will always be rated "overweight", but if I can hit 13 stone 12 I won't care about the charts. I know what my body is comfortable at and that's the person I want to be.

So yes my friend, even now halfway through I am feeling like different man. I exercise 30 minutes a day on a treadmill, I do a 100 trunk curls and 30 push-ups a day now. I am fitter, stronger and have much more stamina than I have had in the last 15 years. I am so looking forward to next year, something I couldn't have said back in June.

I would very much like to hear your weight loss story if you want to share it with us.

[returner in reply to AeternoSolus]

Hi AeternoSolus,

Well basically, I've been kicking around this board for a long time, both as returner and previously as doikosp. (I was unable to access the blog from work so I ditched my ID and as I'm not currently at work, I've kind of "returned" to the board ... for the time being.)

I started at 106 kgs and over about 6 months got down to 80 kgs. I thought addressing my weight issues would be sheer hell, like some medieval, penitential fast, but it wasn't like that at all. I basically began by ditching all the junk and going from super-size portions to human-sized ones. The journey was quite a learning curve but though I have put on a wee bit of weight recently - due mainly to other issues - there is no way I'm ever going back to where I was.

I've lost my appetite for so much of the junk and nonsense that I used to eat and I now eat much more healthily, nutritiously and moderately.

I very quickly realised that there was only one person who was going to resolve the issue of my excess weight and that was me. So, that realised, I just kind of got on with dealing with it.

[AeternoSolus in reply to returner]

Man you hit the nail right on the head there. Ditch the junk, eat normal size portions and take responsibility, because ultimately the only one who is going to make you loss weight is you. That is probably weight loss summed up in in 3 steps. As you say after a short while you DO lose the craving for the junk and that makes keeping the weight off so much easier.

Well done to you mate.