These tranformations are really awesome.
Running is my mental-Ctrl-Alt-Del.
faster than a glacier
When I was fat, I readily admitted that I was fat because I ate too much and didn't exercise. There was no secret to it then and there is no secret to it now. I don't have any scorn for people who are overweight but I don't have any sympathy either. It's not that a person "can't" lose weight. It's that they don't want to do the things needed to lose the weight. I'm not being judgmental; I'm just stating reality. Shoot, I smoked for 30 years and enjoyed every damn cigarette I ever smoked. I didn't smoke because I was addicted. I smoked because I really, really liked smoking so I get why some people don't want to quit just like I get why some don't want to exercise or change their eating habits. Despite running 50-70 mpw, I can't eat anything I want. I rarely eat potato chips anymore and when I do, I limit myself to a handful. That compares to me buying an entire bag and scarfing down the whole 1100+ calories in an evening. After supper. I still put dressing on my salad but I use strongly flavored dressing such as blue cheese so you need very little to get the flavor. I still love pizza but I eat 2-3 slices rather than 5-6. I still love ice cream but I get a single scoop rather than a double. I still love a good steak but I get the small portion rather than a size that would feed a small lion. I didn't used to eat veggies at all. Now, I try to start every meal with veggies so I'm not as hungry when I start on the rest of my food. I still snack but I keep healthy snacks like carrots, apples, mangos, and dry roasted peanuts around. But I never, ever buy the "can't" excuse.
When I was fat, I readily admitted that I was fat because I ate too much and didn't exercise. There was no secret to it then and there is no secret to it now. I don't have any scorn for people who are overweight but I don't have any sympathy either. It's not that a person "can't" lose weight. It's that they don't want to do the things needed to lose the weight. I'm not being judgmental; I'm just stating reality. Shoot, I smoked for 30 years and enjoyed every damn cigarette I ever smoked. I didn't smoke because I was addicted. I smoked because I really, really liked smoking so I get why some people don't want to quit just like I get why some don't want to exercise or change their eating habits.
Despite running 50-70 mpw, I can't eat anything I want. I rarely eat potato chips anymore and when I do, I limit myself to a handful. That compares to me buying an entire bag and scarfing down the whole 1100+ calories in an evening. After supper. I still put dressing on my salad but I use strongly flavored dressing such as blue cheese so you need very little to get the flavor. I still love pizza but I eat 2-3 slices rather than 5-6. I still love ice cream but I get a single scoop rather than a double. I still love a good steak but I get the small portion rather than a size that would feed a small lion. I didn't used to eat veggies at all. Now, I try to start every meal with veggies so I'm not as hungry when I start on the rest of my food. I still snack but I keep healthy snacks like carrots, apples, mangos, and dry roasted peanuts around.
But I never, ever buy the "can't" excuse.
This is pretty much me...except that I'm still fat, just not nearly as fat as I was. i've gone from 245 to 197 currently, which is the least I've weighed in at least 15 years. I'll try to remember to post pics later. All along I knew why I was fat, and what i needed to do in order to not be fat. But I just made every excuse in the book to myself until I finally got fed up, and decided not to let diabetes slowly ruin my organs like it has for many members of my family. Mostly all i did was cut out almost all fast food, and watched my portions a lot more carefully. Like LTH, there's really nothing I don't eat now that I always have, just less often and smaller portions of it. Also more veggies and salads. really not that difficult. Some friends are having a birthday party at a pizza place tomorrow and I plan to thoroughly enjoy the 2 or 3 slices I will have.
But I understand why it's hard for so many people (including me). It's much easier to just eat whatever and not think about it. I have to actively think about what I'm eating every day, which does take some time and mental energy. Self discipline is hard, and there are plenty of areas in life I could be more disciplined, trust me.
However: I do judge people a little who waste so much money and energy on whatever the latest fad diet is, or juice fasts, or any of that silliness that supposedly cleanses your body of "toxins", etc etc. Don't even get me started on that stuff.
In response now that I am not morbidly obese anymore do I feel for those who are. That is a tough question because on the one hand I know how hard it is to start, its like you are on the bottom of the well and you gotta dig yourself out but on the other hand I think a lot of people aren't trying to dig themselves out. You see them getting the carts to drive around wal-mart and I admit what goes through my head is man you really could use the exercise walking around wal-mart even if it won't be fun. How far down the well do you need to get before you dig yourself out or do you just give up. I try and not judge without talking to them but if I were to get the its too hard or I can't do it response I would have no sympathy for them. Anything worth having in this life is going to be hard, be it an education, a better job or a healthy lifestyle. If it wasn't hard it wouldn't be worth it. Its easy to say well what can I do I am too fat and I can't even walk a mile, its a lot harder to go out everyday and walk that mile to mile and half where you get such bad shin splints you end up in tears on a park bench (trust me I was friends with a park bench many nights). I try and not judge but at the same time when I see people giving up and using those motorized scooters to get around I just find it hard to feel for them anymore.
So yes a lot of times I don't have sympathy for them, I want to say suck it up buttercup if it was easy it wouldn't be worth it. But at the same time I remember how much it hurt to hear man that guy is fat why doesn't he do something about it. Loaded question right there.
That's the "and beyond" part of the forum.
You are quickly becoming my forum fave lol!
You know you could PM Dave with your request.
Have you done this already?
i too am definitely mixed on this. I was never obese but i was definitely overweight, and it was due to very poor nutritional choices (actually mindless eating and the wrong kind of exercise or for many periods too little exercise).
When i see guys my age with guts and people in general who look "out of shape" if I'm honest with myself, I look down on them in some way. Which is ironic since I had a gut and was at least 30-40 lbs overweight for the better part of 25 years. So where does this come from?
Very obese people though are ones I really feel for. It takes a LOT to get out of that. And then falling back into it is extremely easy. My older sister is morbidly obese and now in her late 50s is developing health issues. But i know that it would be monumentally hard for her to get out of this. I also know that she is not a "lazy" person. she is a dedicated school teacher (I mean super dedicated) with a 35 year career.
I just find this all very interesting though. And Dizzy, congrats man! You've done something really amazing. Keep doing those triathlons!
I also know that she is not a "lazy" person.
The hardest working and most disciplined guy I ever knew was dean of an engineering college, owned and ran a good size engineering firm, and was president of the National Society of Professional Engineers all at the same time. He also packed about 500 lbs on his small frame. Even after he "retired", he was at his desk with his tie on at 7 am every day. That is when he wasn't traveling the world. We were amazed that a 500 lb guy in his 70s could do what he did. He brought a small sack lunch to work with him each day and that's all he ate all day. But if we had a meeting with a buffet lunch, he would leave the meeting early to hit the buffet, and he hit it hard. I suspect he was an evening eater usually.
Out of 18 people in my department now, I am one of only two overweight people. About half are runners, but the skinniest guys have no interest in exercise at all. When we go out, the skinny guys get cheeseburgers with fries and sugared cokes while I get some lean chicken thing and water. I'm pretty sure the skinny guys don't think about food except at meals while I'm heeding the siren call of the Cheerios box all evening.
It's amazing the assumptions people have about overweight people. They assume they don't exercise. They assume they eat crap. They either assume that they don't care about being fat or that they foolishly follow fad diets. Those are definitely true for some people, but not everyone is the same. Someone starts exercising and the lose weight so they assume if everyone else would just get off the butts and move that they'd be thin. Or they cut out junk food or sugar and lose weight so they assume that's the secret. They assume they have health problems.
I'm overweight because I eat too much. It ain't rocket surgery. I've always exercised but I've been overweight the whole time. I don't eat a perfect diet, but I have no taste for sweets or junk food. I don't eat out.
Anyway, this is mostly a response to the successful trolling thread about judging fat people.
OK, back to transformations. I think I posted this in the original round months ago but deleted it:
Before running: 220 lbs (I'm the dude)
After running for years: 270 lbs (first marathon finish)
OK, here's a different tangent for all of you amazing transformers: why did you do it? What finally clicked? Having kids, health issues, peer pressure? I'm sincerely interested to know what it takes to finally say "enough is enough."
I have a brother who's been obese for as long as I can remember. He doesn't mind exercise, his issue is, he loves to eat. They are foodies. They take vacations to exotic places to focus on the food. He'll never lose weight because he doesn't want to. He's 58 years old and I doubt anything will change him now.
Mostly harmless
OK, here's a different tangent for all of you amazing transformers: why did you do it? What finally clicked? Having kids, health issues, peer pressure? I'm sincerely interested to know what it takes to finally say "enough is enough." I have a brother who's been obese for as long as I can remember. He doesn't mind exercise, his issue is, he loves to eat. They are foodies. They take vacations to exotic places to focus on the food. He'll never lose weight because he doesn't want to. He's 58 years old and I doubt anything will change him now.
I did it so I could run behind hot runner chicks with tight butts.
"It doesn’t matter how often you do it or how much you accomplish, in general, not running is a lot easier than running." - Meb Keflezighi
Of course. I think Little Blue means besides that.
Um, yeah, that reason is rather a given.
There are other reasons?
I had to buy a pair of pants with a 42 inch waist. Ran my first half mile that night.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
I do things for really strange one-off reasons sometimes. This was my motivation (besides of course the given )
In late February of 2011, I was 5'8", weighed almost 200 lbs and did not think i was overweight. Then after a physical, my doctor called me up and told me i had diabetes. He started talking about meds and insulin and all this stuff.
A few weeks before this i was having dinner with a friend and the topic became pharmaceuticals. I was 50 at the time and my friend was a few years older. "You know", my friend said, "we're getting to the age where people are going to start prescribing medications for us".
My really quick response was "They ain't prescribing any medications for ME!". And I meant it. My friend's comment really pissed me off for many reasons.
So now a few weeks later I'm on the phone with my doctor who is talking about what meds he's going to prescribe for me. And my reaction was exactly the same "Oh no you're not!". So I asked my doctor what i could do without meds and he said lose 40 lbs and cut out sweets carbs, fats and fried foods. Of course he said it like i had no chance in hell of doing this successfully.
But that was it. My wake up call and motivation to lose weight was almost purely the desire to not have "people prescribe meds for me".
I was the same way when i quit smoking. I had decided to quit and that night went to my usual news stand and got my usual paper and maybe a lottery ticket and the guy automatically took down my usual pack (3 packs actually) of Marlboro Lights. I told him i was quitting and he laughed and said "You'll go back to it". And again that pissed me off. Those 5 words probably motivated me to quit more than any other single motivation. So in a way i quit just to prove the that the jerk at the news stand was full of crap.