Jamesssss's Journal, 25 April 2015

Well, here we are. I made this account about a year and a half ago, wanting to lose the weight that I had gained over the years in school.

Some background: I used to be a ridiculously skinny kid. It scared my parents how skinny I was. I found that I liked eating food. I ate food. I became fat. By the time I was in the 7th grade, I weighed about 235 pounds. That was probably the most I've ever weighed. I knew that I had to do something about it, but I didn't know where to start. Thankfully, I didn't gain any weight after that, and I started to slowly drop some pounds when I entered high school (most likely because the physical education was tougher, and there was more walking around that needed to be done).

There were days when I looked in the mirror, and said to myself "Good god. I need to change this. I am nearly obese, and I look absolutely disgusting". I would get an intense amount of motivation, wishing for nothing more than to go outside and run a marathon... but I would never go out. It would either be too late during the day for me to go out (see: pitch black), or I would be embarrassed to go outside and exercise, or, more often than not, I would say "I'll do it tomorrow!" and then promptly not do it tomorrow. The motivation would wear out, and I'd just remain fat.

But it all changed one day. I don't know why or how, but it changed, and I didn't even have an intense burst of motivation like I had before. I found something called the C25K. It was just a little challenge to run a 5K within 9 (I think?) weeks of starting the program. Every other day, I got up, went outside and ran. I came in a nasty, sweaty mess every time, and I loved it. I had put in the effort to work out, and this was my body's way of telling me that I had succeeded. I finished the challenge, albeit a few weeks later than I was supposed to, but I had only lost a little bit of weight. It was almost a little funny; I was a fairly fat 16-17 year old kid outrunning many fit adults around me, and where they would be panting like dogs within minutes of starting their runs, I wouldn't even break a sweat until about 15 minutes into it.

Anyway, the point is, I didn't lose that much weight. I cared more for how good I was getting at running than actually losing weight, and for what it mattered, that was probably a good thing (I mean, if you keep working out with the intent of becoming stronger/faster, you're bound to lose fat eventually anyway). I eventually stopped running because it was becoming too cold to do so. In place of that, I changed my diet significantly.

Enter FatSecret.

I created this account around the same time I stopped running, to see how much weight I'd lose by changing my diet. I had already stopped eating insane amounts of food while I was working out, but I wasn't really focusing on my diet. Now that I wasn't working out, my diet had 100% of my attention. I began to count calories, watching what I ate, the types of food I ate, where I got my calories from (carbs, lipids, etc.), and to my surprise, my weight started to go down VERY quickly. Some weeks I would only lose half a pound, and other weeks I'd lose up to 4 or 5 pounds. Near Christmas, I weighed about 180 pounds. It was then that I began to realize I was becoming, in fact, too SKINNY. I started eating more, and put on about 10-20 pounds, and I was looking healthy (albeit with some small moobs and subcutaneous fat)... but I never got back into running when Spring came around. I waited until Summer for that, and even then, I stopped running after I beat the C25K again just like I had the first time.

Blah blah blah skipping ahead, I realized that I no longer cared about my weight whatsoever. I counted my calories and walked around every now and then, and that was good enough for me. I wasn't fit, but I wasn't too fat either. Until just recently.

Enter University life.

The freshman 15 stories out there are typically always true. There is a lot of food up here that you can eat, as starved as I feel sometimes (BECAUSE THEY SERVE SUCH UNHEALTHY THINGS SO OFTEN!!!!). I began to eat a lot of that food, and packed on the good old stereotypical 15 pounds almost on the dot. This Spring semester, I've restarted my journey (although I wasn't as fat as the first time) from the beginning, and now I'm doing vigorous exercises to lose weight in combination with a low-carb, mid-fat high-protein diet. In the past 3 months alone, I've lost enough weight and gained enough muscle that I can faintly see a nice six-pack coming in, and I hope that I can continue this until I have the body of a Greek god.

I've lost none of my motivation since starting, and instead of dread at how tough the workouts will be, I feel a rush like none other to get it done and sweat it out.

I honestly completely forgot about FatSecret, but as I've been going through my emails, I can see they've sent me thousands of emails telling me to update my weight.

Honestly, I don't think I will. Namely because I'm judging my progress by pictures now. It became obvious two Christmas' ago that using a scale to judge your progress is nice, but not always accurate. I figured 180 wouldn't be too bad, and when I stepped on the scale, I felt proud. But then I would look in the mirror and see a skeleton with a ton of loose skin, and I felt silly. Now, I take pictures of myself. If I look better than I did last month, I'm happy.

Also, I don't even have a scale with which to measure myself up here at Uni., so I'd be SoL if I wanted to measure myself with it anyway!

All of that ranting and story-telling aside (If you actually read all of that, I'm impressed, and give you a hearty congratulations), I'm happy with where I'm at now, but I'm still headed towards my goal of, say, a body like Zyzz's.

I hope that everyone here reaches their goals as well!

3 Supporters    Support   

Comments 
Sounds like you are on the path! Hang in there and those 13 lbs will melt away. 
25 Apr 15 by member: Horseshu1
I'm proud of you!!! 
26 Apr 15 by member: Sugar Waffle

     
 

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