- Jul 29, 2014
- 20,602
- 20,100
After too many years of ignoring my body and nutrition I've become interested in trying to make a substantial change. For many years I worked out on a fairly consistent basis with weight training and typical cardio such as stationary biking, treadmill running/walking and even a little bit of jogging and boxing/bag work.
The bad news is that was in my 20's and 30's and a little in my early 40's....Well after about 15 years of slacking I'm almost embarrassed to say I ballooned up to 280#....284# to be exact. Last xmas time I just said no more. I felt like sh!t and my sleeping was spotty at best....diet was terrible plus well you know 4-6 16oz Bud Lights was my feel good about anything at the end of the day.
I started changing my diet slightly and backed off the beer(I still have 2 a day)and I don't really watch my diet strictly but I've added a ton of raw veggies, cut my red meat to almost nil(once a week) and eat a ton of salad with chicken breast, Turkey and Tuna for dinner and have cut out nearly all processed carbs(packaged pasta, rice and the such and replaced them with raw vegetables. I still put croutons on my salads and wil have half a baked potato when we have steak. This isn't a low carb diet or really any diet as I've just eased into eating differently. I still have wings slathered in Franks once a week.
No cravings and no pre dinner pretzels(my weakness)and no snacking after dinner....dinner means the last bite goes in before 7.30pm. I'm shocked because I thought I would struggle with that(snacking before bedtime) would drive me crazy.
On the exercise side I'm doing 25-35 minutes cardio on the Airdyne bike 5 days a week and resistance training 3 times a week with resistance bands and calisthenics (pushups, squats, shoulder presses, curls and some yoga type movements mixed in. I do these in tri sets combining 3 different exercises per tri set with no rest in-between exercises or sets. The whole workout only takes 32-35 minutes and obviously the weight/resistance is on the lighter side.
3 month's in I'm closing in on 250# (my weight fluctuates from 3-5 pounds on any given day) so I'm claiming 30# lost. My knee which was diagnosed as needing a replacement has regained about 85% of it's full range of motion and I'm not limping/dragging my leg around anymore. Overall I'm sleeping much better and am also in a better mood(Ok I still fly off the handle at least once a day but I'm working on that).
I've posted this to hopefully inspire anyone who at the age of 58 or older or maybe even younger but has given up fitness in their lives to reconsider. It's worth the effort and my advice would be to ease into it. It's not that bad after you get going a few weeks.
The other reason is to seek some advice from any fitness minded people or possibly anyone who's under gone a 50 plus pound weight loss and kept it off for a long period of time. I know @Slug is pretty active in fitness and I believe @bradgator2 and maybe @Durty South Swamp have mentioned doing Tri Athlons. My goals aren't that lofty but I have set a goal and believe in my mind that I will be back to 220# and riding my surfboard again after watching it sit in a corner for the last 10 years or so....My timeline for that is my 59th birthday in August. Any tips on exercise or nutrition would be greatly appreciated as well as any tricks that can accelerate the process or keep motivated during the process.
Hopefully some others will share their experiences for others to see in this thread.
The bad news is that was in my 20's and 30's and a little in my early 40's....Well after about 15 years of slacking I'm almost embarrassed to say I ballooned up to 280#....284# to be exact. Last xmas time I just said no more. I felt like sh!t and my sleeping was spotty at best....diet was terrible plus well you know 4-6 16oz Bud Lights was my feel good about anything at the end of the day.
I started changing my diet slightly and backed off the beer(I still have 2 a day)and I don't really watch my diet strictly but I've added a ton of raw veggies, cut my red meat to almost nil(once a week) and eat a ton of salad with chicken breast, Turkey and Tuna for dinner and have cut out nearly all processed carbs(packaged pasta, rice and the such and replaced them with raw vegetables. I still put croutons on my salads and wil have half a baked potato when we have steak. This isn't a low carb diet or really any diet as I've just eased into eating differently. I still have wings slathered in Franks once a week.
No cravings and no pre dinner pretzels(my weakness)and no snacking after dinner....dinner means the last bite goes in before 7.30pm. I'm shocked because I thought I would struggle with that(snacking before bedtime) would drive me crazy.
On the exercise side I'm doing 25-35 minutes cardio on the Airdyne bike 5 days a week and resistance training 3 times a week with resistance bands and calisthenics (pushups, squats, shoulder presses, curls and some yoga type movements mixed in. I do these in tri sets combining 3 different exercises per tri set with no rest in-between exercises or sets. The whole workout only takes 32-35 minutes and obviously the weight/resistance is on the lighter side.
3 month's in I'm closing in on 250# (my weight fluctuates from 3-5 pounds on any given day) so I'm claiming 30# lost. My knee which was diagnosed as needing a replacement has regained about 85% of it's full range of motion and I'm not limping/dragging my leg around anymore. Overall I'm sleeping much better and am also in a better mood(Ok I still fly off the handle at least once a day but I'm working on that).
I've posted this to hopefully inspire anyone who at the age of 58 or older or maybe even younger but has given up fitness in their lives to reconsider. It's worth the effort and my advice would be to ease into it. It's not that bad after you get going a few weeks.
The other reason is to seek some advice from any fitness minded people or possibly anyone who's under gone a 50 plus pound weight loss and kept it off for a long period of time. I know @Slug is pretty active in fitness and I believe @bradgator2 and maybe @Durty South Swamp have mentioned doing Tri Athlons. My goals aren't that lofty but I have set a goal and believe in my mind that I will be back to 220# and riding my surfboard again after watching it sit in a corner for the last 10 years or so....My timeline for that is my 59th birthday in August. Any tips on exercise or nutrition would be greatly appreciated as well as any tricks that can accelerate the process or keep motivated during the process.
Hopefully some others will share their experiences for others to see in this thread.
I like that my stomach no longer sticks out more than my chest.
