TBKahuna123
Back in the Sunshine
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
- Posts
- 2,722
Well the last couple of weeks have included some major soul searching and self examination. This whole episode was prompted when I went to the doctor and discovered that I had infact gained 3 pounds since this last summer. This wouldn't be a huge deal, except for the fact that I've played hocky 4 nights a week for the last 6 months, a form of exercise which in past years has always stripped weight off me. I was not just perplexed, I was pissed. I'm perfectly comfortable with who I am. My wife and I have never been hard bodies, and never expect each other to be. We're still extremely attracted to each other, and no physical changes will alter that.
I can look in the mirror, suck in my stomach and stick out my chest, and I know I don't look that bad. I'm a big guy, I've always been big and I always will be. I come from a long line of broad shouldered, barrel-chested men, I have a big frame which can carry a lot of beef. My beef may be getting a little too tender these days, but it wasn't looking in the mirror which prompted my revelation, so to speak. Regardless of what I see in the mirror, I can feel the weight on me, something that has never happened before. My clothes fit just like htey always have, but I can feel the extra fat around my middle. I can lift more weight on the sled than I have in the last ten years, but my knees hurt more everyday. I don't get exhausted playing hockey anymore, but I also never really get started, like I'm slogging through mud the whole game. I have no energy, no motivation, I've started having trouble sleeping, all sorts of stomach problems. At 34 I'm too young to have to take Blood Pressure meds, to be fighting insomnia and to live my life with constant aches and pains.
So I started taking a really good look at how my life has changed this year. My wife and I have gone to exact opposite schedules. We're rarely home together, so we rarely cook. We go out to eat at least 5 nights a week and it's almost always fast food for lunch. Laziness, there's really no other answer for it. Whether it's brough on by our fast paced lifestyles or some mild form of depression from never seeing each other, I don't know. The simple fact is I can say unequivocably that McDonalds is killing me.
On top of all this we're trying to get my wife pregnant. Given her issues with PCOS she has to make some serious changes in her diet and try to lose some weight. Again, this is for health reasons, but still it's going to change the entire way she eats during the day. It's this radical retrofit of her entire lifestyle, one which her job would not allow her to follow. So deciding that having a baby is the most important goal for her right now, she quit her job and found a normal 9-5 that she really enjoys. This will allow her the flexibility to eat more frequently throughout the day as she's been instructed. That's when I realized that to make the changes I need is going to require a major change in my lifestyle too. It's not about dietting, it's not about just stop eating fast food, it's changing the whole way I look at life.
I hate McDonald's food, I really do, but when it's 7pm by the time I get home, I want something to eat now because I'm starving. The last thing either of us want to do is cook. That's something we have to change. I have to train myself that dinner time is 7 pm, not 5. We have to teach ourselves to go to the gym after work, get home about 7 and cook dinner. We have to create that as a habit instead of just hitting McDonald's on the way home. We have to stop shopping once a month, and start going once a week so we can get fresh vegetables instead of relying on canned stuff all the time. It's packing our lunches instead of hitting some grease pit down the block.
That's the major component I think to getting my health back on track. Sure weight loss is a goal, but I'm more concerned with how I feel. I guess I feel that if I start restricting what foods I eat and cut out fast food, and try to cut out things like caffeine all at once, that it will be too much of a change and we'll just fall right back into our old habits due to frustration. My plan is to stop eating out and avoid Fast Food at all costs. Then, once we're used to cooking instead, then start looking at dietting and cutting back certain things. The cool thing is that when we do cook it's usually fairly healthy, but there are some better choices we can make I'm sure.
The final component is hitting the gym every day. This whole cycle started when last summer I had surgery and I wound up being lazy all summer. I didn't work out, I didn't breakout my roller blades even once, and I packed on a number of pounds. No big deal I told myself, I'll take em all off over the course of the hockey season. Yeah, not so much. I cna't let that happen again, let alone the muscle deterioration which has caused me to get hurt a couple times this year.
So why post this here? Well I was sort of prompted by another thread on the HT board by a young lady who was having some body image issues, and her thread made me realize that those phantom feelings you get from looking int he mirror can go both ways. While we can drag ourselves down unneccesarilly we can also blind ourselves to some serious health issues. Also I know there are a number of people on here that are into health and fitness. I guess I'm wondering if this course I'm taking sounds logical, or if I should be more aggressive.
I guess finally, well this is a major lifestyle change for me, and I know it's gonna be wierd. These kind of issues, there's no better place to share experiences and hear how others have dealt with making these kind of changes than here. Heck most of my friends are in the same downward spiral I am, so they sure aren't going to be any help. SO any advice, comments, stories, etc. would be welcome.
I can look in the mirror, suck in my stomach and stick out my chest, and I know I don't look that bad. I'm a big guy, I've always been big and I always will be. I come from a long line of broad shouldered, barrel-chested men, I have a big frame which can carry a lot of beef. My beef may be getting a little too tender these days, but it wasn't looking in the mirror which prompted my revelation, so to speak. Regardless of what I see in the mirror, I can feel the weight on me, something that has never happened before. My clothes fit just like htey always have, but I can feel the extra fat around my middle. I can lift more weight on the sled than I have in the last ten years, but my knees hurt more everyday. I don't get exhausted playing hockey anymore, but I also never really get started, like I'm slogging through mud the whole game. I have no energy, no motivation, I've started having trouble sleeping, all sorts of stomach problems. At 34 I'm too young to have to take Blood Pressure meds, to be fighting insomnia and to live my life with constant aches and pains.
So I started taking a really good look at how my life has changed this year. My wife and I have gone to exact opposite schedules. We're rarely home together, so we rarely cook. We go out to eat at least 5 nights a week and it's almost always fast food for lunch. Laziness, there's really no other answer for it. Whether it's brough on by our fast paced lifestyles or some mild form of depression from never seeing each other, I don't know. The simple fact is I can say unequivocably that McDonalds is killing me.
On top of all this we're trying to get my wife pregnant. Given her issues with PCOS she has to make some serious changes in her diet and try to lose some weight. Again, this is for health reasons, but still it's going to change the entire way she eats during the day. It's this radical retrofit of her entire lifestyle, one which her job would not allow her to follow. So deciding that having a baby is the most important goal for her right now, she quit her job and found a normal 9-5 that she really enjoys. This will allow her the flexibility to eat more frequently throughout the day as she's been instructed. That's when I realized that to make the changes I need is going to require a major change in my lifestyle too. It's not about dietting, it's not about just stop eating fast food, it's changing the whole way I look at life.
I hate McDonald's food, I really do, but when it's 7pm by the time I get home, I want something to eat now because I'm starving. The last thing either of us want to do is cook. That's something we have to change. I have to train myself that dinner time is 7 pm, not 5. We have to teach ourselves to go to the gym after work, get home about 7 and cook dinner. We have to create that as a habit instead of just hitting McDonald's on the way home. We have to stop shopping once a month, and start going once a week so we can get fresh vegetables instead of relying on canned stuff all the time. It's packing our lunches instead of hitting some grease pit down the block.
That's the major component I think to getting my health back on track. Sure weight loss is a goal, but I'm more concerned with how I feel. I guess I feel that if I start restricting what foods I eat and cut out fast food, and try to cut out things like caffeine all at once, that it will be too much of a change and we'll just fall right back into our old habits due to frustration. My plan is to stop eating out and avoid Fast Food at all costs. Then, once we're used to cooking instead, then start looking at dietting and cutting back certain things. The cool thing is that when we do cook it's usually fairly healthy, but there are some better choices we can make I'm sure.
The final component is hitting the gym every day. This whole cycle started when last summer I had surgery and I wound up being lazy all summer. I didn't work out, I didn't breakout my roller blades even once, and I packed on a number of pounds. No big deal I told myself, I'll take em all off over the course of the hockey season. Yeah, not so much. I cna't let that happen again, let alone the muscle deterioration which has caused me to get hurt a couple times this year.
So why post this here? Well I was sort of prompted by another thread on the HT board by a young lady who was having some body image issues, and her thread made me realize that those phantom feelings you get from looking int he mirror can go both ways. While we can drag ourselves down unneccesarilly we can also blind ourselves to some serious health issues. Also I know there are a number of people on here that are into health and fitness. I guess I'm wondering if this course I'm taking sounds logical, or if I should be more aggressive.
I guess finally, well this is a major lifestyle change for me, and I know it's gonna be wierd. These kind of issues, there's no better place to share experiences and hear how others have dealt with making these kind of changes than here. Heck most of my friends are in the same downward spiral I am, so they sure aren't going to be any help. SO any advice, comments, stories, etc. would be welcome.
