simon030413

I grew up on a small farm taking care of animals, gardens and fruit and nut trees, I ate like a horse, but, most of my food was what we grew or killed, and most of what little store bought food I was provided with was from a local health food store. Nothing to do but chores, run the woods, swim, fish, hunt, needless to say, I was skinny, probably even a little underweight.

In 1988, I enlisted, and served 4 years. They packed 50 pounds on me, but it wasn't fat by any stretch of imagination.

When I got out in 1992, I spent the next 4 years walking around an 11-floor building for 8-12 hours a day as a security guard.

Then in 1995, I got a sit down job. Up until now, I never watched what and how much I was eating. Soon it caught up with me. By 2000, I was 240 pounds, wheezing walking up and down short flights of stairs, weak (couldn't even do 1 pullup) and was always tired, sick (mostly sinus related), and just generally didn't feel like doing anything but eat and watch tv.

I made several attempts with varying degrees of success: some weird diet that was no carbs except grapefruits, atkins, weight watchers (twice) and each time after getting down to around 209 pounds, I packed it right back on.

So in 2011, I started weight watchers again. I discovered a calculator that would tell me how many calories I actually burned each day (a BMI calculator) and that if I just ate less than that number of calories a day, I would lose weight. A year and 80 pounds later brings us to the present day.

I've been half-heartedly walking/running/lifting weights/doing calisthenics, but now I am embarking on another phase of improvement in the form of a very old but very effective weight training program. Not sure what I will do after that, but I will be sure to share with anyone who wants to hear about it!

Kathy13118

Congratulations on your weight loss... Any training you do now will only add to your feeling of well-being!