Welcome Kev,
Yeah, I was in about the same place you are .... just a little bit older than you..... (I’m 52)
When I turned 50 in 2005, we also celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. I had saved up to take my ‘bride’ on many trips, ate with no thought of the consequences. Over the years in my current job, I had become very seditary, and exercise was walking upstairs.
After Christmas of my 50th year, i looked at some pictures of myself taking at the family get together. I did not reconize the man with his beautiful wife, who at 5.7” weighed in at almost 210 lbs, and vowed to start working out. It was a ‘click’ moment for me, and I joined a gym.
Three days later, my father of 91 passed away and 2 weeks after that I lost my job to a downsizing at work (first time in my life being unemployed).
When you don’t have to spend 50 hours at work, you have more time to work out.....I cruised the net and found MTM, and used the motivation from Scott, and the MTM community to keep going.
For losing weight, for me, it was all about calorie intake. Sure, i exercised, and that helped keep my metabolism going, but I really noticed that if I stayed at 1800 calories, the lbs just shed off.
In the middle of the year of 2006 i played racquetball with a friend (I had shed about 50 lbs since) and we played until he complained about his knee. I had just watched him do a triathlon a week earlier (while watching, I told him and myself i could NEVER do). He went to the doctor, and had to have surgery on his knee. I told him, that in his honor, since I felt responsible to hurting his knee while playing racquetball, I would do the Carlsbad Triathlon (a shorter sprint distance) in his stead.
Well, I started to run at the gym, and swim about once a week. I had a mountain bike (more of a cruiser) and started to ride it about a mile or so. My friends son had an old Cannondale road bike, so we retrofitted it to fit me (it was WAY to small), and I started to ride with clipless pedals (fell a few times at first, but kept up). I did my first mini Triathlon in December 06, and was hooked......
I like you did not know if I would ever be active again. Needless to say, its a part of my lifestyle now, working out 6-7 days a week, and scheduled to do a half ironman in March.
Good luck on your journey, whereever it may take you.....with MTM and your drive, you will reach your goals!
I track my food everyday (http://www.fitday.com) to this day.
...actually originally Greek...lol but anayway, it’s so good to see they are a bunch of European MTMers!
