Originally Posted by
College3.0
Dear All,
Hello.
I've always enjoyed being physical, and I've never loved the idea of dieting or having specific weight goals. My weight has gone way up and way down several times over my lifetime, for mainly depression-related reasons. Because of this, generally speaking, as long as my weight is stable and not rocketing up or sliding down, I count that a win and don't worry about it too much.
Or, at least that was true until now. I think I want to change my perspective, and have a weight-loss goal, and achieve it. I could probably stand to lose between 40 and 65 lbs in order to be at a more healthful weight. That seems like a huge undertaking when I've always tried to not put much stock in my weight being a specific number.
I think my biggest obstacle to weight loss is lack of emotional/familial support. I've had a couple of good experiences with personal training over the past 4 years, but it's expensive to "hire" emotional support like that. I would've loved to continue with a trainer, but both times I quit when my cash ran low.
I'm single and live alone, and don't have much family to speak of. I think that has an influence on my motivation to lose weight. I do talk to a counselor about my depression, and I do have his support with respect to my desire for healthy diet and exercise. But it's not like I could say, "I'm doing this for my kids" or something. I think I have to lose weight "for me".
What made you first care about losing weight? I mean, really care enough to do it for yourself and not some external reason? Or, was an external reason enough for you? If so, that's fine, I just don't think I can count on having an external reason to motivate me to do this.
Curious....
Thanks.
Just over a year ago, at 51, I just finally got sick of my knees always hurting, low energy and some minor medical issues like dealing with acid reflux almost every night. I've dealt with depression for about 30 years now. I knew all those thing would likely get better if I could lose some weight. I started dieting and walking in mid March and lost about 20 pounds by mid May. I felt so much better that it motivated me to lose 40 more pounds last year, for a total of 60. I gained 20 pounds of that back over the winter. I hope to lose that 20 pounds and another 40 or so this year. If I can manage to do that I will have lost 100 pounds, and would be about 20-30 pounds lighter than I was in high school. My first year of riding will wrap up this week. I will have ridden about 5,700 miles in that time, which is a huge accomplishment for me. Something I would never had anticipated I could have managed.
Now, if my knees hurt it's because I've ridden a bit too much or too hard. The same applies for low energy...if my energy is low, it's because I've ridden more than a couple of hundred miles in a given week, or more than about 60 miles in a single ride. The acid reflux went away after losing 20 pounds and has not come back. I sleep better. I'm not grumpy. I find that exercising (almost exclusively riding) helps me deal with depression better than any of the many different prescription drugs I ever took.
Your mileage may vary, especially as I'm guessing you're much younger than me and not as over weight as I was, so you probably aren't experiencing the kinds of issues I was experiencing, other than depression. But as you get older, you might. I think the best piece of advice I could give my younger me, would have been to take up riding a long time ago.
-Matt