Post your (non schmaltzy) life-changing stories!

Dudess

I've definitely read posts by Dragan on how he used to be unhealthy, significantly overweight and pissed off, and then he quite literally turned his life around with healthy food (and exercise, but that's more for Fitness). I think g'em may have a similar story to tell - am I right or wrong, g'em?
Any chance you could tell your stories - a bit about how you used to be, what made you decide to change, what you did to change things, and where you are now? Such stories are always great. And so inspirational.
Anyone else done something similar? And could this be stickied?

neuro-praxis

Dudess I am gonna say Watch This Space with me on this one. I don't have a story for you yet - but the last two months have meant a change in the rut my mind has been locked in of yo-yo dieting for years, and I am on the way to success. After years of misery about my weight it is coming steadily under control through healthy diet and regular exercise and I feel great.

Do you have a story to tell?

If the thread takes off we will certainly sticky it.

Dragan

Well I might as well lead the charge.

Up until the age of about 15 or so I was pretty sporty. I loved soccer, hurling, football, basketball, rugby, martial arts, the whole thing. However what I lacked was confidence and social skills so despite a love for these things and even some ability at one or two of them I simply wasn't up to the whole team aspect. As such I would eventually give them all up due to the simply fact that at the age interacting with people in such a manner was torture for me.

I started eating too much and doing too little and by the time college loomed I found myself to be overweight and not happy about that. My first week in college I made my way back to the gym and started getting back into shape. By the time I was about 20 I was suddenly in serious nick. Big and strong and lean and loving it. I had found my confidence in college by the simple realisation that there was nothing wrong with me and I was a half decent person. The problems of my youth were left behind!

Sadly, things would take a turn for the worst. A pretty horrible injury suffered while working ( I was doing doorwork in a club in Limerick to help me get through college ) would put me down and out for quite a while, depression kicked in. I couldn't train, but damn could I eat and eat I did. By the time I moved up to the Dublin I found myself hanging around the 260lbs mark, not a whole lot of it good weight. Dragged back to the gym by a mate in work ( JayRoc who posts here ) I started back on the road but found I didn't want to cut or lose weight. I wanted my strength back first. I was so weak when I started back it was actually kind of scary. Very scary in fact. So I concentrated on strength and building some muscle….soon I would rise up to around 300lbs or so. Damn…..things were back firing! Sure, I was bigger and stronger and stuff but I just kind of looked fatter. It was cut time, time to properly self educate about food and working out.

Within a year I had dropped about 80 lbs of fat and added even more muscle. A few months later and it was about 100lbs of fat gone and even more muscle added!

There was a lot of hard work involved, and a lot of experimentation and trial and error. There were ups and downs and no doubt there will be more.

But it's absolutely worth every drop of sweat and every stamped on craving.

Dudess

neuro-praxis wrote:

Dudess I am gonna say Watch This Space with me on this one. I don't have a story for you yet - but the last two months have meant a change in the rut my mind has been locked in of yo-yo dieting for years, and I am on the way to success. After years of misery about my weight it is coming steadily under control through healthy diet and regular exercise and I feel great.

Do you have a story to tell?

If the thread takes off we will certainly sticky it.

Brilliant stuff, n-p. Wishing you lots more success. No I don't have anything major to tell - I started eating really healthily a while ago and it's made me feel great, but weight was never much of an issue for me. Although I certainly could do with toning up.
Thanks a mil for your great story, Dragan. Come on g'em!!!

dubsgirl

Just thought I'd give this thread a little bump as I would definitely love to hear people's stories... Really enjoyed reading Dragans...

g'em

Hmm, I don’t know if my story quite qualifies as life-changing but how and ever !!! I was a relatively regular kid, but when I hit my early teens it all started to go a little pear-shaped – mainly around the bum area Home-life was more than a little tumultuous and I turned to comfort eating to make myself feel better. By my mid-teens I was a hefty size 16, and that was when I began to diet. Weight-watchers was the first port of call and I followed it rigorously for about 4 weeks, lost half a stone and decided I could do the rest on my own. That plan unsurprisingly feel through and I managed to put the lost weight back on, plus another stone for good measure.

At the same time I was a hockey goalie in school – the protective pads covered a multitude of sins, and my larger size helped my reputation for being a fairly scary opponent. Other than that though physical exercise was non-existent and by the time I got to college even the twice a week practice/ games had gone out the window.

South beach diet, cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet, negative calorie diet – I tried them all, lost a few lbs and put them back on with some to spare. At any given time I was a size 14 to 18 and still caught in the vicious comfort eating cycle.

Then, in May 2002, I had my first of two nervous breakdowns and it all began to really unwind from there. I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression later that year and was prescribed medication and therapy, which continued for two long years. Unfortunately though, at that time I still didn’t recognise my emotional food-crutch and it wouldn’t be until a few years later that it would be addressed. Some people experience weight gain with antidepressants, I found the opposite – my appetite would disappear from lunchtime onwards and I was effectively starving myself for around 18 hours per day. I lost weight, people commented on how well I looked, I continued to not eat.

Thankfully my mental health improved though, and I weaned myself off the ADs. But back came my appetite, and a badly timed break-up during the same period saw me pack back on the lbs.

That was until I discovered the gym, and gradually over the last few years it’s become my haven. It’s like my therapy now – nothing can beat the endorphin rush I get from a good workout, and nothing builds my self-esteem more than having an appreciation of what my body is capable of doing. As time went on I taught myself more and more about lifting (I started my gym career as a cardio-bunny... oh the shame…!!) and then about nutrition. I noticed that the better I treated my body, the better my head would also feel. I stopped looking at food as being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ and I gradually leanrt to let go of the guilt I felt when I ate certain foods. Food isn’t just something I use as an emotional comfort blanket now, it’s my fuel, it’s part of my toolbox to help me be a better athlete and a happier person. Ha, how Dr. Phil does that sound!??!

I still have my issues with my weight of course, and that will probably continue to happen for the rest of my lifetime. But I don’t stress over it now, because if I need to lose a couple of lbs I just go ahead and do it. I don’t make excuses, I just accept the fact that I’ve been lax about my nutrition and I make it right again. I still have to tweak my eating habits and I certainly don’t get it right all the time. But I do get it right 90% of the time and that’s what sees me through. Of course I’m still completely passionate (obsessed!?!) about the gym, and I’ve combined my love of lifting heavy things with my competitive streak and become a powerlifter. I have my priorities about my health set straight now. I can’t have everything all at once – but I do have to take responsibility for my actions, there's no-one controlling my health other than me. Right now I’m four weeks out from the World Championships and so dieting is the last thing on my mind. But when that’s over I’ll spend some time dedicating my training to aesthetics and push my body outside its comfort zone again. Meh, who’m I kidding, I just want to see my abs again

dubsgirl

Wow Gem you look fantastic!! Hard to believe looking at you that you ever had weight problems or anything other than a healthy relationship with food. Really enjoyed your story thanks for that...

mack1

If that's not life-changing I don't know what is!
Fair play!

Huggles

Hugely inspiring guys

Well done!

misswex

All I can say is 'wow'. That is absolutely amazing, you guys really do inspire people here so thank you.

Dudess

g'em wrote: »

Hmm, I don’t know if my story quite qualifies as life-changing but how and ever !!!

The hell it doesn't. Gosh, you've been through the mill and then some. Fair play to ya, Gill. You're proof positive that exercise and good eatin' can benefit you in several ways - it's not just about fitting into that tight dress (which is great too) but it has such a positive effect on your mental health, self-esteem, skin, hair... What's not to like?!

Seraphina

g'em wrote: »

Meh, who’m I kidding, I just want to see my abs again

haha! any excuse to whip out the abs pics! and why not, you do look fantastic!

see when g'em's giving you all this advice, THATS what you could look like if you listened to her

g'em

Seraphina wrote: »

haha! any excuse to whip out the abs pics! and why not, you do look fantastic!

Well I took an executive decision on that one and reasoned that the story just wouldn't seem complete without a "proof of pudding" shot

But thanks everyone for the kind words. It sounds like a very cliched thing to say, but it's true: if I can do it, ANYONE can do it. I wasn't blessed with great genes, carbs are my evil nemesis and just the smell of them causes me to bloat so bad I get mistaken for a beached whale, I don't come from a super-sporty background and I often eat for the wrong reasons just like everyone else.

But what I do have is an amazing support network and a little bit of knowledge on my side. And hopefully the forum (and the board at large) can provide the same for others starting out on their journey... now that was definitely more Oprah than Dr. Phil :rolleyes:

ali.c

g'em wrote: »

. I wasn't blessed with great genes, carbs are my evil nemesis and just the smell of them causes me to bloat so bad I get mistaken for a beached whale, I don't come from a super-sporty background and I often eat for the wrong reasons just like everyone else.

Maybe not, but you are blessed with a great work ethic and an amazing ability to apply yourself to the goal at hand. Might i add that you are also blessed with the desire to share information and help other people along the way!!