Like many, I imagine, I was quite active and slender in my teens but slowly put on weight through a combination of sedentary lifestyle and drinking in my 20s. I'm 5'7", and after I lost my desk job in 2013 my weight went up to 230~ish pounds (an estimate, since at my very heaviest I dared not weigh myself).
After said job loss I was very low for a while, drinking a lot and moving very little. It was a field I had earned a degree to work in, but it was obvious to me that the industry was slowly killing me with a perpetually uncertain future, very long hours and a heavy drinking culture.
I decided not to go back into that line of work, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was aware of my weight problem and made a few half-hearted efforts to do something about it - key word being half-hearted.
Eventually, out of simply being fed up of sitting around all day, I got a job in a nearby hotel as a porter. Despite being initially exhausting I found that I could easily walk 7-10 miles in a shift if I didn't stand still for too long. The weight started to come off and people noticed. This came to a head recently when I was asked to get a new photo taken for my work ID badge.
Before (I don't have a picture of my old ID, but this is a passport picture taken around the time I started the job, hence the dead-eyed stare they make you do for passport photos)
After (bonus smiling, kinda)
I'm currently sitting at around 175. My diet hasn't changed all that much, but recently I've stopped drinking in an effort to lose an extra 10-15 pounds for my brother's wedding in July.
For me, finding a way to incorporate exercise into my life that wasn't in my own free time seems to have worked. I hate exercise for its own sake, outside of a leisurely walk. I'll never be a marathon runner, but functional exercise seems to be my key. I don't want to work at a hotel forever, but I'm also in no hurry to leave this job - it's potentially adding years to my life simply simply by me doing it.
So now for that last push.... I have to wear a kilt for this wedding :/
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