It's so empowering to be able to look at a health issue head on and set reasonable goals for yourself doing stuff you love. I have fibromyalgia, which is obviously different, but this was a great reminder about doing what you can in ways that are sustainable, objective, and make you happy. :) Yay for long walks with sweet dogs!
To weigh in here (ha ha), during the pandemic I seriously hurt myself trying to pull a dead rose bush out of the ground. I felt something rip in my core. We went to the hospital and I was diagnosed with a ventral hernia (above the belly button) & a diastasis recti. I met with the best surgeon for this in NYC who took one look at me and said, "I can't fix this until you lose weight". She gave me the scale number I had to hit to get the surgery and it was the wake up call that it was time to deal with this. So I did. Hearing I was too fat for surgery was enough. I began tracking every calorie that went into my mouth and went nuts on Peloton. I hit the goal the surgeon set out for me and reached out to her and said, "is it okay if I lose more weight before surgery, I don't want to stop yet" and she told me to go for it if I wasn't in pain. So I kept going. I lost 120lbs this way. Tracking calories. Focusing on protein. I didn't go keto, but I quit sugar. I only had some wine or scotch 1x/week and allowed myself pizza on Saturday night.
The abdominal pain had gone away with the weight loss until we went to Scotland this summer. I was swinging 2 50lb suitcases filled with Laphroaig around like a moron and made the ventral hernia worse. When I came back to NYC I went to see the surgeon who honestly didn't recognize me because I lost so much weight. She put me on the surgery schedule and I had it done in October and I'm back lifting weights and going nuts on Peloton. The interesting thing is the diastasis recti went away after I lost all the weight -- back when I was heavier if I did a crunch, you'd see the football/alien emerge from my core, but after the weight loss it was not there anymore. The surgeon did a CT to look for it and only found the ventral hernia. They closed that with robots laparoscopically. I was in and out in one day. Her take was it was just the visceral fat around my organs pushing up when I was heavier.
If I could do this, you can. I think you know how to reach me so if you ever need an ear who went through the same stuff, don't hesitate.
Just track your calories. I'm sure you have a food scale. It gets obsessive. Your friends will get tired of you talking about your weight loss. You'll realize you're talking about it way too much. You'll find people along the way who don't like you thin and healthy (that's always fun), but this is something really good. Especially, for guys like us who sit on our asses all day for the most part.
I was a husky kid, too. Grownups liked to say "You're not fat, you're just...solid." I've got stories of humiliation and such that I won't share here on this semi public forum, but even though I'm slimmed down now, let's just say it still sticks with me every day. You still see the same thing in the mirror that you saw when you were 12. Good luck on your program, Mickey. ❤️
Thanks for being real, Mickey. You got this.
Damn, you've been going through it these days!
It's so empowering to be able to look at a health issue head on and set reasonable goals for yourself doing stuff you love. I have fibromyalgia, which is obviously different, but this was a great reminder about doing what you can in ways that are sustainable, objective, and make you happy. :) Yay for long walks with sweet dogs!
To weigh in here (ha ha), during the pandemic I seriously hurt myself trying to pull a dead rose bush out of the ground. I felt something rip in my core. We went to the hospital and I was diagnosed with a ventral hernia (above the belly button) & a diastasis recti. I met with the best surgeon for this in NYC who took one look at me and said, "I can't fix this until you lose weight". She gave me the scale number I had to hit to get the surgery and it was the wake up call that it was time to deal with this. So I did. Hearing I was too fat for surgery was enough. I began tracking every calorie that went into my mouth and went nuts on Peloton. I hit the goal the surgeon set out for me and reached out to her and said, "is it okay if I lose more weight before surgery, I don't want to stop yet" and she told me to go for it if I wasn't in pain. So I kept going. I lost 120lbs this way. Tracking calories. Focusing on protein. I didn't go keto, but I quit sugar. I only had some wine or scotch 1x/week and allowed myself pizza on Saturday night.
The abdominal pain had gone away with the weight loss until we went to Scotland this summer. I was swinging 2 50lb suitcases filled with Laphroaig around like a moron and made the ventral hernia worse. When I came back to NYC I went to see the surgeon who honestly didn't recognize me because I lost so much weight. She put me on the surgery schedule and I had it done in October and I'm back lifting weights and going nuts on Peloton. The interesting thing is the diastasis recti went away after I lost all the weight -- back when I was heavier if I did a crunch, you'd see the football/alien emerge from my core, but after the weight loss it was not there anymore. The surgeon did a CT to look for it and only found the ventral hernia. They closed that with robots laparoscopically. I was in and out in one day. Her take was it was just the visceral fat around my organs pushing up when I was heavier.
If I could do this, you can. I think you know how to reach me so if you ever need an ear who went through the same stuff, don't hesitate.
Just track your calories. I'm sure you have a food scale. It gets obsessive. Your friends will get tired of you talking about your weight loss. You'll realize you're talking about it way too much. You'll find people along the way who don't like you thin and healthy (that's always fun), but this is something really good. Especially, for guys like us who sit on our asses all day for the most part.
Good luck!
I was a husky kid, too. Grownups liked to say "You're not fat, you're just...solid." I've got stories of humiliation and such that I won't share here on this semi public forum, but even though I'm slimmed down now, let's just say it still sticks with me every day. You still see the same thing in the mirror that you saw when you were 12. Good luck on your program, Mickey. ❤️