Hello. I'm new here.

[Checkman]

Well where to begin. I'm a forty-four year old male, 5'5" and as of today I weigh 188 pounds. I'm a husband, father and police officer. I've been a cop for eleven years and before that I was in the U.S.Army. Fourteen years with eight of those years on active duty. I've always worked out though at times more dilligently than others. Over the previous thirteen years I had gradually put on more and more weight despite going to the gym two to three times a week. I was just eating more than I was burning off. I knew it. I watched my weight creep up from 210 (which was where I was when I left the Army on 02/14/2000) to 250 lbs by December 2010. Clothes got bigger and bigger. I was having a harder and harder time with the strangest things. Shoes were no longer fitting correctly. I was snoring too much, there were odd things going on with my leg muscles and so on. Everyone here has heard all this before. And yet despite all this I wasn't making any changes. Why? Beats me.

But in December of 2010 I went in for my annual checkup. I had put on ten pounds since my 2009 checkup and my blood pressure was high. Like in Stroke territory. It was bad. Again you've all heard this before. But this time I listened. For some reason I'm terrified of stroking out and being paralyzed. My resting heartbeat was in the 90's as well.

I joined the local YMCA and started getting serious about cardio as well as strength. Over the past year I've gotten very familiar with the various Elliptical machines, swimming pool, rowing machine and so on. I've gone back to my old Army workout from twenty + years ago. Lots of push-ups, cardio and so on. I can't run anymore. The Army trashed my lower back, but I can do all those other excercises. I then made some serious changes to my diet. No fad diets. Just a whole lot more fruit, veggies, actually measuring out my food portions, no more junk food, and eating five small meals everyday. It's worked. Actually I can't believe how well it's worked for me. Far beyond anything I expected. I mean I'm in my forties now! The metabolism that I had in my early twenties is gone right? But it's happening and now I'm not really working all that hard. Or am I, but it's become common? I don't know.

As I stated at the beginning of this post I now weight 188 pounds. My resting heart rate is down to 62 beats per minute and my blood pressure has dropped to 125/60. Cholseterol is down and my doctor isn't just happy he's amazed. My fellow officers think that I have a girlfriend on the side ( I don't ) and I getting in and out of my patrol car is easy again. My waist has gone down from 44 inches to 36 and the weight is still coming off. I haven't seen this body since Clinton was first elected in 92. I'd forgotten what it was like to be able to see my jawline.

Now I'm not a monk. Once in awhile I give myself a beer or a couple slices of pizza, but not every day. And the amazing thing is I don't really miss them. Well okay I miss the beer and I keep some downstairs in a small fridge, but I limit myself to one a week. Seem to work.

Anyway I've joined here for new ideas. I figure one can always lean more. Just wanted to let you know a little bit about my background.

[fitoverforty]

No fad diets. Just a whole lot more fruit, veggies, actually measuring out my food portions, no more junk food, and eating five small meals everyday. It's worked.

I now weight 188 pounds. My resting heart rate is down to 62 beats per minute and my blood pressure has dropped to 125/60.

Looks like you made all the right changes. That's awesome! You are the perfect example of how someone can take back control of their life. Just by committing to making real changes, not huge or drastic, but just steady smart choices.

Congrats to you, and thank for your years of service in the military and for continuing to "protect and serve" as a police officer!

I don't really have any new ideas for you - looks like you have a program that works for you. You can inspire lots of folks here with your story, so thank you for sharing it.

[Boss Man]

WELL DONE bud. Seriously, because you were an active man in the services and you allowed yourself to get well out of condition, but it's not about chastising for past mistakes but recognising recent success and you're a good success story.

You prove what can be achieved for people who might think it hard, or not even doable and it's to your credit that you can say what you say right now.

So keep on believing and if anything, you're more likely to give others ideas rather than them giving ideas to you .

[Checkman]

Thanks. In addition to being afraid of a stroke as a motivator I also wanted to see if I could the get back to the fitness level that I had in my twenties. I didn't have a goal in terms of weight. I actually stayed away from the scale. I had three things to grade my progress. One was my clothes and especially my bullet proof vest. Over the past several months I've see the Velcro straps of my vest get closer and closer together when I put on the vest and cinch it in. I've also see my pants get roomier and roomier. The other thing I did was see how fast it takes me to walk a mile on the treadmill and do pushups without stopping. When I got back into it last January it took me over 17 minutes to walk a mile. The last time (a few weeks ago) that I went for it I did the mile in 14:20. Last January I could only knock out 35 pushups before I had to stop. A couple days ago I did 73 pushups before I had to stop.

The one exercise that has really made a difference for me is swimming. I'm getting into the pool two to three times a week and I swim for thirty-five to forty minutes. If I'm not swimming laps I'm treading water. When I added swimming to my exercise routine in October I hadn't swam in years. It wasn't easy, but by Thanksgiving I was seeing some real improvement in my muscle tone and my stomach and back were getting tight. "They" say that swimming doesn't help for weight loss, but I don't believe it. It's made a big difference for me. I also do calisthenics, walking, rowing and elliptical workouts.

[Boss Man]

People who say swimming doesn't help for weight loss are talking rubbish. It burns calories so theoretically it can, providing the person doesn't suddenly jack up their calories and actually increase the calories in versus calories out.

An individual might need a small amout of extra calories to give them the fuel to swim, but as long as the person didn't use that as an excuse, to have a humungous bowl of Pasta and Garlic bread with a pudding afterwards, or something like that before a swim, then it can work.

[kitson]

Hello,Checkman.Hope we learn here together.

[Athene]

The one exercise that has really made a difference for me is swimming. I'm getting into the pool two to three times a week and I swim for thirty-five to forty minutes. If I'm not swimming laps I'm treading water. When I added swimming to my exercise routine in October I hadn't swam in years. It wasn't easy, but by Thanksgiving I was seeing some real improvement in my muscle tone and my stomach and back were getting tight. "They" say that swimming doesn't help for weight loss, but I don't believe it. It's made a big difference for me.

Congratulations! That must have been tough. Swimming is great for weight loss - the last time I trained for a swimming event I just did a 1 km freestyle swim at my highest intensity level, every morning for 2 weeks and I dropped 14 lbs and was eating everything in sight! Swimming is a full body workout, both strength and conditioning, so it makes perfect sense that you would get those great results, especially with the time and work that you put in.

People who say swimming doesn't help for weight loss are talking rubbish.

Well said

[Nancy101]

Hi Guys..
I'm new here and want to search forum topic which related to adult weight loss. Could anybody help to find out..