[Stengah_2012]

You guys mind if a fat bastard joins in on this, albeit a little late?

[TomAwesome]

I think most of us are going slow with it anyway, and I don't think we're going to be involving money after all, so I don't see why not!

[Drew]

So I just got the greatest incentive to lose some weight over the weekend.

I went up to the hardware store up the street to grab some topsoil to patch up some of the worst bits in my back yard. Since they only had 40 pound bags, I found myself lugging 40 pounds worth of topsoil about seven or eight blocks back to my place, thrown over my shoulder.

Now, I'm no wuss, exactly, but a 40 pound bag of dirt for a quarter to half mile stroll isn't exactly easy going, and I was definitely feeling it in my shoulders and back all night and the next day.

I got to thinking though, about halfway home, that the lightest I've been since I've been at my current height is about 165. At the start of this contest, I weighted a bit over 195. so, in other words, every day of my life I've since then been carrying around 3/4 of the weight of that sack of dirt that left me sore, spent, and stiff the next day.

In other words, even if I get back down to 175 or so, think how much more energetic and rested I'll feel every day.

[TomAwesome]

Good job, Drew! I had a similar experience cleaning up after Dolly. It left me sore and exhausted moving all that fallen wood, but in a way that actually felt kind of good. I almost wanted to move some of the bigger pieces to the back yard to leave there to replace my dumbbells.

[Drew]

I think you missed the point of the story, dude. It wasn't "look at me, I carried a 40 pound bag a half mile," it was "Geez, if I feel this sore carrying 40 pounds on my back, well, I'm carrying 20-30 pounds of extra weight in fat around every day, and imagine how much more energetic I'd feel if I wasn't."

It makes you think, and gives you a reason to push yourself.

[TomAwesome]

Oh, yeah. I'm tired and hungry and a little out of it. I do feel a shitton more energetic than I did when I was closer to 260, though.

[DelfinoPie]

Got my bike all repaired/refurbished and all that jazz today...and guess what?

Right now its absolutely shitting it down with rain!

Typical, yesterday it was sunny as...well, sunny as fuck and it was for most of today until an hour ago and now there's flooding in several areas of birmingham

Ah well, at least its done, I can ride it to and from work on the night shift rather than getting a lift off my Dad or getting taxi's all the time

I haven't actually made much improvement yet, but will be signing up to the gym near me this week and will be aiming to go at least twice a week but ideally three times. I'm going to prove all these friends who've made cracks about my weight wrong.

Originally Posted by Mr. S

I snapped a spoke on my bike yesterday whilst on a rather off road cycle thus buckling my wheel, oops!

I also think I need to cut back on the ol' drinking, I eat alot of crap whilst drunk

Same here. I was reading something in the newspaper about how one of the journalists stopped drinking for a month and she lost 7lbs. Which makes a lot of sense as alcohol holds a lot of empty calories I'm still trying to stop my drinking altogether.

[Stengah_2012]

Originally Posted by Drew

I think you missed the point of the story, dude. It wasn't "look at me, I carried a 40 pound bag a half mile," it was "Geez, if I feel this sore carrying 40 pounds on my back, well, I'm carrying 20-30 pounds of extra weight in fat around every day, and imagine how much more energetic I'd feel if I wasn't."

It makes you think, and gives you a reason to push yourself.

Yeah, I've had that realization before. I was holding up a 100lb punching bag while someone else was chaining it up to a joist in the ceiling, and I thought, "Damn, this thing is heavy."

I realized later that since I'm about 100lb overweight, that means I'm essentially walking around with one of these things all day, which is probably why I can leg press 1000lbs with full range of motion.

Thankfully, I've started a new job in which me and 3-4 other guys offload freight trucks all day, so hopefully that'll help the weight situation.

[Mr. S]

It's going slow but well for me at the moment, I've probally lost about half a stone since I started and I actually find that I'm slowly becoming more toned, hopefully soon I'll get back the stamina I used to have when I was younger and very much more in shape

Originally Posted by DelfinoPie

Same here. I was reading something in the newspaper about how one of the journalists stopped drinking for a month and she lost 7lbs. Which makes a lot of sense as alcohol holds a lot of empty calories I'm still trying to stop my drinking altogether.

I totally intend to stop (though after the sevenstring meet next weekend ) as it'll help me out in so many areas, eating all the junk I eat when drunk, feeling lethargic during the day at weekends/mondays and not doing exercise on those days, it'll no doubt help me completely stop smoking and not to mention the financial benefits

[noodles]

Originally Posted by Drew

I got to thinking though, about halfway home, that the lightest I've been since I've been at my current height is about 165. At the start of this contest, I weighted a bit over 195. so, in other words, every day of my life I've since then been carrying around 3/4 of the weight of that sack of dirt that left me sore, spent, and stiff the next day.

In other words, even if I get back down to 175 or so, think how much more energetic and rested I'll feel every day.

In all fairness, though, we are naturally much lighter when we reach our maximum height, sometime in our teenage years. I know that I'm not looking to go anywhere near my 123lb height upon graduating high school. Muscle tone, and not just fat, make up your total weight. Be more concerned about the mirror, and less concerned about the scale. If anything, go by body fat percentage measurements.