Do any of y'all have success stories of becoming fit after years of an unhealthy lifestyle (or body)? What aspects of the change were most difficult and what came easy? How did you stay motivated? What role did marijuana play?
I got fairly chubby in college. Hustling...had a hot gf, just got complacent in life. A few years prior in high school I was in athletics all the time - weighed 165 lbs., could bench press 300 lbs. I loved sports. But I had been competing for so long (since I was 8) I was burned out by the time high school was done, and it felt awesome to go to college, smoke pot, eat shit and not give a fuck. After I got chunky I knew I needed to do something about it but didn't know where to get the balling rolling. I'd hit up the weight room like old times and get stronger but I could never lose the gut. Started researching diet in my mid-late 20's bc honestly everything else failed, and it was the last ffin thing I was about to change Found out about juice fasting and eating lots of fruits/veggies from documentary films, that's when my body actually started changing. Switched up my main courses too - from pizza, store bought dinners, mac n' cheese to meals more like salmon, chicken, brown rice, couscous; added smoothies and fresh pressed juice into my diet as well. Add some exercise to that and I went right back to looking like my ripped little self. I'm very happy I switched my shit up in my late 20's (33 now) otherwise today I'd be a serious butterball. Got pics to prove the progress I made. I'll show them to you in a message if you want...don't like putting pics of myself on the forum.
Kinda went off there and didn't answer the rest of your questions. I smoked the whole time. What motivated me was not wanting to be a fat old man Diet was def the hardest thing to change. I know shitty food tastes better and is more momentarily gratifying...but I see feeding my body the nutrition it needs is like putting the right kind of fuel into my car, instead of something that's lower grade. Hope that helps you
Three years ago in September I weighed 340 lbs, now I weigh 170, something like 50+ inch waist, now I wear 32's that are loose. Basically took little steps to make lifestyle changes, simply things at first like no soda (which I hardly ever drank), no fast food (which I hardly ever ate), would spend 15 minutes of walking when I exercised, now I do 15 minutes of running/jogging to get my heartrate over 140, then 15 minutes of cycling to get my heartrate between 100-120 and in more of a "fat burning" mode, do about an hour of weightlifting also with each workout. I used to primarily focus on caloric intake but now am much more focused on lowering fat/sugar content and increasing fiber/protein content, more focused on reading ingredients also. I think it's best if you simply make small goals for yourself and then increase those goals instead of trying to do too much too fast and then becoming discouraged.