and I'm fresh outta Stride.

I'm Russ (Not Russell, its short for Rusty.) 22, Central Florida, Always been fat. There's excuses I could make but it all falls back on one thing: My inherent lazyness. It's always been so much easier for me to just sit on my butt and munch while talking online to my friends.

Then years later, all those "Friends" aren't around... and I'm still sitting on my fat rear end. My moment of clarity, if thats what you call it, was when I went to Casual Male to buy some new jeans because my old ones were too tight. Nothing big, i've done this several times before. When I said to myself in the dressing room "Yeah these size 60 jeans fit pretty well" something clicked in the back of my brain. I sat down in the dressing room and thought about what I just said.

Size 60?
Me?
at 21 years old?

Holy Crap.

Something HAD to be done. I put the pants back on the rack, drove down the street to the gym, and spent the money on a membership instead. That was in October. Started the Atkins diet the next day and stuck with it all through the holidays; started slipping off it around christmas, and for the past month have been totally off the wagon. I haven't gained all my weight back; heck infact I had to go buy new jeans the other day because my fat ones were falling off me, even with a belt. But its time I have to switch diets, Atkins is good for a jumpstart, but Its time to control my eating. I've gotta tackle this bull head-on.



Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope to get to know and encourage and support alot others, and if I can help at all, just ask.

In my opinion, losing weight through pure exercise and carefully planned meals is the only way to do it successfully, good luck on your journey, and be sure to stick around to update us with your progress

Welcome to the forum Russ; good luck!!

hey russ,
we all have our moments of clarity somewhere........dressing rooms tend to be a common theme!!!! If you did atkins I aplaud you, that is serioulsly hard, I did it once for about 2 months.........untill the need for a slice of bread drove me over the edge !!!
so welcome and good luck Keep on posting dude..........you can kick this in the ass!!!!!
STAR

Hey Russ,
Welcome to the WLF and GOOD for you for taking such control of your life!

I found, for me, I could not start losing and hope to maintain the weight loss until I had a clear understanding of how much food was going in. It's calories in vs. calories out. Fairly simple. And hard.

You might want to check out FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal or Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople They are both resources for tracking calories, nutrition and fitness.

Just know you CAN do this - it's one day at a time, one meal, one pound. Those pounds all come off the same way - one at a time!

Good to see you here

oooh stride gum -- you gonna dance your way around the globe too?

welcome and congrats on your success so far

Good luck to you! Sadly, I just realized yesterday that over half my wardrobe doe not fit me, so I can understand you rushing out to buy new jeans! I have to do that myself this week, but hopefully things will turn out for the better!

Hi Russ and welcome. Congrats on your recent weightloss. Don't be discouraged by the holidays...they get the best of us. Try the diary section. It helps to write down what you've been eating and the things you must deal with daily. Good luck.

Hey dude, you can get this!!!

The most important thing is to stick with it, even after falling off once in awhile.

Try your best to balance out your diet, dont worry about fad diets, they are not built for long term use, and even those who stick with them till they hit their ideal weight, tend to regain alot of it afterwards. It took you 21 years to get where you are now, take it nice and slow, even 2lbs a week is 104lbs a year!! if you move down to fast you open yourself to many health problems including gallblader failure/issues (common with low fat diets) and type 2 diabetes. Take your time, go for walks, chat with us here, eat healthy food leave fast food alone, drink lots of water and when you are at your ideal weight and running everywhere, everyday you wont want that fat food that drags you down!

Nutritiondata.com
Fitday.com

build a profile and track what you eat... if you fall off get back on.

We're here for ya bud!

Russ where are you???
did you start a diary yet.........dang dude, I have been wondering where you are???
I seen you are in the Feb. exercise challenge ........me too good luck!!
later on STAR