I Male that just turned 40 and though the best gift I could give myself would be to start getting things together. I am highly motivated and making progress.

Induction Beginning Date: 3/6/2008

Starting Weight: 285

Current Weight: 274

Goal Weight: 175

My first post here. I have a long way to go but plenty of time to get there. I have dealt with weight issues all my life. I was heavy as a pre-early teen. Started playing sports and became more active which helped me slim down. Maintained a weight somewhere around 160 – 170 through high school until about 25. Got married at 27 and after a couple of kids I had put on some weight but was still somewhat active so I did not get over a manageable amount of weight. I then quit smoking just over 5 years ago and have since swelled up like a balloon.

I had weighed as much as 290 and was finding it difficult to do even the most mundane task. I love playing sports and goofing off with my kids but I was having a hard time keeping up. This just made me more discouraged and it seems to be a slippery slope.

I will say that some of the things I have noticed right off was that my energy level while it slipped during the first few days of induction is much higher than before. I have also noticed a SIGNIFICANT drop off in appetite. I sometimes have to force myself to have dinner. Of course, once I get going I don't have much problem. heh.

I went to the doctor the other day for a physical and found my resting heart rate and blood pressure had dropped (HR: 66, BP: 120 over 76). One of my favorite parts is that when it's time to eat my body does not let me know by making me feel queasy, light headed and shaky. I was assuming that meant that I was pre-diabetic from what I read on WebMD. I never got tested because I did not want to know, figured it would be just one more thing to get depressed about.

I have not been excercising as much as I should but I am doing what I can. My theory being that I did not want to push myself too far to fast. Need to ease into this and work on balancing out my nutrition first. My ego was/is so fragile that any setback might send my tumbling further down that slope. I have been trying to get outside more and play Soccer or Basketball with the kids which counts as exercise just need to do something more consistent.

I did not lose anything last week which was a little bit of a bummer. My diet has not changed since I started induction but I guess I am on what is hopefully a temporary plateau. I also have the ketoses test strips which I check each morning and while they do fluctuate from light to heavy I have not slipped out of Ketosis since I started. Feeling a little down the last couple of days but I think it will pick up again soon. Just need to find a way to push myself off of this current plateau. I understand this is a process and takes time. It took me 10+ years to get myself here so I need to be somewhat patient when reversing all of the damage I have done. Though, as many of you already know, those words can sometimes fall on deaf ears.

Anyway, that’s my story and I am going to keep on going and see just how deep this rabbit hole goes. I will try to update here when I have time. This could be a theraputic outlet for me while I go through this life change.