(NSV) Almost 3 years later.

Howdy Reddit,

How to begin this, well let's recap my journey. It all started in December of 2015 just after my 40th birthday. At the time I was 290lbs (5'8" male), and my doctor told me that "If I didn't make changes withing 5 years I would have a heart attack, not at risk of, not maybe, but a definite heart attack". I took his advice seriously and with the help of my fitness pal I learned to take control of my eating habits and the weight started coming off.

After the winter months I had dropped about 40lbs just through diet. Then with the help of a friend who became my best friend I got into jogging. She challenged me to participate in a charity 5km run the following October so I trained my ass off so I wouldn't let her down. The goal was to do all 5km with not walking, and sure enough we both did it. I kept the jogging up and eventually got my 5km time down to the 26 minute mark, and at the time was down to 185lbs. However then with the assistance of some co-workers I developed the taste of weight lifting.

Now losing weight and weight lifting are kind of opposing thoughts. Where I'd taught my body that 1750-1900 calories a day was sufficient, weight lifting meant I had to increase that for the muscle to go on. Very carefully I increased my intake to match my effort and was able to go up to 205lbs, but still maintaining my cardio and my strength goals. I've had my.uos and downs along the way, let my cardio slide over a winter and had to start at the bottom again but that's ok. I've realized that this isn't a linear thing, it will have ups, downs, and plateaus.

Which pretty much takes us up to today, roughly 3 years down the line. My 5km times are around the 27 minute mark, my 1RM bench is 245, my 1RM deadlift is 405, and my 1RM squat is 265, which isn't too shabby for a 42 year old guy who weights 206lbs.

Sadly however it may be a case of waiting too long. Recently at a physical an anomaly was found on my routine EKG, I was sent to do a cardiac stress test and they had to abort the test because my blood pressure spiked crazy high. Then just last week I felt an odd pain in my chest so decided to get it checked out and was told I'm suffering from angina. I've got more tests scheduled but as it stands right now my cardiologist thinks I have a blockage in one of the arteries in my heart. Please don't feel bad for me however because I'm convinced had I not listened to the Dr in 2015 I wouldn't be typing this right now.

So, if you've managed to read through all this, firstly thank you. Secondly make the changes you need to make, you aren't too old, you aren't too far gone, it isn't as hard as you think. It is all a mindset, you have to want to make the changes and only you can do that. Once you see progress, continuing is easy.

Thanks to everyone here for the support over the years, and cheers to all of you trying your best everyday to get healthier.

submitted by /u/Valkxb70
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