Hey guys,
This post may get a little more personal than usual, but who ever scoffed at getting to know each other a bit better? :) Today I wanted to tell you guys a bit about my history, as Im sure some of my readers have struggled with the topic of weight loss as well.
Lets preface that I've been overweight my whole life by up to 100lbs or so.
Wait, what weight?
When I was young, I had a pretty crappy self image. Not uncommon I didn't know about calories and my family was not overly health conscious. We ate great food, but calories and portion sizes was never top of mind. What I learned is that food is something to be enjoyed with others. Food is meaningful but only if you value it, and the people that make it for you.
While my diet was pretty poor, I also spent a lot of my time on the computer. I was an early mIRC user in 2001. I joined the Napster craze and used to burn CD's for friends. I also learned at a young age how to design my own websites, use FTP and other very useful tricks that have lead me into a healthy career in technology.
As it turns out, internet users have similar frustrations. Being overweight is one of them. Many of them self-educated and created communities around techies getting fit. This provided a lot of camaraderie and education around the topics. I learned what I thought was proper lifting form.
Then: Low bar squats, high fat/protein diets, squats every day. A lot of bro-talk.
Now: High bar squats, I eat very little dairy, and mainly eat eggs, chicken and veggies.
Education isn't the only factor. At this time, I had been over weight for 15 years, I was set in my habits.
Habits
When you have spent your whole life enjoying what you want and eating with people you love, its easy to get into bad habits if you do not priorities healthful eating. I didn't! I ate what I wanted when I wanted, and it lead me to consider that I'll always be overweight regardless of how much I eat.
I categorized myself as "Overweight" It didn't matter if it was 20lbs or 100lbs. I made the non-mental decision to ignore it, because losing it seemed too difficult.
Other Factors
While my education and habits on weight loss weren't great, I had a few other things come up that made life difficult. I had HUGE tonsils. When I would get sick, I had to sleep sitting up against the wall so I could breathe.
It sounds stupid but when you're young, its easy to think "I'm normal, everyone probably sleeps in the fettle position sometimes." No, just people with blocked airways
Speaking of blocked airways, another issue stemmed from the fact that I only had 50% of my nasal airway. A previous orthodontic procedure changed the structure of my face a bit, causing my nose to shift, blocking the airway.
At 23, I had my tonsils out. At 24, I had a structural nose surgery, and shortly after I lost 70 pounds.
