I am a recovering junk food junkie. I have never been happy with my body. I went from being a skinny 6 year old to a very overweight 8 year old. I was pretty heavy until I was about 12 (175 at 5'3") and started playing basketball on a regular basis. That was a huge turn around for me. I am now about 5'9 1/2. I have been maintaining a weight around 175 since I was 18. I still had a bit of a gut though. Being teased as the "fat kid" all those childhood years left me extremely body conscious. I am in fairly decent shape now but I'm not happy with my torso area. If I could get this layer of fat off my belly and see my abs I will finally be over being self concious being about my body. Over the last 8 months or so I have been working very long hours and haven't had the energy or motivation to exercise or eat very well. When you've been busting your tail for 12 hours, the last thing you want to do is come home and cook. My daily regimen was to grab some fast food and watch TV for an hour or two then go to bed. I would also fill up on soda and energy drinks to get me through the day. Not a whole lot of water. Not only that, but fast food is just so delicious that I would want nothing but that. I recently went home on leave and stayed in a hotel for a couple of weeks, eating nothing but fast food and junk. I became very aware of my expanding gut. I ballooned to almost 190 (the heaviest I had ever been) and decided that things had to change. I took some extreme measures to re-adjust my diet and way of thinking in regards to eating. I don't necessarily recommend this to anyone but I went on a body cleansing regimen for a few days (http://mastercleansesecrets.com/book2.php?gclid=CP20jbTZs5sCFRwpawodYGdEOw). No food at all for 10-14 days. I got to 2 1/2 before throwing in the towel. It was brutal but it gave me a great new perspective on food. I kicked my soda addiction, which I had been trying to do for almost 10 years! I'm back to working out regularly and making the time to put together healthy meals (even if they're not always the tastiest). This site is awesome because you really see what you take in everyday. I was amazed at how many 3000+ calorie days I had over one week when I thought I was actually doing ok. I have totally eliminated soda and energy drinks from my diet and severely cut back on fruit juice. Water is my best friend. I drink 8+ glasses a day and feel amazing for it. My skin has gotten much clearer too. My goal is to get to around 10 or 12% body fat by the end of the year by eating properly and working out on a regular basis. Being in the military, my job depends on it. I also don't want to be that guy with the massive beer belly. It's not healthy and just plain unattractive. I'm not getting any younger and it's tougher to achieve certain fitness goals as you get older. It's now or never! ***UPDATE*** I joined the site and got on the healthy bandwagon back in the summer of 2009. Since then I have had plenty of struggles staying on track but I for the most part things have gone very well. I actually did reach that 10% body fat goal by June of 2011 but due to the hectic nature involved with a PCS move and deployment my workouts and diet took a nose dive. Once I finally got settled in at my duty station in Iraq I was 10-15 lbs heavier than my normal weight of the last year & a half and my physique had kinda gone to and the horrible food (lots of processed, high calorie junk) doesn't help. I took this oportunity being away from the States and already looking kinda crappy to bulk up some. I was never able to get enough calories in to put on any real muscle weight because I was so worried about keeping my bf% as low as possible that I wasn't willing to risk it. Anyway, I have been working out like never before to counteract the crappy food but have also let down my guard and allowed myself to eat a lot of things I normally wouldn't touch thereby putting on more bodyfat than I'm comfortable with. Starting April 1st I will attempt to do what I did back in June of 2009 and drop a bunch of weight (10-15 lbs) while keeping the muscle that I have built. I'm pretty excited about it. I will try my best to count my calories and cut ALL junk from my diet with the exception of a weekly cheat meal (for sanity's sake). I'm also looking to add an hour of cardio 1st thing in the morning (4-5 days a week) to go along witn a revamped lifting routine in the evenings (5-6 days a week). This is a 12 week program that I have been planning for a couple of months now. I'm going to document as much as I have time to and look forward to making some big things happen. *UPDATE* September 2011- Things are going well. I'm just coming off a long deplyment. Between returning to the states and getting settled in at a new duty station I let my diet and exercise regimen fall quite a bit. I have been back on track for about 6 weeks as far as diet and two weeks on the exercise front. The diet wasn't hard, simply a matter of not traveling and being able to cook my own meals. Exercise-wise, I was a beast in the gym while on deployment. PRobably in the best overall shape of my life due to the hours I put in and the focus involved. After taking almost 2 months off from regular training my body is generally weak and sluggish and I find it difficult to stay motivated or put in even half the effort I was putting in while on deployment. It's getting better though. It's simply a matter of pushing through it. I'm gradually making improvements and hope to get back where I was in May of this year. Even with some short slips I am still living strong and staying within the bounds of a healthy lifestyle built around a solid diet and plenty of exercise. It's just who I am now.

• 20-something
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