Hi all! I've actually been part of this group for a long time, but with that being said I've also been away for a long time. My name is Tony or Toni, however I am choosing to spell it on a given day. I live in Seattle, WA; originally from California, born in Southern, grew up in Northern, and soon to be a resident of Canada, hopefully. Those are the plans at least.
I found myself inactive since the end of 2015, I had a major surgery which I ended up having some complications from, and they put a stop to my exercising and put me on rest, for not sure how long. Not as long as I've been inactive that's for sure. However, I got used to it. You know the saying; an object in motion stays in motion, well the same is true for an object that's not in motion. So about three years later I found myself at my highest weight.
I got to a point; where I am about to turn 40 (next week), and I think it was rock bottom for me. My health isn't going to get any better unless I do something about it, and getting fit and losing weight will even help with the chronic stuff I deal with, so I started over again. Started with just dieting, at 5 foot 10 and 350 lbs, it was a lot of weight on my joints and causing me a lot of pain. Somehow; in the midst of a crazy emergency move, 3 months of dieting, and some pretty serious illness thrown in there that I didn't know about till about a month after moving, I managed to lose 65 lbs. Way too much too soon, but I will take it anyhow.
One of my main reasons for starting this all was health; and more specific I didn't want to end up diabetic. Well, after losing all that I went in for my annual exam and my Doctor told me I was in fact Diabetic. Luckily I didn't do any major damage to myself; eyesight is good, liver and kidney are good, heart is good. As well, I am thankful that I can very easily manage it with diet and I don't need insulin.
A month into the diagnosis I'd lost another 11 lbs, and my sugars are all right where they should be, and two more months or so and I may be looking at possibly not needing medication. I did find out I am suffering from some kind of rheumatological/autoimmune thing; which doesn't make exercise all that easy with joint pain and general fatigue. But I find once I get going, it's a bit hard to stop me lol. I got myself a trainer, and I am easing myself back into strength training, and for now doing about 3 miles/6K steps a day.
Goals in the distant future?
Get to 250 - the weight I was when my ex moved back to Kuwait, the weight seemed to come after that. Not realizing I'd been depressed.
Get down to 220 - Once I get there my best friend; who happens to be that same ex, is taking me on an all expense paid trip to London! Never been, always wanted to go. Should take me about 7 months to get there staying on goal.
And from there the big goal to getting to a good, normal weight for me. My trainer thinks my ideas of being at 180 with my build might be a little drastic. He says with my build and about 20 lbs of muscle we're looking maybe around 200, and I'd be okay with that, I just need to stick with it.
Anywho, that's me. Hope to get to know you all.
Tony