Last Time I'll Harp On This...little long

Johnnyt

Johnnyt

Burn all jump cues
Silver Member
I won’t harp on this any more after this, as it really isn’t pool related. I myself don’t like to hear what’s right for me and what’s politically correct. I just want to tell about all the things that changed for the better for me since losing almost 30 lbs.

First of all I’m 73 and felt 83+ before losing the weight. Now I feel like I’m in my 50’s.

My back and knee pain is just about gone. My breathing has improved tremendously. I can bend down w/o bending my knees and touch the floor with no problem. Before I couldn’t do it for 10 seconds. I live in Tampa, FL with very high humidity and couldn’t stay outside more than 5 minutes when the dew point was over 55%. Now it doesn’t seem to bother me at all. Before I couldn’t walk more than 100 foot w/o my lungs burning and bigtime SOB. Now I’d say I could walk around the block easily. I don’t have to take ANY B/P meds at all now. I am a lot more comfortable getting in most weird positions at the pool table. I know I only play on a BB but I’m just 5’ 5 ½” tall and there is very few times I need the bridge.

I’m not a doctor and saying all these things will get better for everyone that gets down to around their normal weight, but it helped all the above for me and so much more. I’ll get off the soapbox now and never bring it up again. Johnnyt
 
Grats to you for doing something positive for yourself. It takes more work than most people think. :)
 
Congrats on gaining some good habits.

I'm going through a similar weight-loss program (imposed by my wife - thank God for her).
 
I thikn it's harder when you get older. That is what I am finding. I have to eat like a bird to maintain my weight. My metabolism is slow as a turtle.

I've been walking lately with my dog, and walking has been my life saver. It really works, speeds up that metabolism. I still have to watch what I eat, but the walking has really made a difference for me. :)

Good for you, Johnny. It feels good to be healthy! :cool:
 
Your posts regarding this have inspired me, so harp away on it AFAIC.

I'm the same height as you, but weigh nearly 275. I carry it really well and can get around in ways some folks find amazing for my size, but it is finally taken its toll. Knees are shot, back hurts all the time, can't fly fish all day any more and can't even hike in to the remote places I love so much. Pool is limited to about an hour's worth of pain and suffering, and I'm only 61.

That's it. I just tossed that leftover danish in the trash, and I'm telling my slim wife (lucky genetics) if she wants to bring this crap home in the future she'll have to store and eat it out in the shed.

And I'm giving up drinking as well. Been wanting to do this for a long time anyway. Fact is, when I try to diet I end up drinking more, so I never lose. I just ran some numbers:

6 beers a day @ 175 calories a bottle x 365 days/yr x 45 years = 1,701,000 calories total. Divided by 4500 calories/pound of fat = 378 pounds of excess body fat! Now subtract all the good food I should have been eating all my life and you get down to about an extra 100 pounds on a very malnourished body. No wonder I feel like shit all the time.

What has this cost me? Well, in today's dollars at about $8/six-pack for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Harpoon IPA, that comes out to $131,040. Plus, all the whisky that I can't even estimate.

That's a lot of cues!

BTW that's also 9,214 gallons of beer. A freaking swimming pool so far. :eek:
 
Johnnyt, I have done the same thing. I am 56 years old, and right after Christmas I went on a diet. I am 6'4" tall and weighed in at 310 pounds. Right now, I'm at 272 pounds and went from couldn't button my 42" pants under my belly to comfortably wearing 38" pants OVER my belly. My goal is 235 pounds, which with my build is really slim. Before this barrage of knee replacements (had to have my right knee done 3 times in 22 months before it was right), I was at 235 and wore, depending on the brand, 34 to 36 inch waist pants... I still have those folded in the top of the closet... Hopefully, by end of summer, I'll have them down and can take all the 38's through 42's to Goodwill.

So, what has it done? Well, my back feels 100% better. I have a titanium knee and, the other day, I actually jogged on it for the first time in years. Carrying 310 pounds, that was just too painful to try (actually, last summer I was up to 330)! My overall health has improved... blood sugar is perfect, total cholesterol levels are ideal, with a great ratio, and all in all, I JUST FEEL A LOT BETTER! ... and more energetic.

Now, that's what it did for my body, so what about my pool game. Well, naturally, being more comfortable and in less pain, my game is getting better with every few pounds I lose. At times, when the weather is right and nothing hurts, I can get a little scary at the table! :) I have a LOT more endurance! A friend and I play 60 game sparring sessions now... Before the weight loss, NO WAY I could play 60 games of 9 ball or 10 ball NONSTOP. I just didn't have the energy and besides my knee and back, the soles of my feet would start hurting in a long session. Those things are a much smaller issue, now and are becoming smaller, day by day, pound by pound.
 
As a member of the over 250 pounds but under 5'7" club, I also decided to start losing weight about 8 months ago. I live up on a hill and bringing the groceries up the stairs had me so winded I had to sit down once they were inside. (Of course, I bring in the groceries the "guy" way, about 14 bags on each arm, heh.)

My girlfriend is a gym nut, goes to spinning classes about 10 times a week, so I started going to the gym with her. Started slow on the cardio, always loved the free weights so hit those sorta hard right off the bat, watched a bit of what I was eating, and *GASP* cut out the drinking. I lost 50 pounds in 6 months and feel much better. Now I'm on the elliptical machine instead of the bike and benching 275 instead of 135. My blood pressure has dropped to a healthy range and I can shoot pool for hours on end without my back or knees hurting.

The last 2 months I've started the drinking again and with the work out program still going I am basically holding steady at a 50 pound loss. I'm ok with that for a while as I sure missed drinking! :wink:

Anyone thinking about losing a few pounds... stop just talking about it! Any exercise you start is an improvement and you start to actually enjoy it once you see the improvements in your quality of life. Get out there and move!
 
Sloppy Pockets said:
9,214 gallons of beer
Click to expand...

If you figure out how many laps around a pool table make a mile, how many in the average game, figure the number of games you've played and extrapolate the miles you've gone and you will come up with your MPG (of beer).

Kudos to all on weight loss. There is a reason for the saying, you can't teach old dogs new tricks... It's so difficult to change any habbit and eating and drinking must be toward the top of the degree of difficulty.

I wish a renewal to your life to your pool game.
 
been both places

Johnny,

I have been very successful losing weight and not so good sometimes. I am a terrible dieter when I can't exercise too. Starvation ain't my thing plus my body goes into fat conservation mode and will eat every muscle and organ I have first. I have organs I prefer to keep including my heart which is just a big muscle.

Once the metabolism speeds up the weight comes off much easier and once I can get out and about doing things I'm not imagining myself hungry every fifteen minutes because I'm bored.

New projects afoot and I am enjoying myself. That will almost certainly result in weight coming off. The big hot is around the corner too and that helps the weight. I should be down a bit by fall, if not I will have to make it happen. I lost some weight, got careless, and put it right back on.

One warning to all, fat cells are some of the longest lived in the body. They grow and shrink, damned things multiply, but they die off slowly. That is why it is so easy to put weight back on for the first year or so after dieting. Many of those fat cells are still there, they are just skinny fat cells waiting for any chance to plump up again. We still have a lot of left overs from primitive days and the ability to easily store fat for times of hunger is one of them. Most of us seldom see times of real hunger but we still store fat as easily as ever.

Good luck to all that want to see their toes and other body parts they haven't seen in a long time again!

Hu



Johnnyt said:
I won’t harp on this any more after this, as it really isn’t pool related. I myself don’t like to hear what’s right for me and what’s politically correct. I just want to tell about all the things that changed for the better for me since losing almost 30 lbs.

First of all I’m 73 and felt 83+ before losing the weight. Now I feel like I’m in my 50’s.

My back and knee pain is just about gone. My breathing has improved tremendously. I can bend down w/o bending my knees and touch the floor with no problem. Before I couldn’t do it for 10 seconds. I live in Tampa, FL with very high humidity and couldn’t stay outside more than 5 minutes when the dew point was over 55%. Now it doesn’t seem to bother me at all. Before I couldn’t walk more than 100 foot w/o my lungs burning and bigtime SOB. Now I’d say I could walk around the block easily. I don’t have to take ANY B/P meds at all now. I am a lot more comfortable getting in most weird positions at the pool table. I know I only play on a BB but I’m just 5’ 5 ½” tall and there is very few times I need the bridge.

I’m not a doctor and saying all these things will get better for everyone that gets down to around their normal weight, but it helped all the above for me and so much more. I’ll get off the soapbox now and never bring it up again. Johnnyt
Click to expand...
 
thanks

Thanks Johnny T... for your inspiring story........

I have been overweight for a long time, but it goes back many years and lots of diets.....I guess in the span of my overweight life (maybe 45 years; I am now 66) I must have gained and lost 30 lbs. at least 6 different times on crash diets...I do exercise with weights at a local gym twice a week, but that is obviously not enough; I still eat like I always want to....i.e. Steaks, Prime Rib, Sausage and Eggs, BBQ Ribs, mostly anything deep fried, hamburgers, hot dogs, well, you get the idea....I know if I want to lose weight and KEEP IT OFF, I have to make a real change in my eating habits, but it is the hardest thing in the world for me to do now.....and I quit smoking after over 20 years too....
One last funny thought that my daughter said to me when she was just ten or eleven was, (because she knew I was in another one of my diet modes and being miserable), "Dad, when you die and they put you in the casket, would you rather be fat with a smile on your face, or skinny with a frown?"
Well, as things are going now, it might just be the former, rather than the latter. However, I liked reading your post because it is def. inspirational...Thanks
 
Johnnyt said:
I won’t harp on this any more after this, as it really isn’t pool related. I myself don’t like to hear what’s right for me and what’s politically correct. I just want to tell about all the things that changed for the better for me since losing almost 30 lbs.

First of all I’m 73 and felt 83+ before losing the weight. Now I feel like I’m in my 50’s.

My back and knee pain is just about gone. My breathing has improved tremendously. I can bend down w/o bending my knees and touch the floor with no problem. Before I couldn’t do it for 10 seconds. I live in Tampa, FL with very high humidity and couldn’t stay outside more than 5 minutes when the dew point was over 55%. Now it doesn’t seem to bother me at all. Before I couldn’t walk more than 100 foot w/o my lungs burning and bigtime SOB. Now I’d say I could walk around the block easily. I don’t have to take ANY B/P meds at all now. I am a lot more comfortable getting in most weird positions at the pool table. I know I only play on a BB but I’m just 5’ 5 ½” tall and there is very few times I need the bridge.

I’m not a doctor and saying all these things will get better for everyone that gets down to around their normal weight, but it helped all the above for me and so much more. I’ll get off the soapbox now and never bring it up again. Johnnyt
Click to expand...

Way to go, JohnnyT.
I am glad for you and your health. congratulations to you.
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
 
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I went from 235 to 170. It was like rolling things back 10 years. I have kept it off for 4 years. I feel great compared to before. It was difficult but worth every bit of effort. Congratulations to everyone who not just losses weight but tries. Every journey begins with one step. Good luck.
 
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