Thanks! I'm proud of me, too. :)

I wrote a poem not long ago. I'm not going to share all of it, but part of it goes:

It's not the shedding of weight
that has opened my eyes to myself.
It's the accomplishments along the way.
It's finding myself doing those things
I thought I knew I couldn't do.
What else have I "known" I couldn't do
that's been waiting to be done?

The weight loss has been great for the self-image, but it's the daily goals that I set and meet at the gym that boost my confidence everyday. One quick story about the day that self-confidence entered my life for the first time as an adult:

I was with my trainer, and we had just done the weight training portion of my workout. For my cardio for that day, he told me to row 1000m. The most I had ever rowed was 750m, and that took me 3:08.0. He said that he wanted me to row the 1000m in under 4:00.0. I told him that I thought that was low considering what I had done on the 750m. He adjusted the time to 5:00.0, but said he knew I would have no problem with 4:45.0. So, I made my aim 4:30.0. When I got done, I had rowed the 1000m in 4:00.4! I didn't even think that was possible! In that moment, the "impossible" became possible.

I did finally beat that damned time. The last time I did it, I got it in 3:59.8. It's barely under 4:00.0, but it is! It's constantly finding myself doing things like that which changed my attitude. Things are no longer impossible. They just aren't possible YET, but they will be. Finding confidence has been the most liberating experience of my life.

Actually, I haven't. In losing weight before, it was always just about the low calorie diet and walking. This time, I've fallen in love with exercise. It's no longer a chore to make it to them gym. I WANT to go. I LOOK FORWARD to going. I don't know what to do with myself on a rest day, so I usually end up going anyway and at least doing some cardio. This time is SO different.

Endorphins are cool.

Remember that it's still 75 percent diet. You can't out-train a bad diet.

No shit?

Your hate has made you powerful.

The whole slow digesting vs fast digesting/post workout shake thing I feel is mostly marketing smoke and mirrors. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter if you slam a shake after lifting, or wait 20 mins until your home and just eat and big meal. The minute you mix something with your shake (milk/banana/pb) or drink it with a meal, your slowing the digestion down anyway. All that matters is at the end of the day, you hit your daily macros. Whether its 300g of protein over 6 meals, or 2, it doesnt matter.

Nice job with the weight loss, keep up the hard work!

This doesn't matter.

you're a beautiful man

There's nothing wrong with it, but you could lose weight eating nothing but refined flour products. It would be hard, because that shit flies right through you and leaves you hungry, but you could do it.