Hi everybody I am new to this forum but hoping to be a moderately active member.
My main purpose for coming here is that I am at a point in my life where my body is older and just not the same it used to be and I am looking to hold onto what youth I have left as long as possible.
So, a little about me...
I am a 39 year old male, 5'9", and 185 pounds.
When I was younger I was always "that skinny guy". No matter what I ate or what I did I could not gain weight. In high school I could never get above 135 pounds or 28" waist although I would eat like there was no tomorrow. I ate so much everybody always asked me where I put it all. Although I did not play sports I worked out with the football guys and definitely got stronger but never gained any size at all.
Fast forward to my mid 20's and all of a sudden I start to notice my size 28 jean just aren't fitting as well as they used to so I figure I had better start working out to maintain my figure. lol. So I bought a decent bench set for home and start researching workout routines and was genuinely surprised when I started feeling bigger and even more surprised that when I jumped on the scale I was up to 150 pounds. I had never been over 135 and now after a couple weeks of lifting I had gained 10 lbs. Was this it? Was I now able to put on muscle? Whatever it was I was hooked lifting.
Over the next few years I continued to research lifting routines, diets, supplements etc. I started incorporating protein shakes and creatine into my daily regimen and just stayed constant with the lifting. By my early 30's I was able to maintain my weight in the 195-200 pound range while staying reasonable lean. Never ripped by no means but definitely not afraid to take my shirt off and feel pretty good about myself compared to other man my age.
Then about 6 years ago I hit a big friggin brick wall. I got sick to my stomach and just couldn't keep anything down. I figured it was just a mild case of the stomach flu so just dealt with it waiting for it to pass. Two weeks later my condition was actually worse. Not only could I not eat anything but everything I could eat came right back out the other end in a not so pretty way.
After a month my girlfriend (now wife) finally convinced me to go to the doctors and I was diagnosed with having a Colitis difficule infection of the colon. The doctor put me on some antibiotics and presnilone(think that's spelled right) and in about a week I was finally able to start eating again but by that time the damage was done. I had lost 40 pounds during my time being sick.
Adding insult to injury I was also referred to a nephrologist (kidney doctor) due to some of my bloodwork that was done. The nephrologist ordered an ultrasound of my kidneys to make sure they were not damaged from my recent sickness and got dropped another bomb. It was found that I was only born with one kidney and the doctor explained that I needed to no longer use creatine and stay away from high protein diets as breaking down protein is one of the hardest processes on the kidneys.
So now not only was I way down on my weight, not liking the way I looked, hating the way my clothes were fitting but now am being told the world I had come to know for the past several years had to change. I was emotionally devastated!!! Instead of jumping back on the horse I retreated away from it. Wasn't eating decent, wasn't exercising, wasn't being very active, etc and just really let my body go.
So about 2 years ago I don't know what changed but I decided to get back to the gym and get back into the swing of things, just not supplementing with protein or creatine. I was discouraged at first as my lift amounts were just horrible compared to what they had been once upon a time but I still stuck with it. My weight did come back up but have not been able to get up over 185 pounds.
One thing that I thought that might be hindering me was my shoulder. I had injured it several years earlier but I eased up on it for a couple weeks and it got better. Every so often it would act up but I would just rest it and it would get better again. However, for the past year my shoulder has been hurting whether I lift or not. So I had it xrayed and had an mri thinking it could be arthritis or a tear but both showed nothing wrong with the shoulder. The Orthopedic doctor pretty much said that it is just old age. Ugh!!!
So now that I am pushing 40 I am looking to do everything I can to hold onto what youth I have left. I don't want to be one these 40 year old dad's who cannot keep up with his kids and never want to have that "dad bod".
I am sure I will be making further posts throughout the forums on different topics, mostly questions so I can continue to learn about the world youth rejuvenation.
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