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What is the best and worst shape you have ever been.
I need some motivation from my previous thread and was thinking what your guys fitness past and future is.
Worst shape I was in was about 6 years ago. Late 30s, 40 pounds overweight, not active, and all my numbers were on the cusp of "high." Had some medical issues that ended up sidelining me for nearly a year.
Best shape was probably earlier this year, when I was down to my Highschool weight and (almost, lol) 6 pack abs.
I'm about ten pounds heavier than that now (allowed unsaturated fats back into my diet: avocado, nuts etc), but still in the best shape of my adult life. About to do a "cut" again to see if I can get completely ripped by my 45th birthday in February. This is just a personal challenge though, not something I aspire to year round, or feel is necessary to be healthy.
Working out is 20% of it. What you put in your mouth (and don't) is more important than anything else you will ever do. There are all kinds of different paths you can take here. Don't be in a hurry. It took me a few years of hard work and experimentation to find out what worked best for me. I actually found the process fun, since it was a science experiment on myself more or less.
A negative attitude will see plateaus instead, which makes many people give up. So having a positive attitude, and finding more than one metric (for instance weight) to go by is extremely important. Your weight is just one piece of the puzzle, and ultimately not that important.
Best was high school. 3 sport athlete, still carried fat but not in excess at all.
Best since HS was when I was 21. My friend's stepdad bought him a nice house with a pool in the town our college was in. I knew I was going to be living in this place and had time to prepare, not to mention I lived one block away from the rec center/gym that was included in tuition. Stopped eating fast food entirely, no cheating. Only other thing I really tried to avoid was saturated fat. I would commit to staying under 40%DV and I lost fat/gained muscle quickly and I just played basketball 2-3x per week and worked out 3 or 4 nights/week for 30 minutes or so. Got an awesome gf soon after getting in shape, which made the whole pool thing a waste because she lived in another town an hour or so away, lol.
Worst shape was within the last year. All stemmed from moving from my hometown to Seattle, where the food is top notch, unlike anything I'd experienced. I also worked a retail job, and, with traffic like there is in Seattle I couldn't get a routine going that included the gym. I eventually started eating delicious meals 2-3 times a day without working out at all and put on lots of weight. I blame Yakisoba noodles as the main culprit, along with my inexcusable laziness. Then I moved to Utah and injured my back playing basketball after work on the 3rd day at my new job, couldn't even walk totally upright for a month.
After staying close to the same for the last year, I finally got some momentum going. I went to my hometown for their gigantic basketball tournament this summer and KILLED it. I was scoring over half of my team's points, lead every game in scoring (both teams), all while running into old friends that would all mention my weight gain (it is so profound--205 lb to 275 lb, maybe more, with 50 or so pounds being added in the last ~3 years). I thought for the whole next week about how I kicked ass while grossly overweight, playing in 105 degree weather made worse by the blacktop. What if I dropped 30 pounds of fat? I'd dominate with some energy to spare!
Now I go to the gym before work and lift every morning because going late made workouts difficult. I sometimes go again after work for a cardio set of about 45 minutes on a bike/elliptical. I want to make the 2-a-days happen at least 3x per week. I really don't have many time obligations outside of work, so I figure I'll just become a gym rat and see what happens.
Worst shape - 9 years ago. Had numerous knee problems that resulted in surgery with 2 torn meniscus. Was also in a failed marriage, so to add to this I was depressed. Packed on weight and was close to 200 lbs.
Best shape - Probably about 13 years ago. Had washboard abs and people thought I was a personal trainer all the time. However my endurance was probably crap. Was doing a lot of kickboxing and boxing at the time.
I got back to the best shape about 2 1/2 years ago, but then a chain of stress for a year and a half and working 80-90 hours a week happened. I'm now in the process of getting there again. Have 25-30 lbs left to go.
Worst: At the start of high school. I was overweight and I could barely do the mile in PE Class.
Best would probably be when I first got into boxing about three years ago. My endurance shot up with the intense cardio workouts, and I had a thick chest and shoulders along with a six pack. I also won my first fight by knocking out my opponent.
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