I woke up a couple of days ago -- a Monday no less -- and discovered I was fat.
Really, really fat.
Okay, I didn't wake up and suddenly find I was trapped in some morbidly obese body, it was a slow process, taking years of mistreating myself to get to this point. But Monday was kind of a tipping point. Well, that and a recent picture someone took of me.
That picture -- I'll share it, but not today (That picture to your right, the little head shot of me in a blue shirt and tie -- that picture is nearly eight years old, and shows me about 64 pounds ago) -- was of a gathering with some of my wife's family, and I was absolutely astounded when I saw myself. I don't mean to suggest I didn't understand already I was fat, I mean really big, but I simply didn't quite have that imagine of myself in my head.
That was a week and a half ago. Then this week, on Monday, I stepped on the scales.
279 pounds.
I'm not a tall guy, coming in at barely 5'10".
To put a little perspective on that, when I graduated from high school I weighed 150 pounds. I'll be the first to say I was a little too light then (though I was blazing fast -- always the fastest guy on the basketball court or soccer field), but I was probably too thin. I went off to college, got fat (gained all the way up to 197 pounds), then started working out, running, eating better, and settled in at about 180 pounds. That was a good, healthy weight for me, given how much I was working out.
So, you could say I'm about 100 pounds overweight.
100 FREAKING POUNDS OVERWEIGHT!
Maybe, I don't know. I haven't a clue what 180 would look like on me now, or 190, or even 200. I've had a lifelong struggle with weight, at least during my adult life (no problems in high school when I was playing sports, working out, running...just generally always active). My weight has gone up and done, up and down, up and down, constantly. Unfortunately, each time it goes back down, it never gets as low as last time, and when it goes up, it's always a little more than the time before.
Just last summer, in 2015, I dropped from 265 to 242 in about six weeks. Since August 1, about seven months ago, I've been in a continual climb all the way up to Monday's 279 pounds. That's more than 5 pounds a month I've been gaining. My doctor's even concerned now, though maybe I'll get into all of that later.
For now, I'll just say I'm tired of being fat, tired of being unhealthy, tired of getting out of breath doing the simplest things, tired of not sleeping well because I've eaten a ton of bad stuff just before going to bed...tired of it all.
So beginning today, I'm setting out to change a few things, mostly how I eat, how I treat myself (better sleep, more exercise). I've done this before -- I'm the KING of yo-yo dieting -- but maybe it'll be different this time. I certainly should have some better motivation (again, more on that later).
Over the coming weeks, and maybe months, I'll post here regularly on how it's going -- my weight loss, exercise gains, struggles, successes, and the like. I'll post interesting articles and information I come across regarding fitness and health. I may share blogs of other people doing something similar to what I'm doing. I'll share more of my story, how I got here, how hard it is to change, and so forth. I'll lay out what I'm eating, my workouts, what I learn along the way.
And most of all, maybe I'll encourage someone else to make some positive changes along the way.
I don't know, maybe 50 people will see this, maybe 50,000, then again maybe just me, myself, and I will be the only ones to lay eyes on this blog. Either way, I hope whoever visits finds the blog enjoyable, fun, and maybe, just maybe, helpful in their own lives.
Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to leave comments or questions in the comment section of the blog.
More later....
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