Hi!!

jsurrette

Hello everyone! I figured I would take the time to come introduce myself and give a little bit of information about me.
My name is Jared and I am 29 years old.

I have been overweight/obsess for most of my life. At my biggest, I was probably well over 350lbs. That was around the end of middle school/beginning of high school. I would wear baggy jeans and an oversized coat year round (yes, I even wore the coat during summer) in an attempt to hide some of my fat.
I finally reached a point that I decided that I couldn't be that big any more. I started out by cutting out regular sodas and started drinking diet soda. Though some people say that diet sodas are even worse and don't help you lose weight, that was not the case for me. It gave me a huge jump start, but it wasn't enough. I stopped eating a lot of the foods that I was eating, well, basically all of the foods that I had been eating and I started only eating stuff that said "Fat Free". This is another thing that many people say doesn't work, but believe it or not, the pounds came off like crazy! I was so proud of myself. I had gotten down to about 185 pounds. It was a dramatic change, but every time I looked in the mirror I still saw the 300+ pound Jared, so I continued pushing myself to eat less.
I eventually ended up being taken to the doctor by a co-worker because I had allowed my blood glucose level to drop so low that I was blacking out. - I never wanted to feel like that again, so I started eating a little more.. And a little more.. Then, I would eat a little less again. Needless to say, my weight fluctuated like crazy for a few years.

I got into a relationship, got comfortable and let's just say we both inflated like balloons.
Since that point, I have struggled tremendously and have almost done a complete 180 and reverted back to where I started.

On December 30th, 2015, at 6' tall, I weighed in at 306.5lbs when I went to a dietician clinic. My heart dropped. I couldn't believe that number. I was disgusted with myself.
I looked in the mirror that night and said, "Jared, you are 29 years old!!! Get your act together!! It's now or never." For the past month I have been using MyFitnessPal to track everything I eat and refusing to go over my calorie goal. I have not increased my activity or started any kind of exercise routine yet. I am very happy to say that when I returned to the clinic on January 30th, I was 287.5lbs. In one month, I lost 19 pounds!
I just joined a gym today and though I plan to start slow, I have no doubt that adding the gym to my life is going to make a huge difference. I can't wait to see how well I can do.

Well, it is nice to have an app that helps along the way and makes it possible to meet other people on their healthy journey.

Thanks,
Jared S.