Down 64 Pounds. A couple of Pictures. Come look.

JasonSwetland

I started this whole Journey when I was about Seven and I started eating everyones leftovers. My Mother came from a farm family where you had to fight to eat and My dad came from a typical American household where you were told to eat everything on your plate cause the kids in China were starving.

They were proud when I ate all the leftovers and I remember feeling stuffed and feeling good about it. I cleaned my plate. And everyone elses. When I was in High school my metabolism was on fire, I typically ate two Hamburgers, two fries, and two milks every day from the ala carte line at lunch. After school a couple little debbies, and a soda pop. Dinner time, a steak or a meatloaf or a couple hamburgers. MMMM red meat. Mashed taters. Corn. Extra butter. More butter. Salt. Butter. Repeat.

Then for the next twenty years Taco Bell, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, White Castle, In and Out burger (only when visiting Cali/ NV- god I loved in and out burger), Dairy Queen, Culvers, Red Robin.....

I continued those eating habits and they caught up to me pretty fast. Along the way many times I battled my weight joining health clubs, weight watchers, doing atkins, blah blah blah. The same crap you have heard a million times before. You all know the story, you have all lived it. Last summer (July 2011) I found out I had liver disease and I was super fat. Like Eric Cartmen fat and this gave me a fatty liver, swollen organs, pain and suffering. I weighed 306 pounds, and Pretty much had given up, until the Doc said I had a couple years at best.

I knew he wasn't lying- I had a cousin die at 42 and 400 pounds. He fell over dead in his house after taking a shower. Dead. One second he was towleing off and probably singing Roxanne (from the police not the crappy new remake) and the next he was gone. He was a great guy and used to be really athletic- a body builder. His identical twin is still a body builder today.

It all clicked and I realized I had given up and was just ready to fall over dead after a shower- just like him. I didn't want to do that though, so I got serious- I changed my lifestyle and 6 months later, Here I are.

Im becoming Vegan (I started by juicing for two weeks, stayed vegetarian , cheated three or four times by trying meat and then went Vegan in November.) I focus on getting my maintenance calories in for the weight I want to weigh and working out everyday- by simply walking. I do other stuff too. I run, I lift heavy stuff, I ride bike, the usual. I do those three times a week usually.

But everyday wether its 90 degrees out, raining, sleeting, snowing, cold, -10 degrees, -30 windchill, gloomy, stormy, dark out, light out, middle of the night, alone, with someone, in a group, on a sidewalk, it doesn't matter what the conditions are, I go outside and I walk for at least 30 minutes. I dont make any excuses. I go.

Thats all it takes. Walk. Walk -walk -walk -walk. If I can do this in Minnesota and freeze my butt off in the winter and get slaughtered by a million and one mosquitos in the summer when it is not cold you can too. No excuses.

My goal is too loose another 55 pounds which will get me down too nearly 185 pounds. I dont need to be ripped, massive, muscular, chiseled, sexy...I just want to be fit, healthy, happy, satisfied, content, flexible, and live a long life with my wife and my four children.

OK heres some of my before and after pictures.

October 2010, In Florida visiting our Daughter. I was probably more than 306 pounds here but I hadnt stepped on a scale for a long, long, long, really long time.



Eating some wings at some drinking establishment notice the bowling ball I have for a chin:



Some Vanity shots, just for sport. Yes I know I have something in my teeth, that was the point.





Here is me 'Before' at 306 pounds. Yes I was in pain there. It hurts to have your body that distorted, and at about 260 something last fall.



Here are the hardest ones to post- in my Unders. Please be nice.

This is what 306 pounds looks like and it does hurt- Im not frowning cause I am happy.





Then I took some 260 pound comparison photos last fall:





But wait there is more:

Mid December and all Sexy!!! about 252:



Beginning of January:





Dress in Layers for the cold:



Me and my Spawn:



Today:



A lot of pics, I hope you enjoyed them. It was pretty hard to post the Underwear pics. Don't hate. Unless you are willing to post your fat half naked pics too.

JasonSwetland

OK the pics aren't working. I'm trying to fix it.

charlesb22

I had to go to Photobucket to see the pics, but WOW!!! WELL DONE! You;ve done such a great job, and must feel so good to know you've added back years to your life

JasonSwetland

Thanks anyone have any advice for fixing my Images?

oharabear

the IMGs need to be in lower case. :-)

Momkat65

I copied this from another post

Hosting the Picture

1) Go to an image-hosting site (for example, photobucket or tinypic- photobucket requires making an account). Upload your picture. To do this, click the button that says "Browse" and choose your photo from there. When you have selected your photo and clicked "OK", click the UPLOAD button.
2) Wait until it is completely loaded and shows you a bunch of different codes. We're going to use the URL that's called IMG (or Image) code. Highlight the entire code, right click, and click "copy".

Placing the Picture on MFP
1) Get onto your favorite board or wherever you would like to post the picture, and start your message. Now, right click inside this typing/text box, and click "Paste", The code that you coped earlier should show up. You may notice that the code looks something like this: (without the spaces)

[ IMG ] http://i48.tinypic.com/qqebzq.jpg [ /IMG ]

Well, that's all fine and dandy, except that we can't have those capital letters in there.

2) Take the code that you have down, and change the capital IMG to lowercase img (on both ends of the code), so that it looks something like this: (without the spaces)

[ img ] http://i48.tinypic.com/qqebzq.jpg [ /img ]

3) Write whatever else you feel like writing in the space, then click the Post button, and you're done!!


Good JOB dude!

JasonSwetland

Thank YOU they are fixed!!!!!

erinkeely4

Awesome!!

hiker282

Got in after the photo fixes and Wow, what a transformation. I'm sure it's taken a lot of hard work and dedication to get to where you are so congratulations! You're doing great!

AnastasiaVegGIrl

Amazing! Wow, you're doing GREAT. Such an inspiration!

4afitCarey

Fantastic!!

Minnesnowtagurl

AWWWWW Mister Sweatland I am sooooo proud of you and happy you are an MFP on mine! You have done an outstanding job and tjhese photos are truly inspirational!

valeriebpdx

Nice job! You look really great--congratulations on a major accomplishment.

MissMaggie3

Fantastic! You've done SUCH a good job!

Saunce

Congrats! Thanks for sharing, very motivational!

smallsparkles

Great story, thanks for sharing. You look so different now!

smig72

Well done matey keep up the good work

jmariez

You are so damn inspiring! Congratulations. I'm so glad you took the time to explain all of it. I read it word for word - especially the part about the excuses (the cold, the heat, dark, light, etc.). I am the queen of excuses.
Thank you so much for inspiring me.

KenishaFitness

You did an awesome job and you look amazing as well!!
Reading your story from where you was coming from made me think about how my parent's was when I was growing up, I can most definitely relate. I built up so much motivation. This story for me was definitely an inspiration. But I did realized that I needs to hop back on track and get it moving!!

Great Job!

iHEARTcardiacnurses

Sweet progress!

FionaAnne22

Your pics are amazing, the difference is awesome! Well done!