Hello everyone

FrenchMob

Here's a quick rundown on me;

The ol’ cliche “I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I graduated from high school…” too me is funny. See, I’ve struggled with my weight since I CAME OUT OF MY MOTHERS WOMB! Snails have faster metabolisms than I do!

Ok, now that’s out of the way, let me tell you a little about myself.

Name: Ray
Height: 5′-10″
Current Weight: 228.4 on Dec 10, 2009
Main Occupation: Engineering Technologist (Civil)
Married
Dependants: 2 cats, 1 dog

Like I mentioned above, I’ve literally been “big” all my life. When I was 5-6 years old, I kept hearing from adults: “Don’t worry, you’ll grow out of it.” It remember it making me feel better, but ” Surprise!”.

I was a fairly normal kid, spoiled since I was an only child. Had a decent amount of friends, but I was always the fat kid when it came to sports. I held my own fairly well though.

Growing up, I was never really into sports. I played backyard football, baseball, and street hockey once in awhile, but it never really interested me to the point that I wanted to join leagues, etc. I did enjoy cycling though, and still do to this day. More on that later.

Unlike alot of people that struggle with their weight, I actually bottomed out in my early 20s (1993+/-) after graduating college and taking on a government job in a bigger City. I remember weighing myself and seeing close to 300 lbs. Sitting down in front of the TV on a Friday evening and eating a whole large pizza to myself. Yikes!

Finally realizing that I had to do something, I headed to the bookstore. The following might make some people break into laughter, but it’s the truth; I picked up Chuck Norris’ autobiography. Yes, go ahead….wipe the tears of laughter.

It was a very inspiring read, enough so that I went to the book store again and bought: "Flawless: The 10-Week Total Image Method for Transforming Your Physique" by Bob Paris. That was my starting point of weight loss, and nutrition enlightenment. After following the 10 week program, I had managed to drop over 40 lbs! I was also at the gym 3-4 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Then, midway through my 2nd stage, I somehow lost motivation/focus.

Fast forward to today – 2009. At this point, I have read dozens of books and done research on exercise, nutrition, cardio, etc, tried a dozen different “diets”, and I even have a diploma in Fitness & Nutrition. I believe I know more than alot of certified individuals out there. I have all the tools necessary to be cut like Jason Statham. But it all boils down to keeping goals, and motivation up to achieve.

Over the years, I have accumulated undesirable health issues that I will need to work around, or overcome to be successful. These are as follows;

* Lower Back – I have 2 herniated disc that causes me severe pain at times.
* Right Shoulder – The AC joint has moderate degeneration, and the rotator cuff is weak because of the pain caused by the AC joint. All this causing pain if worked too hard.
* Diabetic – Type II – I was diagnosed in 2000 but based on recognized symptoms, I probably already had it 5-6 years earlier.

That just means that I have to tailor my exercise & nutrition schedule to accommodate these “handicaps”.

I'm in my 4th week of a 50 Day Challenge put on by Tom Venuto from Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, and Inner Circle. If you've never heard of Tom or his knowledge, you owe it to yourself to have a look. It;s not about weight loss, but FAT LOSS.

So far in those 4 weeks, I've lost 6 lbs of FAT, not just weight.

NotSurprised

Hello Ray & Welcome, Wow that's pretty thorough only thing left out was shoe size.lol Seriously seems like you know yourself well it certainly is about a life change & not a calorie deficit for a few weeks or months only to start putting the weight back on at the end of meeting or even before said goal is accomplished let alone sustained for a while forget for life. Good Luck in the lifestyle change cause once you attain that it's never the same that's if you're committed to one.

Jason

FrenchMob

Thanks Jason. Looks like you're doing pretty good yourself. Congrats.