Time to add at least a little accountability

Hello MFP users, my name is Sean. I started about a week and a half ago, and thought it would be cool to get my weight loss journey in writing.

I first really realized I had to change on New Year's day this year. I realized just before going to bed that I needed to change. I had been on a short vacation with my wife and parents, and I just wasn't having any fun because I was uncomfortable in the car because of my weight, I was unhappy in all of the pictures because I felt fat, and I was just unhappy. I'm a law student, so I don't work, and I knew that if I didn't get in shape now when the only obligation outside of family was school, it would be much harder to get in shape. I didn't make any goals past getting in shape, which was my first problem. I started to toy around with running and working out, but the only routine exercise I could get was a weekly basketball game with some good friends. Life went on like this for about 6-7 months.

This summer I was looking through some pictures from when I lived in Brasil. I was at my absolute skinniest of my entire life when I lived there. It wasn't due to any kind of good eating on my part, it was simply because I literally walked everywhere I went. Before I moved back to the states, I weighed about 190ish lbs. This is me from back then:



This was thinner than when I played soccer and wrestled in high school. I felt confident and happy. After I came back to the States, I got a job, bought a car, met and married a beautiful woman, and that was the end of walking everywhere. I also started to gain a bunch of weight. This is me from last year, about 5 years after I moved back, in October of 2011:



This summer I knew I had to do something, and I knew that I needed to be more accountable for my goals. So, I stepped on a scale, and started figuring out what I needed to do. I weighed 260 lbs this summer, and I didn't like it. So I made a goal to lose 60 pounds, and i figured the best way to make that happen was to drink less pop. I had been drinking upwards of three cans per day. I dropped it to about 1-1.5 cans or 1 bottle, but I didn't make any other goals about it. It helped, and i lost a few pounds relatively quickly. But it wasn't enough, and I wanted more.

My family situation has changed for this upcoming school year. My wife wanted to finish her undergraduate degree, so she found a program that would be interesting. Unfortunately, the only school in our state that offers it is about 8-9 hours from the law school I attend. So we talked about it and decided that she will live with family close to her school, and I am finishing my second year of law school. This meant that I was going to be losing weight all on my own.

I looked around and found some interesting sites about how to lose weight, but one constant kept coming up. You have to "spend" 3500 calories to lose a pound. The sites said that there are two ways to do this; eat less and exercise more. So, I am taking it to heart. I have spent about 10 days on the site and have been counting calories like crazy. Last week I bought a bicycle and have been riding it every day. Since making the decision in early July to lose weight, I have lost 14 lbs. Your stories have been great in helping me to want to be a healthier person, and so I am putting my story down to help anyone out there. I still have a bunch of distance to go, but I know that I can do it, because so many of you have, and so many of you are. I look forward to the day when I finally step on the scale and it shows that I have completed my goal. Thanks for reading!