I'm tired of living in denial and being out of shape

Fell down some stairs and broke my knee. While in the ER, a doctor came in to cast my leg, accompanied by several new interns and he said, 'I'm going to show you how to cast a cone shaped leg."

*GASP* A cone shaped leg???!!!

Later, when the cast was removed, it was indeed, a perfect cone. I glued it together, painted it bright orange, and used it for a traffic cone in front of my house to keep people from stealing that parking space.

TRUE STORY!

I used to be very social and very out going, the bigger I got the more I removed myself for my life and my friends.

I've torn both of my achilles in the last ten years.... haven't completely ruptured them, but have stressed them to the breaking point. I refuse to be physically crippled. I work with the sweetest lady- she's so round and her legs are so out of shape that she shuffles everywhere she goes, it dawned on me that- THAT was going to be me. At 6' (364 lbs) my body is breaking down far too quickly as I age LOL Just working out every day as almost eliminated my achilles pain- I rarely feel them. Plus I switched to more of a vegan inspired diet. Granted I've lost a total of 12 pounds in three weeks- hitting the gym every day- some days just to ride the stationary bike- has done much more physically to change my body than I ever could have imagined.

For me it was going to the eye doctor. He commented that he could tell I have high cholesterol because I have a grey ring around each iris. This is caused by fat (lipid) deposits! I've known I'm not healthy, I've known my cholesterol and sugars are is high but taking action has been slow. This was the last straw...let's hope I stick with it.

I was sick of taking 50 photos just to find 1 good one that made me look thinner than I really was.

When my sisters visited me last summer and one sister posted pictures of us together on Facebook. About that same time my size 12 clothes were too tight, so I had to make the decision of whether I was going to give up and buy all new size 14's or fight back. I decided to fight back and now wear size 6. I still had to buy new clothes, but in a size that I am not ashamed.

A few years back, when my husband and I were living out of Florida, we came for a visit and the entire family went to Busch Gardens. We had one of those photos taken when you come into the park, and because it was the first time everyone had been together in some years, my mother bought it. The photo is appalling. I was about 40-50 pounds heavier than I am now, my husband was significantly overweight, my sister was over 300 pounds, her husband was about 100 pounds overweight. Even their daughter was obese. My mother was the thinnest of us by far. That family photo was such a shocker. Not surprisingly, everyone of us did something about it. To put it in perspective, we have lost, as a family (5 adults) about 250-300 pounds. My sister being the biggest loser at over 140 pounds and keeping it off for over 3 years. I've taken longer to lose, but I'm so much happier in my skin now.

For me, it took a couple instances for this to happen. My son will be turning 5 on wednesday. Since the age of 3, my wife and i have gotten him involved in being active so at the age of 3 we signed him up for soccer. The coaches encouraged parents to come out onto the field to help and have fun with their kids. So i went out there on the field and was running around with a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds and found myself gasping for air. Sad but true. As the soccer practices went on, i continued to help the coaches. The head coach asked me to be his Assistant for the rest of the season and going forward. Although i continued to help the coach and was out there with the kids, i felt like a joke. I was in no shape to be out there. The coaches were teaching the little ones about being active and having fun, etc. yet there i was, making a joke of myself for not taking it seriously myself.

And....bending over to try lacing up my sneakers and not being able to. That was terrible. My son would say i had a big belly....he doesn't anymore. Now he says, "Daddy look at your muscles.". Makes me happy and he almost always will workout with me by doing his pushups, crunches, etc. I have to lead by example. Better late than never.

I was asked me the hardest question I have ever been asked, "Do you think that you are the husband and father your family deserves?"

When I took an honest inventory; one of the things I realized was that my physical health was one of the areas where I was not giving them my best. My wife deserves a to have the man she married and not the slob I had become and my kids deserve a dad that has the energy and physical strength and stamina to play with them and be there for all of their activities.

In a word, "It was time to man up."

I would have to say mine was back in the beginning of 2002 and I had convinced myself I was having symptons of a heart attack. That first Monday in Feb '02 I changed my lifestyle and in 8 mos had lost 75.5 lbs. Each time I went to the doctor he was amazed and happy. Even though I never showed any signs of having a heart attack and had no issues with anything I just convinced myself I had and my doctor ws so happy because even with no issues, it was good to loose the weight just to live healthier.

I kept the weight off for 6 yrs and then in '08 had a lot of family deaths going into '09 and this caused me to gain 30 of it back. Right when I was finally in that place where I wanted to take that 30 off, I was injured really bad because some a-hole who I called a friend tried to kill me along with 2 other friends in Aug 2011 and in rehabing and not being able to do anything I gained another 30. As of March 14, 2012 I was finally able to get back on the grind and have lost 51 of those 60 lbs I gained. Have been stuck at a plateau since September but it's ok because I've lost inches and I've decided that not only do I want to loose the remaining 9 lbs, but I'm thinking another 20. We shall see because when I lost it all before and was loosing more I didn't look healthy, but this time I'm seeing a trainer to help build muscle so we shall see.