74 lbs down since 1/14

Everyone has that moment were they finally decide to mak a change. Mine happened in Aug 2012 when I went to have a physical for work and weighed in at 489lbs. When I heard the number it didn't register as almost 500lbs but for some reason I looked at it and thought wow I am 11lbs from 1/4 ton and to me 1/4 ton sounds like so much more than 500lbs. We also had a carnival at work around this time and there was a picture posted on our Sharepoint of me and one of my coworkers and looking at it I imagined a giant troll there to devour her for a snack so I decided then and there to change. I wanted to join the gym at that point but knew from past experiences that there was a high possibility that I wouldn't stick with this and as time passed would return to my old way of thinking so I made a deal with my wife that if I could get under 450lbs by the 1st of the year I was going to join the gym as well as spend an extra $350 to join a program the gym was offering called Lose Big 2.0. On 1/1/13 I weighed in at 448 so I joined the gym and signed up for the Lose Big 2.0 program.

The program lasted 12 weeks and provided 3 sessions with a nutritionist, 3 sessions with a life coach, adn then 3 1hour sessions a week with a trainer. I started the program on 1/14 and in the first session with the nutritionist was introduced to MFP to be able to track food/exercise and so that my trainer could view my entries as well. As I read all the success stories post I decided to take progress pictures and figured I would take new ones every 50lbs lost. During the 12 week lose big program I lost 55lbs and ended up being the biggest loser. The prize for winning turned out to be I could do the next Lose Big 12 week session for free, so I a now in my 3rd week of that session and have more motivation to win again to keep doing the program for as long as I can.

Besides the weight loss this adventure has provided so much more. I am a type 2 diabetic and before starting this it was no where close to being under control. I had an A1c of 11.1, my fasting tests in the mornings were around 240 and would spike to 500+ after meals. I had high BP and cholosterol and at that physical I had failed all 4 of the biometric screenings that was required to receive a discount on insurance at work (BMI, Fasting BS, BP, LCL). I had the 4 biometric screenings for this year last month and passed all 4 (If you don't meet the healthy BMI you can still pass by lowering your BMI by atleast 2 points from the previous year) and I have been taken off all of my diabetic/BP medications by my doctor. My wife has also joined in on the healthy eating and has dropped almost 40lbs herself.

Well enough story time for some pictures. Picture on left was from that carnival in August when I was at 489. Picture on right is when I hit 399 and I am wearing the same shirt in both pictures although I couldn't come close to buttoning it in the first one. Second set of pictures is the first set of progress pictures I took after starting the Lose Big program. I had already lost 20 lbs when I took the pictures and then the first 50lb loss mark.