Aloha, I'm Neil

Hey there, I'm Neil. I've been using MFP for a year. I'd been determined to lose weight for a couple months prior to joining; In fact I found MFP because it accomplished the simple task of calculating on the go with my phone. I'd done good old fashioned hard work from May 2012 to July 2012 by moving to Hawaii. The best way to start here is to work for a roof over your head. I had a friend with a house project that needed manual labor, so he was my landing pad. I successfully shed 35 lbs by brute force and then, as work wrapped up, I needed to counter physical activity with a measured diet of some sort. I wasn't too particular on what I was going to eat, but I figured I'd start with Calorie Counting and work from there. That's how I found MFP.

My first test for MFP was to get me through the mental hurdle of having worked laboriously for 45 days and to continue to be active when the work concluded. I thanked my brudda for giving me a start and I found a sublet in Hilo. I walked around hilo daily, everywhere I needed to go. I had a motorcycle, but everything was reasonably close so I saved the gas. I dropped all fast food, though this was as much out of necessity as it was activism for my goal. For much of my stay thusfar, the nearest fast food was a 30 minute drive, and when in Hilo, Mcdonalds was the only fast food within 10 miles of my place. Perhaps my successfully evolved gene being that of a fat guy who hated mcdonalds, it forced me into a civil diet of fresh produce, chicken, fish and brown rice.

Between May 2012 and January 2013, I didn't have a single month where I lost less than 10 lbs. I was able to take the emotion out of my weight and turned this whole project into a scientific experiment. It feels like a long time until you chart the progress and realize it's actually pretty reasonable. Just emotionally off-puting for much of the time. A scientist by nature, I had much interest in charting from morbid obesity down to a testable theory that I always felt were likely true: "At my height" I would say "I should be 174 lbs to be considered 'average'" or "healthy" as I liked to call it back then. But I felt that I would likely look gaunt, maybe a bit ill. After all, I come from a large* family (Formerly, as my brothers have unmassed their own surreal weight loss numbers). Surely that meant much of my mass is a combination of heavy bones, big organs, or what not. Surely not just fat. Thus the simple question I'd like to answer is "was I excusing myself or did I have a valid point?" Very simple.

Well, 174 is now within reach and that's what I'm pressing on toward. And this is where I want to properly introduce myself because I need some help.

My friends call me Stauby. My about me has a synopsis of my story til approximately now, please feel free to browse my history. You'll find I love to write. I don't expect everyone to read it, but I read it back to myself all the time. Like a mantra, revisiting the thoughts to make sure the experience adheres. The lessons I'm learning and blogging about are as a blueprint to get back to my last measurable progress should I stumble, this will be my lone apology or warning, as it were. But at 198, I've just begun my third attempt this year at a popular fitness DVD. Whether this is my successful attempt or a predecessor of the one that is, I'm feeling a man on a mission. Today is day 2.

I'd like to find some friends who may have a similar strategy whom I can keep fairly regular contact with to know that I'm not the only now only overweight, former-MO Man who is clawing at the last push toward resetting their body to average and then build up properly from there. I suspect I will go through a year long weightlifting phase soon enough to fill out the skin I've already begun to notice. I want to be pretty clear about something, though. It takes 4 years for skin to truly revert as far as it will go. For four years, I plan to wear the scar of the way I lived my first 28. At that point, I'll consider surgery to tone. I lift wheelchair passengers daily for a living, so I've already been able to see what a relatively small amount of weight training can do to fill out some skin areas.

Anyway, happy birthday on MFP to me this month.

Stauby