From Size 50+ Jeans to 38 (Huge Album of Photos Part 2)

Photos are at the bottom.

Back at the end of April, I posted here about my progress thus far, having been 72 pounds down from 361.6 and shared a slew of the weekly progress photos I'd been taking.

Well, four months later, I'm 74 pounds down. 2 pounds in four months? What the hell? Well, shortly after I made that thread, I was hit with the absolutely worst gout attack I've ever experienced in my life, and was literally off my feet for nine weeks, which resulted in complete disarray both on my exercise plan and my dieting, and I gained back about 10 pounds.

After it finally faded in mid-July, I resolved myself to reinspire myself, and so at 296 pounds, after not having exercised or dieted for nearly three months, and did something crazy. I got dressed at 4AM on a random Sunday, and with a sudden rush of inspiration that I usually ignore and let pass within an hour or two, I drove to a summit trail and spent the next five hours hiking to the very top and all the way back down again. It was a two mile hike with a 1200 foot elevation, and although that tends to be very little for most, I was barely below 300 pounds, and I wasn't even CLOSE to physically ready for that.

It was one of the hardest physical things I've ever done in my life, with the wrong shoes, not even close to enough water, and in the summer Arizona heat, but I did it, and it felt amazing.

Since then, I've been working really hard to fight through compulsive binge episodes, discouragement, and the negativity that had built up over those nine weeks off my feet. The high and the euphoria that I got from summiting the very highest peak of that trail was huge, but I quickly realized that going from one extreme to another does not help me find the balance that I truly need to settle back into—the balance that got me from November to April without any major hiccups.

I'm on the doorstep of getting back to where I left off, at 285.0 (I am 287.6 as of today), I've secured myself a full-time job with benefits that I start on in about a month, I'm getting my AA degree (finally) in December, and I'll have my own place within the next six months, I'm projecting. I'm getting **** back in order, and although most of these things are still a ways off, I'm doing my best to look forward and to focus on what I'm doing now in the meantime. It all helps.

But what's helped even more are the amazing people I've met here who have become close, dear friends who provide me with such a strong support system I never could have believed was possible, so thank you for that.

So, I've been doing keto (high-fat, low-carb) since the end of November, and weighed in at 361.6 at that time. I have been heavier than even that, as the first two photos were my heaviest ever and I never weighed myself at the time, but that was my initial starting point. Now, I'm 74 pounds down. I go to the gym generally 5 days a week, taking the weekends off, sticking with the elliptical and three pretty involved lifting regimens that I cycle through. My diet has consisted hugely of chicken breast recipes such as chicken parm (using almond flour/parmesan cheese breading and low-carb pizza sauce for marinara), chicken alfredo or pesto, cauliflower stir fried rice, etc., as well as pepper jack and fontina cheeses, pecans and hazelnuts, eggs and bacon, occasional tuna salad, and I'm only recently starting to delve into some keto-friendly dessert recipes. Diet Sierra Mist and Crystal Light have also been amazing.

I'm hoping to get down to 180 before I start bulking up and cutting down in order to try and get my body fat to where I want it, and hopefully after a few years I'll be able to end at around 210 to 230, looking nice and cut. That's my super-endgame, though, and I will probably have a better idea of what I'm going to want as I get closer to 200.

Anyway, below are my photos. I hope they entertain or can somehow inspire!

Album: http://imgur.com/a/bHM8K#0

Maybe my favorite of them: