23 pounds and counting.

I'm a performing songwriter who has spent the last 12 years of my life overweight in some capacity. I've always "carried" my weight well, and people usually guessed that I weighed 20 pounds less than I actually did. But as nice as that fact is, I've always hated being overweight. Whenever I'd perform, I'd wear tons of layers and sweat through all of it. I was raised to eat pretty much whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it. I'm right about 6 feet tall, and I weighed 180 or so near the end of high school (1996). While not very overweight, I was really sloppy and out of shape even then, with love handles and such. Thru college and post college, it's gotten worse, better, and then worse again. I got up to 200 in around 2000. By New Years 2002, I had gotten up over 230. I kicked it in gear that year and lost down to around 200. I met a lovely lady (whom I am still with today), comfort kicked in, and in the last 6-7 years, I've stayed between 210-220 pretty much the whole time.

On August 6th, I basically invented a diet plan and started running almost every day. After 2 months, I've lost 23 pounds (from 221 to 198). I just switched up my running schedule so now I'm running 6 days a week, and doing weight training 3 times a week for an hour each session. I usually alternate between 3 and 4-mile runs on my daily runs, and then I try to run for as long as I can on one weekend day. Two weekends ago, I did 8 miles. Last weekend, I only did 6. But the results are insane. I still have belly and upper body weight that I first started putting on in high school, but this time I'm unbelievably determined. My hope/plan is to be down to 175 (pre-senior year weight) by Christmas or New Years. Next April I'm going to run at least a half marathon, but I might even do the full 26.2 miles depending upon how things go. The only thing that sucks about running is that it's so addictive that it's pulling away from wanting to play shows and write songs and stuff. I've got to get to a good point with my results so I can balance my life out a bit.

If anyone has any advice for how to target love handles, belly stuff, and the dreaded man boob, then please reply. I'm gonna be 100% in shape by early next year, mark my words!!

Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Diet Journal