100 pounds down!

25 TO GO!

As a bit of a back story, I am 47. I am 6' 8". I have bi-lateral club feet and had 30+ surgeries growing up. It was harder for me to do things, but, I still did them (played baseball, basketball, etc.). At the start of this journey, I weighed in at 350 pounds.

The cathartic moment for me was when I was on a trip with my family to Disney World in March of this year. By the third day of the eight day trip, I could barely walk to the bus to go to the parks. Because of the pain in my feet, and the burden I had placed on my family, I was in tears. There were a couple of times, that I just went back to the hotel rather than impact their enjoyment of the parks. When I was in the parks, I had to rent a scooter to get around because I just couldn't do it. It was on the first day with the scooter that I decided when I got home, I was no longer going to live like this. I couldn't do it to my family and I couldn't do it to myself.

I downloaded MyFitnessPal for my phone, and set my goal weight. It told me how many calories I could have every day, and with the exception of 3 days, I have NOT gone over that number. The best thing that I did, and I believe what has made me successful, was that I didn't go whole hog in changing every aspect of my diet. I didn't give up the foods I love. I had learned from previous attempts at dieting that doing that set me up for failure. I would binge eat after a period of time all those foods that I had been denying myself.

So here I was, armed with the tools to work with. But, the biggest battle that lay before me was the one waging in my mind. It was my commitment. It was one thing to say that I was going to change my habits, but sooooo much harder to actually do it.

I also started to look for more opportunities to be active. For a couple of reasons. One, it was good for me to be active and two, if I was doing something, I was NOT eating anything. Sometimes it was swimming, working in the yard, cleaning the house, etc. After I lost 50, I joined the local LA Fitness and started riding the recumbent bike. Then, I started weight lifting and Pilates classes. Now, I am running on a treadmill. Yup, me, the guy who 9 months ago was winded walking to the car did 4.5 miles on the treadmill last night. Now, not all of it is running (I do still have the foot issues which will never go away), but, I can run about half of it.

It feels awesome!

I haven't used my cane in 6 months to walk. My BMI went from 39 to 27. I have lost almost 28% of my weight. My waist went from 48 to 38, chest 56 to 46.

I have attached my before and after pictures for you.

I hesitate to say if I can do it, anybody can, because I do know how hard of a battle this is. But, if you have the commitment, you can find a way (barring any physiology that prevents this). I won't ever go back. I realize that I will probably need to log my intake for the rest of my life. I am ok with that (apparently I am no good on my own).

I hope this helps you on your journey. Keep fighting the fights. We may lose battles, but, winning the war is the prize!

Peace!