100lbs down as of today!

This is a post I’ve been wanting to make for… well, 6 years?



I am officially down 100lbs! (My first MAJOR MAJOR goal is to hit 250... so still 75lbs to go, but that's nothing! =D)



The first time I weighed myself in forever was in March of 2011. I had to use the scale at the post office where I worked because the one at home didn’t go that high. You see, I didn’t think of my weight all that much, hadn’t in a while. I just kept buying bigger shirts because my other ones kept “shrinking,” the damn washing machines and such.



One night though, using the bathroom at a post office where I was picking up mail from (I drive a truck) I caught myself in the mirror. I was wearing a red Adidas shirt (which I still own and wear now, though it’s pretty loose on me) and saw how it fit me. It was tight, poked out from everywhere, and if I lifted my arms above my head you’d see my stomach unless I was wearing a long tshirt tucked in. I loved long undershirts. They were my saviors for many years.



That was the night I weighed myself and decided enough was enough. For a while after that I wouldn’t even tell my wife how much I weighed when we first started counting my calories. I lost 50lbs in about two months that time just by counting calories and watching what I was eating. That was awesome, I felt great, joined a gym… then my birthday came around. Then vacation, then it all went to *kitten* for a year. Got back on track the next year, until…vacation, birthday, and the cycle would start all over once again. The lowest I ever managed to get down to before shooting back up was 369lbs.



Fast forward to this year, and I was once again pushing 400lbs. I think I finally, for the last time, got tired of it.



It began last summer when my wife and I went on vacation to Taos, New Mexico. It was amazing! There was so much to do! My wife wanted to go white water rafting, horseback riding, maybe ziplining. And with each thing she wanted to do, I thought about the weight limit, and how embarrassing it would be to get there and them ask me my weight, and then tell me I’m too big for the activity, so we did none of them. Thinking back on that, about how much I’m missing out on and by proxy how much SHE’S missing out on because of me… I was tired of it.



In January we stopped eating out almost completely and started cooking at home. I dropped 13lbs pretty quickly, which stoked my fire. From that moment on I’ve been on the warpath, so to speak, fighting against myself. And so far, I’m winning. It’s not easy—hitting the gym after driving 10 hours and not seeing my wife for 2 days, passing on food that I know is delicious, but will put me over my calories, waking up early to workout when I really only want 15 more minutes of sleep. And then there’s my wife, weighing my food and packing my lunches, encouraging me when I may want to just relax this one time.



It’s not easy, and I never expected it to be. But it is so worth it. Knowing that sooner rather than later there’s nothing I can’t do with her, nowhere we can’t go. Knowing that I’m not just losing weight, but I’m getting healthy. There’s a lot of life out there and for the longest time I missed out on it, but no more.