My 150 pound weight loss Journey

Posting some of these pictures below it is amazing and a little embarrassing that I allowed myself to become so unhealthy. I have included some old pictures of before my weight gain, after my weight gain and finally the weight loss and transformation.

My story is long but I will try to shorten it up a little. I have always had a history of gaining weight and immediately after my marriage I packed on a incredible amount of weight and at my highest I weighed in at 331lbs at 6ft. I would go on diet after diet and lose weight but would always stop short of a healthy weight and would immediately gain all or most of the weight back within a short period of time. I have always loved to play sports and basketball/tennis were my favorite but my life had become so busy that I did not have time(willingly did not make time) and this was the driving force on the rapid weight gain along with a improper diet.

What changed for me this time was realizing I would not be around for my kids as they grew up or the fact that I couldn't even play with them like I should. I would be exhausted or couldn't get up quickly, ect... I knew I needed to make a change for my family and now I also realize for myself.

June 6th 2016, I made the decision to make a life change and not a year only change. I weighed 285lbs at this point, as only 2 years prior I had managed to get down to 214.8lbs but that was short lived. At first I lost weight by diet only and no exercise as I felt I could handle only 1 thing at a time. By September 9th I had gotten down to just under 200lbs and was feeling great. I had a full lab work up done and my blood panel was perfect and the doctor not only did not know I had lost so much weight in a short period of time but actually made the comment to me that "people like me are so lucky as we only have to visit the doctor once a year for checkups", this made me laugh inside and also made me feel happy to be not looked at as obese and unhealthy. Now I was ready for the next step in my journey. Exercise......

A few weeks prior to September 9th, 2016 I had decided to start a workout routine and found a workout buddy that agreed to start working out at the gym 3 times a week starting September 10th. We followed the Bigger, Leaner, Stronger program by Mike Matthews and embraced it. We worked out religiously and fought through the soreness, little injuries, and getting up before the crack of dawn. I knew I had made a life change when my workout buddy tells me in February 2017 that he got the promotion and was moving out of state. You are probably thinking how does that tell you that you embraced this new life? Because within 15 minutes of finding this out I had found a new workout buddy to continue on working out with but increased workouts now to 6 days a week. Btw, I find it very important for myself to have someone else to workout with as I feel obligated to show up(when I am tired) and we push each other to get better.
Today almost exactly a year later, I weigh 181lbs and at this point I am deciding on what new goal do I want to accomplish. I think I am going to recomp for a while and stay around my current weight going forward. Hopefully my story helps encourage someone else to make a similar journey. Please feel free to ask me any questions. Thanks for all those who have shared their stories as it has kept me motivated and inspired.

This is before my weight gain:




This is at 331LBS:








This is during my weight loss:




This is me now: