94 days on MFP=54lbs gone. Face Pic.

This is my very first post. I have been lurking on these forums since I started using MFP. I didn’t want to post until I reached at least 90 days. I felt it important for me to put some mileage behind me in order to get a bit of perspective of my commitment to winning this battle to get fit.
I am a 45 year old and have essentially been overweight for nearly my entire life. I did have a short period during high school and then early in my military career where I was pretty fit, yet I was still overweight for my short 5’6.5” height. During my 10 years of service, I hated every workout I ever did, so I basically eschewed nearly all exercise after a honorable discharge. With no motivation to exercise, I embraced the mantra “No Pain = No Pain”. With little output and increasing input, my weight just kept climbing. It didn’t happen overnight…it was a pound here, a pound there. If you put on a pound a month after 15 years of ignoring fitness, you will wake up one day and realize, HOLY COW! I am morbidly obese. MORBIDLY OBESE! I hate that term. HATE IT! It sounds SO FINAL! SO UGLY! SO ME!
Last year, I had an epitome after tipping the scale at 305 that if I planned on living to a ripe old age, I needed to take control. I went to the doctor, had a physical. I found that despite a BMI of 49%, I had somehow escaped the grips of Type 2 Diabetes…at least for now. My blood pressure was normal. I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea 12 years ago. I had a new sleep study, my apnea was worse. I kept telling myself, ok, Monday; you’ll start Monday. Monday came, Monday went. Each week came and went and I just couldn’t get on the bandwagon. The thing is when you are Morbidly Obese, you just get overwhelmed by the shear amount of weight you have to lose. More than half of my weight…are you kidding me? I’ve lost weight before, 20 pounds here, 25 there. But I always put it back on and when you are staring at the reality of losing 150-160 pounds, it just becomes laughable.
Then one day in February, my wife found MFP and showed it to me. I created an account and logged what I had eaten that day. It was nearly 3000 calories and that was a light day for me. I am certain there were days I would eat in excess of 5000 calories. I scoured the message boards and decided this was the tool that will work for me.
It’s 95 days later and counting. I am amazed at just how manageable it has been. I almost never eat all of my exercise calories, but I do eat them if I am hungry. I’ve lost weight every week. Some weeks 1 pound, one week nearly 7.
I am embracing exercise and am now trying to get my brain around the idea of becoming a runner. I refuse to use the only gym in town, so I have been cruising craigslist, picking up exercise equipment for pennies on the dollar. I now own a treadmill, 2 elipticals, a recumbent bike, free weights, benches, squat rack, medicine balls, etc. In fact, my basement is starting to look like a commercial gym. If you know me, you will know this is a completely new kick for me!
I dare to think about setting a goal of running the Chicago Marathon in 2013, but the shear magnitude of such a feat is scary. I am definitely going to start doing 5Ks…. We’ll see how it goes, I just want to loose a bit more before starting any serious efforts at running due to the stress on my knees and joints with so much weight.
My vision is that a year from now, I will be nearing my goal weight. Can’t wait to see the changes then!