A dudes war on fat (70 lbs down with pics)

Well, after a couple hours spent here, reading everyone else's story, I feel inspired to get on and share a little about myself.

My whole life I was uncomfortable with my weight, always feeling like I'd been dealt a bad hand, and that someday things would magically work themselves out. My mom always told me that I would "grow out, then up" and that I was just at a phase where I was chubby, and so I looked forward to the day when I would wake up and the fat had magically disappeared. But alas, it was not to be so. Every year I told myself that something would happen to make me change, and nothing ever did. I finally got to the point where I went to serve as a religious volunteer for my church for two years (yup, a Mormon missionary. I wore the white shirt and tie, the bike helmet, the whole kit-n-caboodle). It was a great experience for me, and I was excited to go, because I figured THIS would be the experience that would carve all the fat off me without me lifting a finger. Y'know, dressing in church clothes and walking or biking around for two years...how could one possibly stay fat under these conditions?

oh my friends...I found a way.

The exorbitant amounts of food I was eating was counteracting my exercise so that I was slowly still gaining weight. THEN I got moved to place with an unexpected luxury....a car. At this point, I'm sure my body was like a hot air balloon and my inner fat kid was the man in the basket, fueling the fire and inflating my fat. I topped out at around 280 (i don't recall my exact weight, I was in denial) and have never felt more disgusted with myself.

After a few failed attempts to start exercising in the mornings, I was paired with another missionary who is, to this day, a very dear friend and inspiring role model. He had gone through this same struggle, with the odds stacked higher against him, and had still come out on top. He had lost 130 lbs before starting his missionary service, and had converted himself into a veritable fitness guru. He tried to motivate me to get out and run with him, but I was simply too lazy. I had no faith that any effort on my part would yield any results, no matter the energy or time invested.

It was at this point that the tables turned. My family and friends lived in UT, while I was being a missionary in Texas, and not having seen any of them for over a year, I was receiving a lot of correspondence from them in the form of letters. One beautiful girl, whom I care very much about and to this day is my best friend, wrote me a letter and told me that she was worried about me, and my health habits. When she suggested that I lose weight, that was the wake up call I needed. I started running the next day, and I have never looked back. I go to the gym six days a week, I've been using MFP for about 4-5 months now, and I ran a Ragnar race last week. It's been such an incredible journey and I'm never going back to the way I was.