For as long as I can remember, I have been overweight. I still have vivid memories of children in the school yard cautioning to not piss me off, lest I sit on them. My parents would often comment that I needed to do something through my formative years, but no plan to regulate my weight gain ever materialized. In retrospect, my predicament could be simply explained as a byproduct of eating poorly and being lazy. I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted with absolutely no regard for how my decisions and lack of self control would impact me in the years to come.
Fast forward to my socially formative high school years, and the pattern continued. I was marginally more active due to my involvement with the high school marching band, but I still had no regard for what I was eating. I was solidifying an overwhelming lack of self-respect while my waist line continued to expand. I was awkward around girls (who would go out with a fat guy?), I started the behavior of not going out with friends if it involved walking (because I hate sweating, and sweating in public I hate doubly so), and I began to eat when stressed (...nothing a large double hot fudge milkshake can't cure). At the age of 18, a lot of damage had been done. I left high school weighing around 260 pounds with a waist size of 46-48.
To be fair, by nature, I have a large frame. I am 6' 1" and 2nd generation Eastern European. I'm bound to run large, ya know?
When I left home for college in 1998, I still had no desire to do anything about my body. Most people gain the "freshman 15". I gained somewhere around 25 pounds in my first freshman semester. In February of 1999 I was living at home working a co-op position. My mom came home one evening after returning from a business trip with a book that would make a huge short-term impact in my life. On her recent flight home, she had sat next to a husband and wife team of doctors that were busy promoting their new book, Protein Power. This book introduced to me the idea of weight loss through eating a low carb, high protein diet. At the time, this was some pretty revolutionary stuff (I had never heard of Atkins at this point) to me. The book made everything make sense, and thus began my protein driven weight loss.
After a mere five months of strictly following the guidelines presented by doctors Eades, I managed to slim down from 280 pounds to 240 pounds and my waist line went from 46-48 to 42-44. Unfortunately, my ability to maintain the diet completely fell apart when I transferred schools and moved back to Kentucky in the summer of 1999. Between August of 1999 and May of 2000, I somehow managed to gain almost 100 pounds taking me to an all-time high of 330 pounds and a waist line of 54. This happened due to a combination of non-thyroidal medical issues and a complete inability to realistically continue a low-carb/high-protein diet.
So thus began a long dark period in my life that may or may not be related to my weight gain. To make a long story short, by the spring of 2005, I was up to almost 370 pounds, I was developing high blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides, all while my social/dating life had become nonexistent. Fortunately, the spring of 2005 was also when I finally decided to do something about it.
In May of 2008, I was casually dating a young woman who was actively following the Weight Watchers Flex plan. She and I would casually discuss Weight Watchers as a whole and slowly my interest was piqued. I originally likened WW to Alcoholics Anonymous for fat people. I had a lot of preconceived notions about what Weight Watchers is and what it wasn't. Ultimately, I decided to give it a go, as I really had nothing to lose.
That was the single best decision I ever made in my life.
On May 19th, 2005 I officially weighed in at 366.4 pounds. As of June 13th, 2008 I weighed 280.4 pounds netting a loss of 86 pounds (for reference, 86 pounds is probably the weight of a high school freshman cheerleader). My entire life is different as a result of my decision to realize that I had a problem. I no longer hate myself (as much), I ride a bicycle 6-10 miles 5 days/week, I gladly go out in public, I enjoy walking places, and I have set goals that were impossible to imagine three years ago. The last three years have by no means been a walk in the park. I have gone through many periods of up and down, but for the first time since starting to get healthy, I have managed to steadily lose weight for over six months. Most importantly, I feel better than I have ever felt in my life.
I should have started blogging about my weight loss journey years ago, but never thought to. I've decided to start actively writing about this topic today because I had a bad week last week. Through a combination of laziness, sleep deprivation, and a general attitude of nonchalance, I have managed to gain 7 pounds back in the span of 8 days. I am back on track today and am not fighting any cravings and am really looking forward to my ride after work. I want to use this blog as an additional motivational tool.
My ultimate goal is to lose another 60-100 pounds, which may seem ludicrous, but after you lose the first 80, the next 80 seems pretty attainable. I honestly will keep going until my body has decided that I have no more to lose. I've not made a decision to lose weight, I have made a decision to live a healthy life style. I never want to be this guy again...
Continue reading "On Losing Weight: Hi. I'm Jeremy. I'm addicted to food.".
