One year ago, I was in a dungeon of fat, bastille of blubber if you will. No matter where I was, I could tell people were looking at me (there was a lot to look at) and judging me. Even though I would sweat through my clothes, breathe uneasily, and not be able to see the TV when I was laying down because of my gut, I was still scared to even know where I was with my weight. Megan wanted to buy a scale, but I was against it. Ignorance was not as blissful as I had hoped. Sometimes, people do what’s best for you even if you don’t want them to, so she bought the scale and I found out I was 357 pounds. I was closer to 400 pounds than I was 300 pounds, and it scared the crap out of me. It was then that we knew it was time to make a serious change in our lives. At that point, I was already slowly giving up to the idea that I was going to be that big the rest of my life, so I firmly believe that if my beautiful wife didn’t buy that scale that day, my life would not have been the same.

Was I scared to change? Of course. Like most people that struggle with weight, I had done my share of diets, and I would lose some weight but then just give up, only to end up back where I was and then some. But this time needed to be different, it needed to stick. Megan and I decided to integrate Weight Watchers with organic living. We thought that healthy living also involved knowing where your food was coming from. We also looked at this life change through the lens of our faith. We knew that we were God’s temple, but at that point mine was more Buddah-shaped. Basically, before, I thought making a few adjustments like trying to get a workout or a run in every once in a while would help, but in reality, to be successful (at anything really) it requires a holistic change in your life. Anyways, I was also really scared of failing, which usually leads you to not telling anybody about what you are doing. I knew that wasn’t going to work this time, so I asked for accountability from people I knew, and my friend Kyle Dixon was up to the challenge. Any time I was tempted to eat anything really bad, he would call me out, and that is what I needed. So I kept at it and worked hard to stay strict with my diet. Up until this point, six weeks was the lifespan of my diets so I needed to break past that ceiling, after that point, I knew that this was for real and that there was no way of me going back to 357 ever again.

So 52 week of smaller portions, racquetball craziness, organic deliciousness, blog posts, Facebook encouragements from people I only knew for a season of my life and overlooking the chocolate covered porkrinds later, I am down 103 pounds and counting. This journey is far from over, there is still 97 pounds to be lost. (I know there is a scrawny guy in here somewhere.) Wherever I end up weight wise as long as it’s a healthy number I’ll be okay with it. I know there are still challenges on the horizon, but thankfully I have all of you and your awesomeness. Thanks for being awesome. See ya tomorrow.

What’s going on yo!

I think today was the best way to spend a Saturday. There’s nothing like a good run, some good food and a little football to finish off the week. It was a pretty crazy week full of school and other fun stuff so a little time to do what I want was nice. Fun stuff.

Breakfast: I decided to make a big breakfast because that’s what you do on Saturdays. I made a waffle with an egg and some bacon. It was pretty epic and delicious. That’s all that needs to be said on the subject. Deliciousness FTW.

Run of Craziness: Have you ever gotten up and thought “hey! I should go run a 10k”? Yeah, me neither. For some reason, I got this urge to go for a run. I used to love to run, but I haven’t made time for it lately so I’m going to get back in to it. Anyways, I had mapped out a route on my iPhone that was about 3.1 miles so I was going to run to that point and then run back. For some stupid reason, when you figure out a route in maps with the pedestrian setting, it still doesn’t account for the lack of sidewalks and straight drop offs on the side of the road. So I was following this trail full of really steep hills until I got to where the sidewalk ended, I said “well crap” turned around, and kept running up and down the crazy hills of Tallahassee. By around mile 4, I entered the “bargaining stage” and told myself “I could just call it good. No one would blame me, I gave it a try.” That’s been my issue all my life, I’ve been running it at half-speed and people (but mostly myself) are just happy with trying. I needed to finish this run more than I knew, because when I finished, I really felt like I had given it everything I had. I stopped once to shoo away this giant poodle that was following me, but I kept my feet moving the whole time. Anyways, my time was not too shabby considering all the steep hills (my mantra during the run was “Why are there so many hills in Tallahassee? Why are there so many hills in Tallahassee? Why are there so many hills in Tallahassee?”) but the next time I run it, I’m going to beat the time, just like the time after that, and… well, you get the idea. Finally, I decided that I’m going to start doing some sort of grand athletic feat like this every Saturday starting the week after next (next week, the grand athletic feat will be FSU upsetting OU. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the University of Oklahoma? They stink, they are the scum between my toes.)

Snack: After that I had a wafflewich and an extra banana.

Lunch: For a late lunch, I went with my friend Daniel to Chipotle for some burrito fantasticness. I had the chicken burrito bowl with the fixins and guac with a cup of sour cream on the side. Having dressing-like sauces in a cup make it a lot easier to not use all of it. Anyways, it had been a while since I had been there so it made it even more awesome.

Afternoon Dessert: After Megan’s conference that she was presenting at, we climbed up Yogurt Mountain for some deliciousness. I had a swirl of dulche de leche and cookies n’ cream that made my taste buds do the hokey pokey.

Dinner: As you can imagine, I wasn’t too hungry for a good while so we went and did some stuff around town and then fired up the grill. I had been marinading some Teriyaki  chicken so I put that on the grill along with some fresh pineapple from Publix. The chicken turned out really well, but the pineapple was ridiculously awesome. All that on a bed of rice was a fantastic meal.

So today I did pretty well all things considered. According to my Nike+ app, I had burned more than 100o calories on my run, but I think I made up for it with my burrito bowl. The way workouts are going to work this year I think is Wednesday through Sunday with Monday and Tuesday off. Monday and Tuesday are my worst days by far so by Wednesday I’ll be ready to exert some energy. If I’ve learned anything from this crazy weight loss experience it’s that when life gets off track, whether it be a new schedule or a baboon ripping your arms off like in the movie Congo, sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and then get back in to a rhythm. Then, you dominate. See ya tomorrow.