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.