The Beginning

Today marks the start of my challenge, but it is not truly the beginning. Let me give you a little background...


My whole life I have been overweight. I've seen doctors and nutritionists, been on every diet imaginable, and despite being very active and athletic my whole life, the pounds kept piling on. I weighed 160 in late elementary school and gained about 10 lbs every year till college where I yo-yo'd between 200 and 215.

A year after graduation when I hit 235 I had tried to get the scale tipping the other way... food journals, gym sessions, seeing a wellness coach weekly, participating in our workplace "Biggest Loser"... I even went as far as to start DRAWING everything I ate so I could physically see what was going in my body.



None of this worked and in the following months, I put on an additional 25 lbs. Bringing me up to 260 in the beginning of 2008.

At this point, I was starting to give up completely and just accept the inevitable: I was huge. I was always going to be huge, and I would never be able to lose the weight.

Then one night, while eating my emotions in my overpriced studio apartment, I came across tv show called "I Can Make You Thin." I decided to watch out of curiosity. Thank god I did...

Now, I could go into detail about what the show was about, but instead I am going to give you a name and if you care to look it up, go for it. Paul McKenna


The ideas in the show seemed to make too much sense to work. They were too obvious, too simple (simple, not easy, but simple). It was not a diet, not a fad, not about becoming Jillian whats-her-face or whoever else is out there promising six-pack abs and size 2 jeans. Just a charming, average looking English bloke saying "I can help. You can do this."

I tried it and lost 10 lbs the first week, which gave me the motivation to continue. Over the next year, by following this new found advice and adding in a little more exercise, I managed to lose a total of 40 lbs. The year after that, another 10. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy. I also wasn't at the gym all the time, or doing aerobics in my house every day, or on some crazy diet. The challenge was mostly mental and learning to reverse the bad habits and emotional connection with food that I had acquired over years of dieting.



Which brings me to now...


I've hit a plateau with weight loss, which I can attribute to lack of effort, loss of focus, and some laziness on my part. I've been "half-assing" it really. Eating right one day, going to McDonald's the next. Getting some exercise, then putting it off for 2 weeks. As of this morning, I am 214 lbs. Time to kick things back into gear!

Despite the weight loss plateau, I have seen some endurance improvement and have spent the last year re-learning and filling the gaps in my martial arts training. I stopped training regularly when I was about 14 after receiving my second degree brown belt. I've almost got all of my material back and I am hoping to test for my first degree brown belt this summer. I will not be ready for the black belt test in october, but I want to make sure I am ready for it the following year!

Today I am officially challenging myself...

Lose 50 lbs by May 27, 2011!!!!