How I Lost a Small Child and a Car Tire

Before you overreact, it wasn't a very attractive child or a very nice car tire...

At the beginning of the summer I had a revelation... I had let myself go.... Straight to the buffet line!!!

All jokes aside, I had let myself get to the point where I was overweight. It began to affect my self esteem, my relationships, and even my health. I realized this when I decided to go for a run one night and barely made it past the corner before I began huffing and puffing. I went home and looked at myself in the mirror and was amazed at what I saw. I had gotten fat.

Except it wasn't magic. Not at all.

I tried lying to myself. I used fun words to describe myself: plump, robust, voluptuous, dense... I think I even said linebackeresqe once or twice. But in the end I couldn't lie to myself anymore and I had a choice to make. I could either continue with the lifestyle I was living, I could decide to make big changes, or I could take a nap... Well I did take a nap, but then I woke up a few hours later and decided to make the big changes. Then I went and got a Big Mac, because I wasn't going to start that night.

So there I was, trying to figure out how I got to this point in my life. I looked at my credit card receipts, and I realized I was eating fast food more than any other meal. It was quick and easy, and I actually realized that I may have had a slight addiction. I also realized that I was eating really late at night and into the morning. All in all I felt pretty gross looking at what I had eaten.

I had also become pretty lethargic. I very rarely ran or even thought about working out. Elevators were pivotal and close parking spaces were essentially gifts from heaven. Hills? Essentially the Bane to my Batman. What I'm trying to say is that I dreaded the idea of physical exertion, and that needed to change. I needed to change.

My first step was to download the Lose It app and begin to register everything that I ate. I slowly weaned myself off of fast food, which was ridiculously hard, and forced myself to not eat late at night. (Except for tonight, but I was starving so get off me!) I got some dumbbells and began working out, and I purposely started parking far away and taking the stairs. I know what you're saying, "Duh Tim, this is all stuff everyone knows to do. Good job being a revolutionary." and you're right. I didn't do anything amazingly unique to start out with, mainly because I really had no idea what to do, or what would work for me.

I began losing weight, but I kinda hit a wall hard. I lost focus of my goal due to trying to graduate and get into grad school, as well as other things that popped up. I began stress eating again, and even though I didn't gain back everything I had lost, I gained back enough to render my earlier efforts moot. What was I going to do?

Spoiler: I took another nap

Well once I got back on track I knew that I couldn't just do the same thing everyone else does or I'd get bored and stop. I started looking at different ways to lose weight and ways to boost my metabolism, without the aid of medicine. I began drinking a lot of ice water, I replaced a meal a day with a smoothie, and some other random things here and there. Mainly I just kept myself accountable and I did something they tell you not to do. I got a digital scale that tells me down to the 10th of a pound what I weigh. I like knowing that my actions have rewards and consequences, so I weigh myself every day at the same time. It really keeps me on track, and it's done well for me so far.

Why am I writing about this? Why does any of this matter? Well when I first started writing this blog I was afraid that it would become an exercise in vanity, so I tried not writing too much about myself directly. This though, this is different... This one's for me. I've lost approximately 47 pounds so far, and I can't believe it. I never thought I would get to this point. I honestly though 20 pounds was a pipe dream, and when that became reality I just kept going and going. I guess this leads me to my overall point, that if I can do this what else can I do? Maybe I can actually learn to juggle. The possibility exists for me to learn to swim, or to at least not drown in the deep end. Heck, maybe I can even update this blog on a regular basis...

Ok, maybe some things are a bit of a reach.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me, who kept me going when the going got tough. And thanks to everyone who said I should just stop and be happy where I was, that I should just give up. You all gave me the drive to be better, and you still keep my fires burning even now.

So now that I've gotten all this off my chest (and waistline) I really have some things that I want to write about that I feel I need to work on. Luckily I have Thanksgiving break this week so I should have something up in the next week or so. Keep an eye out for that, and if you have a new challenge for me to attempt leave a comment. I leave you with my favorite thing someone said to me this week:

"Tim, if you make one more Power Rangers reference I will invent time-travel, dress as the Red Ranger, go back to when you first started watching, break into your house, and punch little kid you in the face!"