Weighing In

I guess I'm the young pup joining in:

I probably don't know a lot of people who will be reading this, but I know that the only way to succeed in what we've all set out to accomplish is accountability. My wife, who is and always will be my biggest fan towards living a healthy lifestyle, still has that healthy metabolism where she can eat McDonalds every day for a year and not gain a pound. Plus, she's an amazing cook and I love to eat amazing food, so it's always a struggle to balance motivation with your wife's homemade brownies. Here's my story:

Five years ago, I was 25 and newly married. I wasn't living an exactly healthy lifestyle per se, but I was active through my job and ate like a college student, which kept me at roughly 195 lbs at 6'2". I hated running and other "real exercises" but did a lot of hiking, canoeing, swimming, and other activities with students through the summer camp I operated.

Two years later, we moved to Central Nebraska and between my job shifting into administration, my metabolism grinding to a halt, and 2 years of those delicious brownies, the weight started to pile on. I didn't care, arrogantly deciding that I was young and in decent health and could always get fit later.

A year later, I returned to Central Illinois and clocked in at 252 pounds and feeling like garbage. A few odd health concerns later, I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and dead on track to follow 3 generations of family diabetes into an early grave. Couple that with a genetic propensity toward high cholesterol and a doctor telling me that I was a ticking time bomb was enough to get me motivated to do something. At 28 years old I never expected to be told that I was in a dangerous healthy state, so I started eating right and getting serious about exercise. Turns out running wasn't so bad after all and it became a great stress reliever to deal with a job I couldn't stand.

Just under 4 months later, I was at 201 lbs and maintained it all the way until this past September. After a long battle with pneumonia that knocked me out of exercising, I find myself back up to 230 ready to get back down to my fighting trim in time for this year's bikini season. Now that I've done it once, I know I can do it again and I'm glad to have the accountability through this blog and Scott, Tim, and Shane.