A little background...

Weight loss updates - Whenever I post, I'll begin each one by giving that day's weight, my total weight loss from my peak weight, and how far I have left to my goal weight (which is 240 lbs, for reference, I am 6'6" tall)

Today's weight: 273.4 lbs, 110 lbs. lost total, 33.4 to go!

I thought I'd provide a little background on how I got to my own personal low in my health, and what contributed to my weight gain.  It will obviously be the most fun to talk about my successes, and how I've gotten to where I am now, but the reality of it is, half the battle for me was to realize what things in my life I had to cut out to be able to make progress.  So, here it goes.

I've always loved eating...now while I'm sure that's not shocking--everybody loves eating--I think it's really the fundamental crossroads for someone who has diet issues.  You can take that love of eating and harness it, learning to enjoy healthy foods and what your body needs, OR, you lose control, eating what you want and what you crave, however much you want, when you want it and with disregard to what function it serves your body (or doesn't serve, as the case would be).

For me, age 9 or 10 is when I first lost control.  I was extremely fortunate in the sense that I had always been big into athletics from a very early age, and I played organized sports most of the way through high school.  Had I not been getting that consistent exercise from an early age, my situation could have been vastly worse.  As it was, around age 9 or 10, I began to show signs of pudginess...by my eleventh birthday, I was tall for my age, 5'7", but I weighed nearly 170 lbs, and I was still pudgy.

The habits I developed in those years, specifically, I believe were habits of overeating.  My family ate a lot of produce from our large home garden, and certainly healthy food was available to me, but I loved the starches (pasta, rice), cheeses and condiments.  The fact alone that you're eating these foods won't cause you to gain a tremendous amount of weight, it's the portion size, and the balance of diet which is important.  The fact was, the diet I had gotten accustomed to was HEAVY in simple carbohydrates and fat, and I was overeating those things.

Next post: High school, college, and Diabetes

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS!  I'LL ANSWER ALL TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY!