Fat Guys Anonymous

I suppose I need to give a bit of a confession - I mean introduction. 

My name is Ryan and I used to be a fat guy.  In  high school it was alright.  I pretty much ran with the in crowd, and amongst all my football playing buddies, I wasn't THAT big, just a little less toned.  I was pretty active - backyard football and baseball, pickup basketball, etc - so my weight never really got out of hand, but to be clear, I was still a big guy.  By graduation in 1994, I was pushing 250 lbs.

Community College came along and I got less and less active.  Sure, freshman year we had ruthless games of pickup basketball in my mom's driveway, but we also had cheeseburgers and french fries and gravy at night.  Then I started working at a steak house.  First, I was a dishwasher, but in 10 short years I had worked my way to grill station and head of kitchen.  Long story short, three 12 oz steaks a week with french fries will builid up!

Then came university.  I was on my own for the first time in my life.  I went to class, I came home, I watched TV, I studied, and I ate.  Oh yeah, this also marks my discovery of my love of cooking.  We didn't have Food Network back home so this was a new creature to me.  Sure we had cooking shows, but these chefs were entertaining and soon I fell in love with cooking.  At this point, I had been a lowly steak cook for 5 or so years but never really felt like I was creating anything.  With what I was learning on this magical cable channel, I could actually express myself.  I started experimenting.  I would cook heaping helpings of jambalaya, chicken stew, chili, (of course) steaks, and my roommates and I would devour them.  I graduated after three years with a degree in English and a larger pants size.  Graduating weight...somewhere in the vicinity of 285 lb.

I took a sabbatical from the world after graduation.  I had already cleared it with all involved.  I was going to be good for nothing for about 6 months.  My friends and I loafed about my mom's house playing video games, watching cartoons, eating junk food.  You know things typical 5 year olds do.  Only problem we were in our early 20s.  Something however did light a fire under me.  I cut back the junk food, started drinking immense amounts of water everyday and bought a machete.  A machete?  That's right, a machete.  My mom has an acre lot behind her house and it had fallen into disarray.  Weeds and shurbs were growing unchecked.  I woke up every morning and worked on the lot with only my machete.  I eventually upgraded to two machetes - one in each hand.  I think I lost about 60 lbs.  That put me lighter than I had been since high school - somewhere around 220 lbs.

I was happy being smaller.  I had more endurance.  I didn't get all sweaty when I stepped outside.  I felt good.  So, of course I had to sabotage myself.  I decided to go back to school.  I reenrolled in my old community college and immediately started packing on the pounds.  I was probably up to 280 (again) by the time I graduated (again).

I went through a long, long stage of not giving a damn about my weight.  I was the big guy.  It was part of who I was.  People that didn't like it could get over it.  I had accepted it.  I remember one time thinking to myself  "My weight always seems to cut off at 280.  Maybe I'm supposed to be 280.  I should just quit fighting it."

Well, all that changed in December of 2009 when I got on the scales and weighed in at 292.  Wow, that was big - even for me.  I knew I had to do something.  I immediately dusted off the exercise equipment I had accumulated over the years and started working out.  I felt alot better evenually.  I'm not going to lie, it was pure hell the first couple of days.  Feeling like I was going to vomit while I was working out...feeling like I had someone else's arms and legs after my workout...Wishing my arms and legs were someone else's the next morning.  But eventually, I started looking forward to my workout sessions.  Unfortunately, I wasn't losing much weight.  I had never really learned how to eat.  In my mind, I could still eat what I wanted to because I was working out.  Despite the nutrition and fitness classes I was forced to take in college, I had no idea what a portion size was. To me a portion was how much my plate could hold.

One morning it hit me while watching Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN2.  For those of you that don't know, Mike and Mike is a sports talk radio show hosted by ESPN sportscaster Mike Greenberg and former NFL defensive lineman Mike Golic.  The running joke on the show is that Golic eats like a pig and Greenie makes fun of him.  Well, it came me that I had seen Golic on commercials for some kind of weight loss plan.  He screamed "POT ROAST".

The plan, of course, was Nutrisystem.

I went to their website and after reading into it, signed up.  Turns out lots of men of all ages and weights have used Nutrisystem to help them reach their weight loss goals.  The plan couldn't be simplier and when you add in daily exercise, the pounds just fall off of you.  I lost about 23 pounds my first month and, as of today, have lost a total of 95 pounds since January 5, 2010.

Like I said in the previous entry, this blog is to journal my last 15 or so pounds and help hold me accountable once I reach my goal and attempt to maintain.  Thanks for following along on my journey!