Dan 2.0

I’ve been a heavy guy for decades. I was most fit when I was a senior in high school and had spent the previous summer working at a garden center loading and unloading trucks and shifting stock around. My AFJROTC uniform hung off me like a curtain when we returned to class that fall. I won’t say I was ripped, but I wasn’t flabby either.

I gained a little weight through community college, but not awful. I was working at a greenhouse part time, so still had some physical activity. When college ended, I ran a greenhouse for a landscape company. This job evolved into working on the landscape crew. My primary job was to dig holes and move materials with a wheel barrow. Fun, right? I kept my weight at a reasonable level. The Mexican guys still called me Gordo (fat), but still respected my willingness to work hard.

Eventually, I got a job doing turf grass maintenance. This mainly involved pushing a lawn spreader to fertilize the grass, then walking the lawn to spot spray for weeds. I lost some weight with all the walking and lifting 50 pound bags of fertilizer. However, this job led me to my new career. The owner and I were talking about my side job of making and fixing computers and he asked if I wanted to make that a full time job. I leaped at the chance and opened a computer store with him.

Working with computers is not what you can call a physically active job. Sure, you need to lug them around a bit from time to time, and sometimes you are crawling under desks or climbing ladders to run cables.  It also was around the time I discovered craft beer. Mmmm beer! The weight gain started.

I sucked at running a computer store, so I got a corporate IT job. It was more of the same, activity-wise. At one point, I tried, I really tried, to drop some pounds. I was pretty successful at adding muscle and burning fat. I kept it up for about 8 months, then fell off the wagon. When I fell, I really fell hard. Fat guy depression is a death spiral.

Eventually, I got married and that helped. I was a lot more active and out of the house. I maintained my weight for quite a long time, but eventually married weight happens. I was eating much better (She can cook!), so the pounds slowly rolled on. Add the stress from adopting a couple of kids to that, and weight gain was inevitable and hard to get rid of.

Now we come to the past two weeks. Something clicked, and I’m not sure how, but it did. I need to drop this weight because I physically can’t do many of the things I want to do. I can’t play with my kids outside. Walking up the steps at home left me winded. Run? Don’t even think about it. I took the boat out and that was difficult to do. I may have broken something on it (another blog post) due to my weight. I can feel my heart working hard to keep me going. That can’t be good for long term survival.

So, today, I’m watching what I eat. I’m moving more, sometimes a mile or two walk every day. The goal is 100+ pounds lost, however long it takes. The smaller goal is 50 pounds lost before 6 months, which would be Feb/March 2019. If I fall off the wagon, I’m going to get bariatric surgery to fix the hardware, since the software fixes are not working. The change is needed and frankly overdue.

I’ve lost 8 pounds in the past two weeks. At least 2 of those pounds was due to water weight, since I’ve really cut down on the carbohydrates and refined products I eat. I can do this.

I’m calling this project a hobby, and really, it is a life-long one. In a way, I’m playing a game with myself to see if I can lose the weight. Once its gone, the new game will be keeping the weight off.

Today is August 22, 2018 and I weigh 356 pounds. I have 106 pounds to lose before this project is considered a success. Wish me luck.

356/106