An Introduction from G

Hey everyone, I’m Greg, and I’m the (almost always) biggest guy you’ll know.

To me, there’s two kinds of fat guys in the world: The self hating, unfortunate, overall unhappy fat guy, and the ‘life of the party’, lets all laugh about it, ‘look at how funny I look doing things that normal people do’ type of fat guy.

I’m the second one. In my mind, anyone who has a blog is the second one (you gotta be willing to talk about your problems). However, we’re all the same. Anyone who gets to a size where I (we) are today is in denial about this. I’ve ignored my mourning for a healthy life for so long, I forgot it even existed. Over the years, I accepted the fact that I will _NEVER_ run, and I was OK with that because I didn’t want to!

My self image developed around everything enveloping me, except for the negative aspects of my weight. My denial gave me a sense of freedom. Happiness could be achieved, I loved my friends, family, and myself. Ignorant bliss.

However, the weight continued to creep up on me. At first, little things:
my knee would bother after a long day.

• I couldn’t fit into a roller coaster
• The bane of any fatman: chairs with arms and booths at restaurants
• The need to avoid long walks\exercise opportunities, especially in groups of people
• Getting winded after any physical exertion
• I was starting to realize: “Jesus, I eat a lot of food!”

Slowly but surely, this list got longer and longer, and it became hard to ignore. I’d get creative with my own denial, and try to hide these issues. I’d ask for a table to the waiter when no one else was paying attention. I’d be sneaky in finding ways to avoid long walks to get to social events, and would try to limit (unsuccessfully) my fast food intake.

There was no real specific breaking point, but a lot of them. My new, wonderful, wife, addressing her very real and practical concerns, my need to enjoy the many things I couldn’t do, my work requiring physicals to stay insured, and huge blow was standing on the scale and it saying EXACTLY 500.0 pounds. What a milestone, eh?

• I want to go to Cedar Point. I want to walk the miles, and love the roller coast rides.
• I want to ride the bike my wife got me without incredible pain all over my body
• I want to go scuba diving
• I want to ride in a single seat on an airplane
• For Christ’s sake, I want to run for once in my life.

I did small attempts at dieting over the next 6 months, and dropped 20 pounds. Then I slacked off and gained 4 of it back.

• I got sick of it instantly, no more f**king around, it was time to get serious.
• I cut pop and fast food almost completely (maybe once a month for both)
• I met with doctors and dietition
• I monitored the calories I ate
• I made a giant goals board in my living room for everyone to see and ask me about
• I started a blog
• I exercised EVERY day. I started at 0.5 miles walking a day (which exhausted me), I got up to 2.5 miles every day.
• I just started lifting weights 3 times a week. I plan on getting to the point where I can walk 2.5 miles 4xWeek and life 3xWeek
• I’ve lost 32 pounds in 7 weeks so far.

-Most importantly, I still eat the things I love. I’m still learning moderation, and how to say ‘no’ to the stuff right in my face. If I were to starve myself, this wouldn’t last. My life is changing for the better, every single day. I have so much more energy right now. If you were to tell the Greg 2 months ago where I’d be today, I would have laughed in my face.

I started at 484, I’m down to 452, and I’m finishing at 234 come hell or high water.

You can follow my (hopefully) successful journey here and at my blog.

http://greggorob64.blogspot.com

G OUT.