Belly Off - The Journey

So, as with most people, I have decided that I would like to lose weight here in 2009. Hopefully it will mark a significant change in me. In a variety of ways. My life since high school, with it has turned how I hoped for the most part, has taken some crazy twists and turns. When i graduated high school I was around 190 pounds. I went to Western Washington University for two years, and when I transferred to Washington State University, I was at 205 pounds. A gain of 15. Not bad, as most people gain weight in college, but I decided to start working out. I worked out for a month or so, and then stopped. This cycle would repeat itself for most of my time at WSU. The downside to this was that during my time at WSU I discovered that I liked beer. And at times, lots of it. That led to late night runs to Jack In The Box. Upon graduation from WSU, I was right around 225. Up 2o from my start at WSU, and up 35 overall.

Upon finishing classes at WSU, I moved to Omaha, NE for my internship. I started working some odd jobs on the side, and also began running and doing "body weight" training, such as push-ups, sit-ups, and all that. I, and others, began to notice a difference. How ever all of that was soon negated by two things. I had to move in to a fraternity house (with no real ways of preparing or storing food) which meant all most all of my meals were fast food. The other was that I started spending way too much time at the bar I worked at (free beer). When I finished my internship and came back to Washington, I was 250. Up another 25, and now up 55 overall.

The good news in all of this? I was moving to Illinois for graduate school, and I was working for Campus Recreation. This meant more gym time. In the month before I moved I also started working out, and by the time Christmas came around, I was back down to 230. But, with the stresses of school, working three jobs (I eventually stopped working for Campus Rec), my social agenda, and my love of take out, I was never able to get below 225. Not bad, but not good.

I graduated from Illinois in December of 2007, and moved to Jacksonville, FL to start a job in Minor League Baseball. When I got to Jax, I weighed about 233. Up 8 from my best in Illinois, but down 17 from when i started. I figured down 17 pounds in a year and a half, while not great, was an improvement. I had also added weight training, and I could see that I had built some muscle mass. It was at this point that I started to take other measurements to track my progress. Measurements such as belly circumference, distance around the my hips and chest, bicep circumference, and all that fun stuff. At my peak in jax, I had dropped to about a 37 inch belly, and was weighing right around 220. I was happy.

Then, came the move back home. For a month I was pretty lazy, and was just a couch potato. I was able to get back into the gym in early November (after doing some running during October), and found that I was gone up to 228. Not bad, I thought. It will come off. Then, from about Thanksgiving until January 15th, I was a bum. No gym, lots of bad food, and just unhealthy living in general. But, that is all about to change. Currently, as of July 21, 2009 I am 236 pounds. Yes, I added another 8, negated all of my 2008 progress, with the exception of the muscle that I was able to add. But I have a plan. Here it comes.