I grew up fat. I was always one of the heaviest kids in my class and the kid who dreaded gym class because it always made me tired and worn out. Now. . . don’t feel bad for me because my childhood and early adult life were pretty good. I learned early on that if I embraced my size, had quick wit and humor . . . I could use it to my advantage to entertain the masses. My silver tongue would allow me to break through any barriers my weight might have initially caused. I ended up being fairly popular, good in school and pretty successful career wise. So really, life was good.
Then in my mid 20’s I got and ulcer and had to see a doctor. He took one look at me and told me I was in sorry shape. He ordered up labs, EKG’s, the whole nine yards and in the end told me I had a metabolic disorder. I had borderline everything; high cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes. When I asked what Metabolic Disorder was, he stated it was a polite way of saying I was too fat. I needed to lose weight or take a plethora of pills. I decided to do the later.
Over the next 5-6 years I tried different things to lose weight. Cutting back food intake, low cal/low fat diets, Atkins and even an expensive 90-day reshaping exercise program. I lost the best with the last one. I made it down to the 235-240 range. But I was exhausted all the time and had no energy what so ever. Eventually I kind of decided I didn’t mind being fat and figured if I died early. . . . at least I was heavily insured. HAHAHAHA. Besides I was comfortable with whom I was.
In February of 2007 my father had a little scare with his heart. He was a pretty healthy guy but they had found some blockage and as a result he changed the way he ate, began to exercise and took some medication. I was proud of him and it was kind of a reminder to me of what that doctor had told me all those years earlier. At this point my weight and health kind of crept into the back of my mind. Not enough to look into exercise or change my diet, but I did make a big sacrifice and switch to “Lite” salt. lol.
Now the fear of dying would normally be enough to persuade someone to make the changes needed to get healthy and lose weight, but not for me. For me, the reason I finally decided to lose weight was because I was coerced into a vacation with a beach destination. For years I had managed to avoid the tropical wonderlands of swimsuits and sand, but I had promised my wife I’d go for our 10th Anniversary. We took our passport photos in late November 2007 and boy. . .did I look fat. I hopped on my parents scale that weekend and the reality of it hit me. I was in the 290’s.
I of course realized that if I wanted to be comfortable on vacation, I was going to need to lose weight. I had 6 months and I thought if I could some how get back to 235-240 I’d be one sexy dude. HAHAHAHA.
The thought of all that exercise was daunting. I was already exhausted from extra hours of college studies trying to earn a second degree. So how was an additional 4:30 am work out going to make me feel? I put it off and thought; lets try controlling my food first. I cut back the intake and begin trying to lose weight. I got to 275.
It was a proud moment (sarcasm), and I was snacking on pizza, cereal, donuts and I think maybe even a left over burrito. I flipped through the channels. I had seen that commercial 200 times. Well not the whole thing . . . but that guy who comes on ecstatic and says, “I was standing in Target wanting to yell out ... I can fit into my pants!” (http://forums.provida.com/6weekbodymakeover/whatadifferenceayearmakes_1287512/reply.html)
This time I watched a little more. Then came this Michael Thurmond guy. I remembered seeing a commercial a few years ago. I have to be honest, I saw Michael Thurmond and it was talking about food and I thought it was Emeril doing a cooking show. Once I figured out it was for a weight loss product I had quickly turned the channel. But this time I decided I should look into this product. But in the back of my mind I figured it was a scam and I never got around to it.
I couldn’t sleep the next few nights and apparently Provida had decided to spend just shy of $6.3 billion on marketing this product between 3-10 am. Finally I watched the whole commercial all the way through and at the end of it. . . .I went online and I ordered. The rest they say is history.
My first 6 weeks I lost 31 pounds. The next six weeks it was around 25 lbs more. And after only 18 ½ weeks I had reached my goal of 200 lbs and 73 pounds lost. That was two weeks before my scheduled vacation (Remember, I honestly had hoped to be at 235 pounds by then). The day I left I was 195 pounds. When I started this process I was busting out of a size 42 jeans and wearing 3 xl shirts. Now I wear a size 32 jeans, medium shirt and weigh 180 pounds. As of today, I’ve lost a total of 93 pounds and 75.25 inches off of my entire body. I’m still amazed by how well this has worked and fast this change has happened.
Sure I struggled in the beginning to get food to taste the way I wanted it and find the things I really liked. There were days I was discouraged because I had only a small loss that week. But somewhere along the way I decided to do this program not just to look good for vacation, but because it was actually making me feel healthier. And FINALLY that became the reason that gave me the strength to get me through.
I’ve got a lot of people I’d like to say thanks to. My family at home, as well as my main support thread of Casey, Craig, Hockey Mom Donna, Mystic Donna, Laurie, Linda, Rebecca, Sissy (my 18 week commitment), Stacey, and Sue. Thanks as well as those who have sent me random emails or PMs after seeing my pictures or reading a post. All of you kept me going when I questioned myself, and you gave me joy and motivation when I read about your success. Also, Hale who came up with the Pizza Sauce that gets me through most weeks. Provida for this forum and the mass media buy that finally got me to order this. Michael Thurmond for putting this together in a nice easy to understand and follow plan. But mostly, (and this isn’t meant conceitedly) I’d like to thank MYSELF for finally thinking I was important enough to take care of and get healthy. (Even if it at first was for a kind of vain reason.) Thanks, for forcing myself to stick with this even if I wanted to quit every once in a while, and for not allowing myself to come up with reasons to sabotage myself and not be successful at this. No matter what, I wouldn’t let myself fail. I did it! And it feels good. You can do this too!
Chris