Ever sat on the couch and watched an inspirational story of someone that lost 100 pounds, quit smoking, kicked the alcohol, and thought, “That would be so amazing!”?  I have… a hundred million times.  Three months ago, I was an extremely defeated man that had just about every negative vice you could imagine.  I loved nicotine, alcohol, and food!  Can anyone spell death?  I could, “M…e…”  At over 450 pounds, I was smoking, drinking, and eating myself to death.

Despite the increasing difficulty that I experienced in everyday life, I continued with my negative choices and found myself not really caring whether I would wake up in the morning or not.  My weight continued to balloon and back aches, sciatic problems, and an inability to reach my feet became my norm.  My sedentary lifestyle became worse as it was easier to stay home and play XBOX than going out into public where I was faced with disgusted glances, uncomfortable seating, and shortness of breath whenever I had to walk more than a few feet.

About eight weeks ago, I was enjoying a Marlboro Light when I had an epiphany, “Would I ever purchase 20 small vials of poison from a distributor if I knew that the contents would taste good, but slowly kill me?”  Of course I wouldn’t!  So why was I buying cigarettes?  I mean, seriously!?  I have been paying a company to slowly poison me while having the knowledge that these little bastards would eventually steal my life?  I never bought another pack.  Fast forward two weeks and I had a similar experience with food.  Why was I paying a company for food that I know is unhealthy for me and is making my obesity problem worse?

So, here I sit tonight, with it being eight weeks since my last cigarette and five weeks since I quit drinking alcohol, gave up soda completely, and started making choices with my nutrition that are working to save my life.  Is it working?  Well, my last recorded weight was 419.6 pounds and I’ve never felt better.

How am I doing it?  For now, I’ll say that I’m eating different foods and counting my calories and a few select macros…  My biggest key is that my wife has been taking this journey with me.

Why a blog?  I don’t know what the hell I am doing, but I don’t want to be a success story that you hear about after I’m done that inspires a few seconds of hope.  I want to be a Work In Progress that inspires the beginning of a journey.  So, despite the fact that I’ve probably already broken a lot of blogging rules, I’m at the start of a very long journey and I hope someone finds this blog and is encouraged to take this journey with me.

What’s the goal?  I’m in this for the long haul.  I want to reach a healthy weight for my height/age/gender.  There will be a lot of challenges.  It has been one thing to learn what my body needs to loose weight and it will be another challenge to learn what my body will need to maintain a healthy weight.

If you are interested, attempting, contemplating, or finishing weight loss, please leave me a comment and bookmark this site.  For now, though, it’s back to taking my life back…

Find me on Facebook @250pounds2forever