Team Beachbody Guest

It's time to take back my life.

As I sit here to write my biography, I do not think only of how much I have gained but also how quickly I have come to this point. I am fat for two reasons: 1. I love to eat. Not because I am hungry or need to sustain life, but because food tastes good. 2. I love to be comfortable. That is code word for... LAZY! Growing up I was very active but once I

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It's time to take back my life.

As I sit here to write my biography, I do not think only of how much I have gained but also how quickly I have come to this point. I am fat for two reasons: 1. I love to eat. Not because I am hungry or need to sustain life, but because food tastes good. 2. I love to be comfortable. That is code word for... LAZY! Growing up I was very active but once I graduated high school (1996) I was out of shape. Weight issues are something that both sides of my family deal with. When I was younger, I was looked at as the "growing boy" who needed to eat and be "healthy". That, of course meant two or three rounds of Grandma's homemade fried chicken and biscuits and the other great heart clogging foods I ate at everyone's house as I grew up in the southern United States. At the end of High School I weighed 165 pounds. Not too bad but I was already starting to see excess fat attaching itself to me.

When I was younger it wasn't easy for me to make friends, so after high school I looked for ways to be liked. I quickly found out that people enjoy having at least one fat guy that makes you laugh in the group. I found my niche so I decided I was ok where I was with my weight. Over the next 5 years, through not watching what I ate, not exercising and really not caring, I packed on another 40 and showed up on my wedding day, November 3, 2001, weighing 205 pounds. My wife was healthy, in-shape and loved me how I was. I felt bad for how out of shape I was becoming but the dieting and exercise I did never seemed to help. I got used to being referred to as "Big Boy" at dinner and being urged to go back for second's or third's. People would overcook when they knew I was coming over because I loved to eat. I was that guy you call on a trip to find out where to eat because if the food is good, I had been there... many times.

The next 7 years were the worst of my weight gain. I kept making horrible food choices and by 2005 I weighed 255 pounds. I remember laying in bed one night and telling my wife how much I gained and that I needed to do something about it. We bought a workout guide and exercise bike and over 3 months I lost about 20 pounds. Shortly thereafter we went through some tough family situations and I ate my way through the hard times. I started medicating with food. For part of 2008 I joined a gym with a friend. I was hovering around the 285 pound mark. Every morning we got up, drove to the gym and spent 2 hours working out. Then we would grab breakfast through a drive through on the way home! How smart is that?!? In November it became harder to keep up the gym commitment so we took the holiday's off and planned on restarting in January. I knew I wasn't making any progress in weight loss. I was getting stronger but not loosing weight.

In December I saw a commercial for P90x. I listened to the testimonials and saw the body transformations and I knew that would work for me. I wasn't sure that I could keep up with P90x so I ordered Power 90. January 1, 2009, I weighed in at 300 pounds! In the first month I saw amazing results. I lost 25 pounds, dropped one size in my pants and had to go buy new shirts and belts. With my job comes a lot of traveling and in February of 2009, my time on the road became more frequent. That, combined with some new medical difficulties our 7 month old daughter was having, led to decreased time for working out. I wasn't disciplined enough to continue. By August, I gained back 10 pounds.

So, here I sit. 285 pounds. I have several friends that made the leap to P90x. I have seen their transformations and we are helping to keep each other accountable with our workouts. I bought P90x and I start my transformation this coming Monday morning, September 14, 2009. I know if I don't do something, I will miss out on a lot of fun I could be having with my family. I have a daughter and wife that love to swim but I am too embarrassed to take my shirt off to join with them. I don't want to be that fat dad that can't keep up with a growing family. I want to be involved in my kids lives instead of sitting on the sidelines watching the action.

This transformation is being done for several reasons. At the top of my list is my wife. She deserves to be with someone who takes care of themselves the way she takes care of herself. It's not fair to leave her with a fat, out of shape husband, who could die early leaving her with a wealth of responsibility that she should not have to endure. Secondly, as I stated above, I want to be an active dad with my children. I don't want them having the FAT and happy dad. I want them to have the FIT and happy dad. Thirdly, I am doing this for my overall health. A couple years ago, I scored in the "extreme high risk of cardiovascular disease" range during a stress test at a doctor's office. They told me that I needed to start taking precautions now to avoid a shortened life span. There is a history of diabetes in my family and I don't want to become another statistic. It took a lot of work to get where I am today and I am committed to making the sacrifices to get my life and health back in order.

My first goal is to see 250 pounds again. My second goal is to drop down to 200 pounds. My 3rd goal is to hit my ideal weight which is somewhere around 185 and run a 10k. I am ready take all of the butt-kicking and encouragement that is out there. The excuses stop now! It's time to take back my life!

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