I’ve mainly kept this part of my year a secret. Every day I spent working on this resolution, was a day spent thinking I would never reach my goal and would revert back to where I began. This is why you (my Facebook) friends have not seen much about this on your newsfeeds, I simply was too worried of failure. For better or worse, here is where I end 2013:

I entered this year always tired, back hurting and fed up with the person I saw in pictures (of course, it is worth noting I also began 2006ish-2012 also this way). At 25, this was a disheartening place to be. 8 years of youth ministry (pizza, soda, SUGAR!) and a lack of regular exercise saw me begin 2013 around 241lbs (I had actually seen 250lbs at one point in 2012, but that is a dark time of which I will not speak)!

Last year as I typed out some resolutions for myself on my blog, I made sure that one of them was to lose some weight in 2013. I didn’t have much faith in myself to actually lose anything but, as always, added it to the list anyway.

For the first few weeks of the new year I did  a little better. I went to the gym, ran a few miles or so a week and justified eating whatever I wanted because I was doing so. I set my goal to weigh-in every week but didn’t really see any change. Over the next few months I did manage to lose a little and arrived at June 1 (after 5 months of having this resolution) at 231.4lbs.

It was at this point that I’d had enough. I knew summer was coming and I would have to go to the beach (yikes!) and I knew that I was tired of stepping on the scale and seeing no results. It was time to make a change!

My wife and I had tried Weight Watchers in the past but it never really stuck. It was not the tracking as much as it was the not knowing how many calories a day I was actually putting in my body. It was right around the end of May that one of my co-workers mentioned My Fitness Pal. My Fitness Pal is a calorie tracking site that also has a phone app (and it’s free!). You track every meal and, through its huge database of choices, it spits out how many calories (and other things) you’re putting into your body. I downloaded the app but spent a few days wary of keeping track of everything I was eating.

It’s now been over 209 days since I last ended a day without knowing how many calories I had eaten over the course of that day (or ended a day over my daily allotted calories)! I can’t believe I’m even typing that!

It was rocky at first- I stayed under but I also ate whole small pizzas at Mellow Mushroom and fast food a few times a week. To stay under my calories I had picked up running and bought a step tracking band to wear to grab some extra calories through exercise (needless to say, I didn’t see a whole lot of change those first few weeks). After a few weeks of my weekly weigh-ins not showing the results I’d like, I started eating smaller calories meals, spaced out through the day. Slowly, but surely, as a logged calories and ran a few times a week, the pounds started to drop: some weeks only .2 and some weeks 2.2.

It was exhilarating to see lower numbers on the scale each week, even if I couldn’t really see them in the mirror!

Encouragement started coming in around month 3 (August) as people at church started noticing I was losing weight. I  also remember the first time I had to go pants shopping and dropped from a size 38 to a size 36- what a kick in the butt to keep going! Around month 4 (September) I had to buy new suits for church- I couldn’t believe it was happening (my poor belt was struggling to keep my pants up, I was always worried I might lose them while speaking in front of the church)!

Fast-forward to today and, thanks mainly to my support base on My Fitness Pal, those at church who have said things like: “wow you’re shrinking!” or “are you eating anymore?”, and the encouragement of my beautiful wife, I am wearing a size 32 pants (down from 38-40) and can comfortably wear a size medium shirt (I was filling out an XL when I started this). People comment on my weight loss each week and I’ve had to buy new clothes (and suits for work) at least twice since starting (and some of the clothes I bought 2 months ago are now too big). Yesterday I weighed in at 197lbs!

It’s taken dedication to log-in to MFP every meal and track every calorie. I’ve logged many miles since June and I’ve gone through two Jawbone Up bands tracking my sleep and steps. I’ve gulped down more water in the last 7 months than I most likely did the entire year before.

So how’d I do on that 2013 resolution? 43lbs and 162.68miles (not a lot for some but a lot for me!) later and I’m feeling really good! I’ve still got almost 12lbs left to  my goal weight of 185-180 but I enter 2014 knowing that I’ll get there! (AND, I weigh less than I did when I started college- almost 8 years ago!!)

Pictures are below! I can’t believe I’m here and that my goal of 185lbs is actually on the near horizon!

Thanks for the support many of you have given and continue to give to me! It really does keep me going!

If you’re making a 2014 resolution to lose weight, know that it IS possible and, with commitment to see it happen, you can enter into 2015 feeling much better and healthier! 

 

__________________________

Before:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 year ago (Dec 2012)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOW:

I’m not beneath the dressing room pictures! :)