Fitness

Making a change

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Category: Fitness

Published on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 09:12 am

Written by Ken Morgan

For most of my life, I really didn't have a problem with weight.

My metabolism always kept me well below 200, but not being very athletic I didn't have a lot of muscle mass either. Simply put, I was a skinny kid pretty much through college. My sister always joked "One day your metabolism is going to slow down and I'm going to be right there laughing."  Well, it did.

At my heaviest I was 250 pounds. Now, in America today where we see obesity reported on the news daily, and shows like The Biggest Loser focus on people 300 and 400 pounds, 250 doesn't really seem like much. Unfortunately, the reality is that is still over weight. In fact, by most medical scales, I would be considered obese at 6'1" and 250 pounds. We've become so accustomed to the extreme that we accept the lower range as "healthy" or "normal" weight.  But it's not.  It's just not.

About two years ago I was on Weight Watchers, using their online program. I was inspired by my wife who lost over 108 pounds after our second child was born. She, and my kids, is truly my inspiration. I got down to 216 pounds and was on my way to my goal weight of 185.  At that point I was sure I had a handle on the program and could continue without paying the monthly fee to WW for their online tools, but that didn't last very long.

Before long, a Coke here, burger there, started to creep into my diet. Here I am, over two years later and I was back over 250 pounds.  My wife and I were at a play and I bought a t-shirt, size XL.  The next day I put it on and was shocked at how it fit. Too tight, belly busting out.  I knew I had put weight back on but didn't really know how bad it was. It was right then and there I decided to Make A Change.

For about three weeks now, I'm back on the Weight Watchers for Men program, using their online tools again. In that three weeks I've taken off over 8 pounds, am exercising regularly, and most importantly, changing how I'm eating. For now I'm focused on hitting 225 pounds, my 10% loss mark.  Second goal is to get to 215 pounds, one pound less than where I quit last time.  Final goal, 185 pounds and size 32 jeans.

Speaking of jeans, I had a great day yesterday. After YEARS of wearing size 38 jeans, I bought and fit in to size 36 waist.

I'm on my way.