I am 24, 6′1″ and 290 pounds.
I would like to be 25, 6′1″ and 235 pounds.
I never thought, when I chose the nickname “wonderyak” and created this page that I would, in fact, weigh as much…as a yak. Not so wonderful at all.
Kevin Smith can do it, and document his progress in his blog. Jacob, a 350 pound non-celebrity can do it AND complete the Boston Marathon (it may have taken him nine hours, but I’m still impressed). My wife can do it and even FURTHER widen the gap between her beauty and my beast.
Can I?
I say, finally and for once, YES.
My secret to getting so fat is a simple one: I have hated myself. My crushing lack of self-esteem and debilitating self-deprication has allowed me to abuse myself. Part defense mechanism (if I hate myself, if I make fun of myself, it won’t matter if anyone else does) and part laziness (hey, if I don’t care about myself, I can just sit here on the couch and eat chips), this self-loathing of mine has gone too far.
“Man, I am so fucking fat. What’s the point of trying, anymore? I’m eating this entire jar of peanut butter. With a spoon. Suck it, fat-ass.”
After devouring said peanut butter: “Fuck! Why did I do that? This is why I’m so fucking fat! Fuck you! Fuck this! God, what’s the point? I might as well eat this entire box of Oreos. And that one pound package of lunch meat. And this left-over Chinese food. And the spoon. There’s still some peanut butter on it.”
So, what happened? Well, besides sitting a room with a wall-length mirror all day while working at a remote site (every time I looked up from my desk, I wanted to die), I came to a shocking realization: I’m actually worth it. There’s NO reason I should hate myself. I have a lot of talents and skills. I have a wife who loves me, and whom I love with all my heart. I want to be around, to enjoy her company and experience all the world has to offer, for a very, very long time. I don’t want to check out at 35, heart stopped, shit in my pants, half-chewed bratwurst hanging out of my mouth.
In a stunning turn of events, I realized that I valued my own life.
Well, that AND I don’t know what my wife would do if I weren’t around to pick on (I kid, I KID).
And so it begins.
My goal: to weigh 235 pounds by my 25th birthday (end of October).
That’s a loss of 55 pounds in a little over six months. That’s only about nine pounds/month. A reasonable goal. It’s going to take some work, but it is something that I WILL be able to achieve (and thus won’t get frustrated and give up and go back to licking the bottom of the peanut butter jar). Reasonable as it may be, when I shave off 55 pounds, “drop-dead-sexy” will be just around the corner.
I will, of course, use wonderyak.com to report my progress. And solicit advice. And probably rant.
Wish me luck. And keep your wives/girlfriends on a short leash. I doubt they’ll be able to resist me come October. And, who are we kidding, my wife would kill them. ;-)
I am, once again, also trying to lose weight. I created a website to help count calories (appropriately, the URL is countcals.com). If you’re interested, I can set you up with an account. It has little graphs that show your progress and, up until about six months ago when I stopped using it, the site helped me lose eighteen pounds over the course of about three months (which I have, of course, regained).
Good luck! I’ll be rooting for you.
Dude! You’re the man. Yeah, hook me up! :-)
Three Things Kris:
1. Your “DEAD SEXY” to begin with, I’m just glad you won’t be Dead and Sexy.
2. Remember, when you increase your physical exertion, you will at first drop a good amount of weight, but then it’s going to slow, as your building muscle mass. If in a month or so you find yourself not getting those 9 pounds per month, just remember, you have to be in it to win it and don’t quit.
3. Once you meet your goal you can’t stop your diet/exercise routine. If you do you will just add those pounds right back on. Again it’s the long term. A new halth routine will be your second wife.
4. Damn, all that description of Oreos, and spooned peanut butter has made me hungry, time to go gorge on some food myself.
Yeah, I know thats 4 things and not three, but I’m here for you man an cheering you on and I look forward to tracking your progress with you.
You can do it honey!
Wanna take a walk?
I got fat without hating myself. I love myself, but I also love to eat. ::blush:: Mmm, so delicious…
Speaking as someone who went from 240 to 180 (does anyone have pictures from my fat period? It was in 2003, when I was at EWU. Recently, my hard drive died and I lost all my pictures. Not that I particularly want to remember being that heavy, but I’d like to show before/after pictures ^_^) let me share a bit of wisdom from my experience.
1. Eating right is MORE important than exercise.
You can go a long way just by cutting out refined starches from your diet. Complex carbs (in fruits/veggies/whole-grain breads/etc) are fine, but anything refined is digested too quickly, and you get hungry again because your stomach is empty, even though you still have plenty of energy in your system.
Slow-digesting foods (complex carbs, protein) prevent you from getting hungry, so you eat less and consume fewer calories overall.
It really is all about calories, don’t let anyone lead you astray.
2. Exercise is *really* fricking important.
I exercised every weekday morning for 30-60 minutes (I was at the Body Shop when it opened, it was a great time to work out, there were no lines!) It sounds crazy, but after a month or so, working out actually GAVE ME ENERGY for the rest of the day, instead of tiring me out. Mon-Wed-Fri were muscle-building days with weights and Tue-Thr were endurance days on the recumbent bike. Read a book or listen to music (or both, I’m not judging ^_^) and the time just flies.
You can’t claim that you don’t have time to exercise. Microwaving a burrito? How long is it going to take? How many push-ups (or sit-ups or whatever) can you do in that time? Don’t just stand there waiting, be active! Get a set of dumbbells and keep them in the living room. Do pyramid sets while you watch TV.
The benefits of exercise outweigh the effort required, by a long shot. You won’t realize how much until you start doing it.
3. Be realistic in your goals. 9 pounds per month is a bit on the excessive side. 1 pound per week is closer to ideal (although, I lost my 60 pounds in six months, so 10 pounds per month is still do-able, but it’s not easy). Understand that 9 pounds a month is going to take a massive effort. Don’t be frustrated if you plateau a few times, too. You diet and work out like crazy and don’t lose ANYTHING for a month. It happens. Be ready.
4. Be prepared for small failures. If you break down one day and eat a whole bag of chips in one sitting, don’t think that just because you had this small setback that you should just quit. It’s just a small setback! It’s no big deal! In fact, (although I don’t recommend this) I used to have one non-diet meal every week (usually on Sunday). If my friends were going out for pizza or something, I could join in. If I were really craving a piece of cake or some treat, I could have it. Once. Per. Week. That kept me sane, but I would have lost weight faster without it. But I never thought that just because I ate a whole bag of oreos covered in peanut butter that it was suddenly OK to eat a tube of raw cookie dough (btw, so hungry right now just talking about this). One small step back is one thing, but be strong and keep pushing forward.
Hmm, I have much more to say, but this is already long enough! Do your best, and keep us updated!
I’m so proud of you, Kris. This is a good goal for you and your future. I’m behind you one hundred percent as are many people including the best motivator for you…your wife.
Now, I’m a fan of exercise and eating right. However, you have to be realistic. You have to find what works for you. Everyone is different. Three females in my life have had great progress with Weight Watchers. My big brother, Bobby has done well with counting calories. Myself, being a diabetic, hate the idea of counting calories, and it just isn’t the right thing for me. I watch my carbs. But I haven’t cut anything out of my diet. What I have done is portion control and cardio exercises like walking the dog, and riding my bike everyday. When you saw me last year about this time I was a size 14, now I’m a size 6/8. I feel better (most of the time, I am a diabetic afterall) and I don’t feel like I’m denying myself anything. Which helps with not binging on crap. You know all of this. You’ll do great. Just stay positive, and remember your ultimate goal is not to be a certain size by a certain time, but to ensure your future with those you love.
I’ve always thought you were worth a ton. But I don’t want you to weigh a ton.
Anyway, I’m going to be on my own diet/exercise plan starting Monday. I’d like to get to 250lbs, but 235lbs sounds good too! We can be lard-ass reduction brothers!
“And keep your wives/girlfriends on a short leash. I doubt they’ll be able to resist me come October.” Sounds like Emily’s gonna have to keep ME on a short leash, ex-Big Sexy!