In January of 2010 I decided as part of my New Years Resolution that it was time to 
change my lifestyle. I was overweight (362) extremely unhealthy and eating with no understanding of what I was doing to my body, my life, and my family. This picture to the right here was taken in Late Fall by my wife - as you can see I was pretty fat.
For this to really happen I choose to do it on my own. No diets, No pills, No crazy weight lost plans, just hard work and the support of my friends/family. I started exercising (using the Biggest Loser Wii game) and changed my eating habits (with the help of LiveStrong iPhone App).
I posted updates the first few weeks on my blog (1,2,3,4) and I was rocking! Then life happened and my updates got less frequent on the blog (March 1 and April 25). Fortunately my great support system on Facebook/Twitter kept me energized to keep this process going. My life by that time was truly changing as the weight was really coming off. By April I was down 50 pounds to 312.
Fast forward a few months and post later (September 16 and November 1 ) I had crossed the 100 pound mark and I was on my way to hitting my goal of 112 pounds lost in 1 year.
Today I am happy to announce that I failed. Why am I happy to announce that, because my life is changed and I have lost 108 pounds and weighed in this morning at 254.
I failed to meet my goal but in the last year I have truly changed my life for the better. I finished my first 5K race and participated in 4 others, have become a much more healthy eater, and purchased an entire new wardrobe of clothes. My pant size has dropped from 48 in the waist to 38 and shirt size has gone from a 4XL to a 2XL. Below are a few pictures of my old “fat clothes.”
I want to say Thank You to all my friends and family for their support during this change. Each Facebook comment/like or tweet of encouragement made me get keep going and achieve my lifestyle change. I know for a fact that I could not have done this without the help of my friends and family. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!
So as 2011 starts I have new goals set (and will share them soon) but I know that my life is forever changed for the good and I will never be going back to the old Jeff.
As I do each and every Sunday I woke up (not know what time it was due to this stupid daylight savings time change) and got on my scale to see how successful/unsuccessful I was at losing weight this week.
*Brief Background: I started a lifestyle change on January 4th of this year. On that Sunday I weighted in at 362 pounds and promised to all that I was going to change my life. Needing a goal, I picked 250 by the end of the year.
The number that came up brought a huge smile to my face - 261.4! I have finally broken through that 100 pound mark. I have been at the mark for a few weeks and never able to get through it, until today.
While there is little in terms of difference in 100 and 101 - it was a mental thing I had to break in my mind getting past that marker and on to my goal of 250.
Now the challenge is on to lost these last 11 pounds before the end of the year - something I am sure I can do but will just require some effort and focus during the Holiday season.
This weekend I accomplished a major goal in my life by participating and finishing my first ever 5K.
I participated in the Susan G. Kormen Race for the Cure this past weekend in Birmingham and enjoyed it more then I thought it would - but in the same breath I must say it was harder then I thought it would be. I also learned a few things I wanted to share:
- Never ever switch to new ear buds the day of your first (or any for that matter) 5K Race. I switched to my new custom ear mold Etymotic ear buds and they were useless (another blog post coming on them). They failed to stay in my ears causing me to run for the first time in my life without any music and having to listen to myself running which was not pleasant.
- Running in a group of people is tough. At the conclusion of my first mile I noticed my pace was extremely quick (for me). This caused me to tire more quickly and slow my overall pace. I ended up walking 4 times total and finished in or around 32 minutes. But…
- I have no idea if I finished at 32 minutes. Due to the ear buds issue I mentioned above my time got screwed up on my iPhone App and when I finished there was no method for me to check in at the finish line. My mom informed me that I finished at that time as she saw a small clock that read that at the finish line. I have been told there are better electronic ways to track a start/finish to a race and hopefully the next race I participate in will have a better tracking system.
Overall the race was awesome and has inspired me to do it again, this time running the entire thing.
Without a doubt its been too long since my last update on my lifestyle change that I started at the first of the year.
I am happy too report that as of Sunday I weighed in at 275 which gives me a total weight lost of 86 pounds. I am feeling great and the transformation in my overall appearance is wonderful. 
I am 25 pounds away from my goal which is proving to be a huge challenge for me too achieve. I have hit the plateau that everyone told me I would hit - and I have tried to switch up my exercise routine to help with this.
I previously spoke about the desire to start the couch to 5K program and I finally stopped making excuses and started the program in August. Its been tough - OK the hardest thing I have ever done in my life! I have never been a runner and I am challenged with just running for a few minutes, let alone an entire 3.1 miles.
But, with encouragement from Jenny and my friends and family I have been pushing through it. Hopefully next month I will be able to achieve a 3.1 mile run.
The picture on this post was taken in Kentucky (at Churchhill Downs to be exact) at the end of July when I was around 280.
More to come on this as I have about 3 1/2 months to hit my goal of 250.
Thanks again to everyone for the encouragement - it really has made this entire process easier.
