My Story and The Plan

Hi, my name is J Brian (group responds HI J BRIAN). I am FAT. I have been for most of my adult life.

I will be A Fat Boy No More.

Three years ago I started a journey to become A Fat Boy No More. And since September 2007 I have been publishing my success and failures. This Blog follows me from the day I first started my weight loss journey and it focuses on the everyday struggles that people with weight problems have.

Prepare yourself for a very real and very challenging event in my life. I commit to being as honest and as clear as I can be in the webpage to chronicle my ongoing battle with my weight. The pictures can be explicit.

After 12 years of being bigger than I should be... ok lets just be honest. I was not big I was fat. I have been over weight and muscular for most of my adult life. But the muscular part has been over shadowed by a large layer of fat on my body. I've eaten too much and I lived a sedentary life. In December 2006 I weighed 320 pounds. The morning I weighed myself and saw that I was over 300 pounds I essentially went into a deep depression that day and I am sure that I ate another 5 pounds worth of food. But that night I decided that enough was enough. My weight problem had become more than just an appearance problem it became a health problem, a self esteem problem and it was starting to affect my business and income. I had to do something. And I had to be held accountable. Technology is a good thing. I decided I had to put it out there. I started texting everyone in cell phone saying "Officially a fat ass now I weigh 300". I had been lying forever and telling people that I was 250. And no one questioned it.

The first step I took was to hit the gym and cut my calories. I looked on webmd and found out how many calories there where in a pound (3500) and decided to create this formula to determine how many calories and how much extra exercise I had to do to lose 60 pounds by May 27th. My annual trip to Key West Florida. By February I had lost 25 pounds. On a plan that was essentially the same thing that Weight Watchers teaches you. Then life hit me. After being so good I just got tired of it. I had no real support structure. And so I just relapsed because I was on a diet. Not a life change. But between March and August I essentially maintained my weight loss. In April I got a part time job working in a restaurant as a bartender. Everyone thinks I was crazy to do that but the truth is I just needed something to make me active. I needed to get off my lazy fat ass and be active. I gave up sweet tea and I stopped eating beef for the most part. I chose bison. Which taste so similar and has a familiar texture but had half the calories. Nothing else really changed.

But I did not lose the weight I wanted. When I was in Key West I looked like a beached whale and I felt horrible. I have a picture from that trip that show the folds of fat on my back. I was so depressed after that trip. So I essentially just maintained until late July when my best friend Michelle told me that a guy we both worked with a few years back had lost a lot of weight thru some medical weight loss plan.

I kinda brushed it off. I was looking into Lap Band or some other surgery. Then another friend of mine saw Brad as well and said Brad has lost a lot of weight. So I called Brad and he told me about the plan thru Emory Hospital. I went to an info session on the plan and decided to enroll.

Before you consider any type of surgery please look into medically managed weight loss. IT WORKS. Your doctor or the Bariatrics department of your local university hospital can direct you. Too many of my friends had surgery and lost a lot of weight and regained it. Even with a smaller stomach you can eat ice cream all the time and gain it back. I have a friend that just did that.

So this is what I did initially. Follow my blog posts from the beginning and see the transformation.

Remember

Don't give up today because you fucked up yesterday.

22 March 2008

March 22- Two months to Key West

May 22nd, My Friend Greg and I leave for my annual trip to Key West. My weigh loss focus has changed some in the last month or so. The numbers on the scale are important for my overall health but my health and the appearance I believe is a better indicator of health. My weight is fluctuating within about 2 pounds everyday. I do not feel that I am losing weight anymore. Since being able to return to a full schedule of lifting I find my focus has shifted to doing that. Lifting and is more important than just getting the numbers on the scale to be smaller. I am reassessing my goals.

Yes I would love to be able to say I have lost 100 pounds (209 would accomplish this), but this 209 goal was designed so I can say that I lost 100 pounds, not for any other purpose.

I still want to lose the weight. But my goals are going to be smaller. so 10 pounds by April 30. Which will put be around 220 or less.

Thanks for the comments.

06 March 2008

77 days til Key West!!!

Every year I take a trip to Key West with a small group of friends. There is a core group of three that generally go but this year only two of us are going and I think we are just going to keep it that way this year. The Trip is paid for and Greg and I are both trying to get ready for pool time in Key West. Well I have been working on Key West for about a year and a half now and I am excited about my weight loss but I would like to lose another 20 pounds. My weight has fluctuated this week by about 2 pounds on a daily basis and I have had NO time in the gym in a few days. In Atlanta right now there is a flu like illness that seems to be going around and I had it a few weeks ago. I feel well but I am still congested. I have been disappointed with my gym performance this week. First. I have had little time to hit the gym. Second when I have been to the gym I have been preoccupied with work and third I have little energy when i actually get into the gym.

I am going to make some changes beginning in the morning. GYM comes first. Aerobics come first at the gym and I will do Resistance exercises four days a week. I currently do them 6 days a week. I think this is wearing me down while I have this ongoing chest congestion. I hope to make this adjustment for a few weeks and then resume my previous level of exercise.

I have started reading a new book on weight loss recommended to me by my friend Chris who is following a similar path that I am. He is on the Optifast plan but he is continuing the Liquid phase longer than I did (this is very common). He has also limited his resistance exercise while he is very strong on his cardio work (much more than I).

The Beck Diet Solution (Judith S Beck Ph D.) deals with Cognitive Therapy and Weight Loss and teaches you how to think like a thin person. Expect Mini Book Reports in future weeks.