My Story

Good day everyone!

My name is John and this is what you need to know about me.

First, let me give you a little background information about myself. I was born, and still currently live, in the suburbs of the city of Philadelphia. I have 3 younger siblings: 2 brothers and 1 sister. I live a pretty simple life with a basic routine consisting of working and working out, and trying to help at home whenever I can. However, I can proudly say I have lost over 100 pounds and am still going strong.

Now that you know just a little about me, here is my weight loss tale.

I have pretty much been the stereotypical “fat kid” since grade school. This was a combination of the typical taunting one receives from being bigger than most of the other kids coupled with the fact that I am both a stressful and bored eater. So therefore, the pleasantries of being a fat kid in a grade school led me to consume more and more leading to my weight gain.

I can’t recall how much I weighed in grade school; I guess I just blocked it out. However, it was not until high school that I reached my peak. During junior year of high school, I weighed in at around 320. This was at the checkup directly before a surgery I had on my back, so I propose that I actually weighed higher than that due to the recovery that drastically limited my activity level.

It wasn’t until college when I finally started to do something about my weight. It wasn’t much really. I would venture to the gym a few times a week and walk on the treadmill for an hour or so and just walk while doing a few weights every now and then. It didn’t amount to much, but it was enough to keep me active during the week.

I can’t say what I weighed when I graduated although I would like to think I was less than or at least close to 300, but I don’t know for sure.

However, things turned quickly after graduation. I was unemployed during the summer of 2011 and I took full advantage of my time off.  I started using an app that I discovered back in college called Runkeeper. RK was a perfect app used to track my progress and I could record my walks on my phone via the GPS feature. Armed with Runkeeper, my MP3 Player, and a lot of free time, I took to the streets and surrounding areas around my house. I walked in the morning, afternoon, and even evening depending on my fatigue level, the weather etc.

During that summer, I registered over 500 miles (about 100 a month or 3 a day).  While, I did not actively weigh myself at this time, my family and friend start to see a significant difference in my physical appearance.

That October, I started working at Target; a very physically strenuous job in the backroom so I had the physical factor while still walking around when I still could. I was still losing the weight even though I wasn’t working as hard on the sidewalks.

In January of 2012, I finally bought myself a scale and did a real “weigh in”. I clocked in at 266 LBS; a good 50 less than my peak in high school. I was slowly doing it, I was slowly losing weight!

I slowed down my walking while my work increased, but still managed to keep up the activity thanks to my position. That is of course until May. I decided that I was seriously slacking in my miles and starting walking again and walking a lot. May and June saw my walking, with the occasional elliptical bike workout at home, totals increase dramatically. July saw a current streak of over 200 total miles (combining running, walking, cycling, and elliptical) per month begin. A streak that is still going strong and sat at 6 months with the completion of last December.

In August, the death of my elliptical bike saw my miles turn specifically into walking which I kept up at a steadier pace to make sure I stayed over 200 miles.

As October rolled around and the days got colder, I realized that I needed a warmer location to workout in. Plus, my friends and family both suggested that I need to start working out my arms along with my weight loss.

Enter Planet Fitness.

I joined PF in October of 2012 and have been going there at least 5 times a week working on both cardio and doing some weight training exercises as well.

I am happy to announce that as of December 10^th, my weigh in checked me at 216 – over 100 pounds under my peak weight!

From then on, I have done weekly (usually) weigh-ins and have found myself drop from 216 to 202 on the 18^th of February.

Today, I am working hard and trying to get myself under that 200 mark and eventually to my healthy weight (which is somewhere in the 180 range or so).

It’s proving to be an easy task, but I refuse to give up.

PS: There will be a “photo journey” of myself posted later on.  Stay tuned for that!