Time To Get Serious...

***Warning this post contains pictures that may frighten small children and may cause queasiness and projectile vomiting***

So one thing I have had to deal with all my life has been my weight. I never was skinny or even "in shape" until my senior year of College. Growing up I remember trying Weight Watchers and never really having much success. Recently I have had some successes but I always end up back at the beginning. People tell me I look fine now but I know how I feel and it was evident last week during the race that I have let myself go and it is time to get back on track and stay on track. Yeah I have been fooling myself that I had been trying hard to get the weight back off before the race but I was really fooling myself.

Early Pictures

Senior Year of High School

The College Years:
People talk about the "Freshman 15" well I think I had about 20 mainly due to the fact that I was coaching youth basketball and was ordering out every night after practice since I missed dining hours. My Sophomore and Junior years we not much better since I was the league director and had more responsibilities to handle. My senior year I decided I was sick of feeling like crap so I would go out and exercise when I was not in class, studying, or doing other activities. I started out that year close to 300lbs and was around 215lbs when I graduated.

Jr Year

beginning of Senior Yr

College Graduation

So after graduating from college and after graduate school did not pan out I was working 2 part time jobs and going to the YMCA when I could but I gradually began to put the weight back on. This trend continued until the end of my second year of graduate school two years later.my second year of grad school, I was coming off of having my back surgury and it was obvious I was not going to be able to finish my Poli Sci MA in the 2 years because I had a whole sememter of work from when I was out having and recovering from the operation. I probably started the summer around 220 and was down to a nice 190lbs by the beginning of the semester. At this point I was in the gym working out with my friend who was an amauter boxer. I was feeling great about how I was looking.


Well at the end of the year I thought I would be finishing my second masters and moving on to bigger and better things...which did not happen. I ended up back home working a crappy job and I was going to the YMCA again but I did not have that motivation that I had before.
When I returned to WVU to finish my last semester I tried to go to the gym on a regular basis but was more focused on finishing my schooling. By Christmas I was getting back out of shape and not having access to the WVU rec center did not help even though I tried walking or jogging but I hurt my knee again so I had to put the stop to that. When it got to be warm enough I started trying to get back into rollerblading but I was just so worn out by the end of the day since I was substitute teaching.

Two years ago (almost to the the day) when I moved to Albany I was waaaay out of shape.
A few months after moving to the area I joined the YMCA and was consciously trying to drop weight. I changed my diet started working out at the gym religiously. I was 244 lbs when I joined the gym on that November and started my 2-a day workout session and really had gotten into shape. At the end of 3 months I had lost a total of 32lbs bottoming out around 200 before I broke my wrist last summer and basically gained everything back. I tried to continue SPINNING but having to use a sling just put so much stress on my back that it was not fun. Also before the accident I was on a schedule (which some called insane) of being able to get up and making it to the 5:30 am SPIN classes at the gym and then go back and do the evening class...well hydocodiene sure knocked that train off the tracks. Once I got the cast off I still had ~2 months of PT which was exhausting and painful.

Since then it has been a roller coaster of starting to get in a groove of working out and backsliding. But now it's time to get serious about the whole thing especially if I am going to be doing races.