Lose 180lbs

You know the guy I’m talking about, the one so fat (excuse me must be PC) so obese that he doesn’t really fit in the seat. With his belly rolling over the armrest taking up all of that lovely real estate you’re going to be neglected the whole flight, the real-estate that doesn’t involve you getting smashed in the head when the drink cart goes down the aisle.

Let’s face the truth here people, no one, absolutely no one, wants to sit next to that guy. But what’s worse than sitting next to him is BEING that guy!

In May 2006, I went on a company trip and not only was I “that guy”, I was so large that I couldn’t even fit the seatbelt around me!

Talk about a moment of realization. Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a realization that I was fat. Since I was 8 years old I’ve always been chubby. Hell in middle school I was called titty boy because I was so fat my man boobs (or moobs if you will) were bigger than most of the girls in school. I knew I was fat. However, this was a realization of just how fat I’d gotten over the years.

After the trip, I decided I should investigate this further and purchased a scale. After spending 30 minutes trying to figure out just how many times the scale rolled over, I found that years of Double Six Dollar Burger meals and working a desk job left me tipping the scales at a solid 380 lbs – a nice healthy weight if I was looking to pursue a career in Sumo.

Alas, Sumo wrestling would have to wait, as my Japanese wouldn’t even count as elementary and I could barely bench press 70 lbs let alone push a 400 pounder out of a tiny ring. Needless to say, this wasn’t exactly the happiest moment of my life – coming to the realization that I wasn’t just fat, I was morbidly obese and completely out of shape, that can be a bit disheartening.

The Solution

In my career of computing, I have found when you find a system in a broken state, you have two options. You can completely replace the system/broken components or slap some glue and duct tape on it and continue to operate in a semi broken state. If you choose the latter option, the system will continue to worsen and eventually crash and never recover. Not exactly an option I am prone to choose when talking about my own health.

By now the solution was obvious. I had to completely overhaul my body and that was going to take a lot of time and focused effort to really happen. How to lose weight was simple enough, Diet and Exercise but how to motivate oneself is the hard part. Since I was a kid I’ve always been in love with the Martial Arts, in fact it was the only sport that I truly enjoyed. Knowing this, I found my method of motivation. I joined a Karate school here in Phoenix in April of 2007. At that point, I was weighing in at 350 lbs, not shabby for mostly dieting but a slow start it was.

The Results

So here I am, as of December 2009 after many hours, days, years in the dojo sweating and dieting, I now weigh in at 205 lbs; 175 lbs less than I weighed in 2006 (A few months after this blog post I weighed in at 200lbs). I’ve gone from having to sit down after 10 minutes of Karate to receiving my Brown Belt (3rd Kyu) at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,341ft) this summer.

While I still need to slap a spoiler and some flame stickers on this system, I am no longer in a broken state. In fact, I’m in the best shape of my life and my long term goal of weighing 200 lbs has turned to pushing myself to see just how far I can take this, to see what the ultimate Benjamin looks like.