Many of you may not have known this but a year ago I weighed 331 pounds. Now I am 6' 4" tall and a very big guy, but 331 pounds was waaaay too much weight for me to be carrying. On November 10th, 2008 I hit rock bottom and decided to do something about it. I basically got pissed at myself for letting things get so far out of control. My wife was very instrumental in motivating me to get going since she had begun really getting in shape over the summer. I hopped on the scale, saw the 331.0 lbs on the display, and went on a mission to fix the problem.

For the past 11.5 months I have put myself on a very strict 1200-1800 calorie per day diet (1200 at first and now up to around 1800) and began working out 3-4 days per week for 30 minutes to an hour at the local gym. After getting the first 20 or 30 'easy' pounds off, I joined a small gym with a personal trainer and he took charge of my overall fitness planning. With his guidance (thanks David!) I really got the ball rolling.

Last spring there was a 5K run coming up and I decided to do it. I had never run in my life other than for football or basketball practice back in school (I'm now 36). I only had a couple weeks to practice but I did the best I could. It was a turning point in my life and fitness training and I've been running ever since. I have now run 3 or 4 5K events, plus a 3K cross country event all in the past 6 months or so. I now run 4-5 days a week in addition to my 3-4 days of circuit training/weight lifting. It has become one of my main passions.

Cut to today, I've lost 86 pounds (245 lbs as of this week) and the weight is still coming off. I have never felt better physically. I plan to resume my martial arts training once I hit my goal of losing 100 pounds (I'm a TKD black belt). So tomorrow morning I am tackling another goal which is my first 10K run. This is a big event, kind of the super bowl of running for my area. Over 700 men will compete in my division alone. Don't get me wrong, I'm no runner, I just run for fun and fitness, not to win. My pace I've been running should put me around 400th place. Not bad less than a year after I first began to work out and only 6 months after starting to run.

If you're reading this and you're a little (or a lot) overweight, the only way to fix it is to get mad first, then get off your ass and do something about it!!! I promise you will never be so happy to do something in your life...