Tonight I found myself reading my friend Tim's blog which documents his tremendous journey from being over 400 pounds to his now weight of 245 pounds. When Tim and his family moved into our ward earlier this year I had the pleasure of helping them empty out their moving truck into their house. Back then he was still pretty big, although he has told me that he had lost 100 pounds by then. I remember his first or second week at church someone had confused us and thought I was him. I think he was probably around 350 or so at the time. I remember thinking, "Are you freaking kidding me? Dude is WAY bigger than me." Smash cut to now and Tim is now a slim 245 at 6 ft. 4 in., and still losing. He told me last night his target weight is around 220. Meanwhile, I am the same weight I was then, if not maybe heavier. I would KILL for someone to mistake us now. Haha. SWEET IRONY!!!
The best thing about Tim's story is that he is one of the nicest, most genuine people you will ever meet. He is also one of my favorite types of Mormon, which is the kind that is super solid and emanates what it means to be a Christian without throwing it in your face or coming off as judgmental. His approach to fitness and weight-loss is very similar to his approach to religion. If you ask him about it he is more than willing to share his story, secrets, and fitness plan, but he doesn't come off as a fitness/diet no it all that I have run into too many times. He is truly inspiring, so much so that it is 9:30 PM on a Friday and I am contemplating on hitting the gym. I think not tonight, as I will most likely lose my parking spot and be forced to park on the street (blasted apartment complex parking), but definitely first thing tomorrow morning.
One last thing about his blog that made me think. In one of his posts he talked about when he was obese he would avoid looking at pictures of himself or looking in the mirror. When he would look at pictures he would think about how this shirt made him look fat or this angle made him look fat, never thinking that it was the 400+ pounds that was making him look fat. This idea is further expressed by people saying that the camera adds 10 pounds when it is more likely that the people looking at the picture have an image of themselves as 10 pounds lighter. I couldn't agree more with this. I am often in denial about the way I look. I think oh I'm not THAT big. I hold it well. Or some other lie. It is only when I really look at old pictures of myself that I realize what I have become. Its time for change. Tomorrow is a new day. Time to get to work.
Here is a link to Tim's blog for those of you who are interested. I will also add it to the list of blogs I frequent on the right hand column.
Hey Scott, thanks for the nice comments. I hope you got after it today. Let me know if I can do anything to help.
We should hang out sometime, maybe double with the wives or something. See you at Church.
No problem man. Congrats on your 200 pound mark. That sounds like fun!