Change

So it's been a little while, long enough to actually have updates about life in general. Not too many will read this which is how I prefer it being that blogging is a nice occasional outlet, but not necessarily a great use of a public forum unless you're advertising, selling or find some inner need to broadcast something to the world.

I'll start by addressing weight loss (one of the main reasons that I ever chose to make this blog somewhat active). I started my journey at 233 pounds back near the end of March; beginning of April. What I didn't mention previously was that my weight in January of 2010 was at around 242 (heaviest I've ever been) and even though 233 was almost 10 pounds lighter, I still felt like a literal Manatee and was uncomfortable not only with myself but the world's perception of me in general. So I set out to change that and made myself "accountable" by announcing it on a blog... and believe me it helped.

At the time of the annual WestFest event, hosted by the Disney Podcast Network, I was already starting to lose but was fluctuating between 233 pounds and 228 pounds. During this event, I found a new job with the Walt Disney Company, Parks and Resorts. The job was at Disney Vacation Club and it moved me into a whole new style of weight loss: Constant Exercise. Being that the job had multiple locations, gave unlimited overtime, allowed for a lot of moving/walking/standing in the summer heat, the pounds started to drop. At Disney, Cast members (employees) that are not executive level or management are required to wear specific uniforms for their roles. My role required me to wear a very unforgiving, thick, double-sided vest every day in 90+ degree weather over the summer months. My uniform vest started at a size 2XL, my waste size in pants (which even though I was heavy was drastically undersized) were a size 44, my belt a 46 and I wore the XL shirts underneath. I felt like a stuffed cow in the uniform but didn't realize at the time that this attire was only going to contribute to my weight loss.

When I started training for my job, I weighed exactly 228 pounds. So, as I sweat the summer away, I started noticing my vest getting loose, shirt size feeling blousy and pants/belt needing tightening. At the end of summer, beginning of September, I had moved into a Large Vest, Medium Shirt, size 36 waste pants and 38 belt. My weight during the first week of September was 188 pounds. 40 POUNDS!! and almost 60 pounds from January. There were drastic changes to the diet - higher proteins, lower carbohydrates. My activity at the gym had increased in some cases to 4-5 days a week. Heavy cardio workouts and progression into weight training is when the real pounds started to shed.

At the end of October, my foundation started to weaken. The people that I was subletting my living space from decided that they wanted to rent their home for just them and gave me until the end of November to pack and leave causing me to cancel a much-needed trip to Orlando, Florida to see my friends. At the same time, my wonderful job was feeling less and less wonderful and overtime slowly started to disappear. With this change, my gym activity became nearly non-existent as I was living in alternate places due to my disgust with the previous place.

With luck, I've been able to find a place to live and move back into my residence from before my move to Tustin. I've only put back on about 5 pounds (currently weighing in at 193) but am planning on getting back to gym and hitting it hard this week. Hopefully, I can set the "machine" back in motion and get on track, but like before, placing the will and desire to do something in a blog that people can read lends itself to accountability and ultimately responsibility to follow through.

So, until the next one....