You're Fat and It's NOT OK!!!

Did the title catch your attention? Did it make you nod your head in agreement or make you a little angry? Whichever it did, it accomplished its goal, which was to get you to stop and think about your own weight and your own perception of weight. I know this phrase is something I have said many times, both to myself and about others. And this phrase is one of the motivating factors that has helped push me to start this journey to lose weight.

We seem to live in a time when fat is becoming more widely accepted in our country. People are justifying their weight issues by bandying around the phrase "it's what is inside that counts". And that phrase is 100% right. But notice that no where does it say that it the ONLY thing that counts. Looks do matter. More importantly, health matters. And both are good motivators to do something about your fat.

They are the reasons I have started down this path and started this blog. I want to lose weight. I want to look better. I want to feel better. And I want to feel healthier. And this blog will allow you, the reader, to follow along the journey with me. This blog will chronicle my day-to-day effort to lose my waist, hence the title "Waist No More". Along with my daily journal entries on my personal progress, I will also post articles I write regarding the issue of being fat and losing weight. My goal is to do at least one article a week along with my daily personal progress reports.

Now I have mentioned myself a few times in this blog already. But who am I? Well, for the time being my actual identity shall remain anonymous. This is for my own benefit as I start this and work on being more comfortable with who I am. Who I am right now is a 33yo male. And these are my starting health stats:

Height: 6'
Weight: ~272.6lbs
Waist: ~52.5"
Systolic Blood Pressure(should be under 120): 124
Diastolic Blood Pressure(should be under 80): 99
Total Cholesterol(should be under 200): 138
HDL Cholesterol(should be over 40): 23

And for the looks portion, here are some beginning pics:




My goals are to get my weight, waist, blood pressure down and to get my HDL cholesterol up. What are my target goals? I want to get below 200lbs and get my waist down to 36" and get my health stats within their healthy ranges.

Now all of this is much easier said than done. I am well aware of the obstacles that stand in my way. Those include:

-I'm lazy. I admit it. I sit around all the time. I am a computer person and spend all my time on a computer. At work I am sitting at a computer. At school I am sitting at a computer. When I go home, I spend my time at my desktop playing games, or sitting on my couch with my laptop. The plus side to being so sedentary is that it won't take much to make a drastic improvement.

-I have no car. How does that affect my health? It has an impact on my diet. Getting to actual stores to get real groceries is more difficult. So I have been going across the street to Dollar Tree and Big Lots and getting my groceries there. And while convenient, I can only get canned or microwaveable goods there. Can't get fresh meat or fruits and vegetables. So a lot of the stuff I eat is high in preservatives. Speaking of food...

-I love to eat. I truly love the taste of food. So when I find something I enjoy, I tend to gorge on it.

-Papa John's BBQ pizza is delicious. This stuff is like crack to me. :)

-I'm busy. I work full time and go to school. So that makes it more difficult to eat healthy and find time to work out.

Being aware of the obstacles has helped me to make a game plan of how and what I am going to do:

-I got a ride to the store yesterday and bought food for the next two weeks. I planned out every snack and meal for the next two weeks and bought it.

- Drink more water. And I've cut out soda completely.

- I will walk on the treadmill every day I don't have school for 30 minutes.

- I'll use this blog to help motivate me past the laziness. My readers shall help keep my accountable.

I think this gets me off to a good start. I am also aware and accept that I might have days where I go off diet. Especially with this being the holiday season. If I do, I just pick up the next day and continue forward. No fretting about it and using it as an excuse to quit. And today was my first day on eating properly. I shall document that in a different post since I have gone on long enough in this one.

I welcome any comments and emails that you want to submit. I hope everyone gets something positive out of this blog. I know I fully expect to. I will warn up front that I plan to take a very blunt and forward approach with this. I don't think coddling offers the right encouragement in today's society when it comes to being fat. So I do expect some hate mail with my approach to the subject. But at the same time, I hope it is that extra push that others need.