The backstory

So, here's my story.
In Jan/Feb of 2010 I was a landwhale. I got up to 190 lbs and was generally seriously unhappy and depressed. I refused to hang out with my friends because I was afraid that they would see me all hugeified. On the recommendation of other previously overweight family members, I went on the hcg diet. I did this from Feb 2010 - May 2010 and lost 40 lbs. My lowest weight was 150.


Then, of course, I fell back into old habits. I forgot how to cook for myself and went right back into eating out ALL THE TIME. I gradually gained weight back until I was 160 in August. That's when I started wanting to get serious about a sustainable diet and start an exercise program. I started with a program from iKillHostages, but after 2-3 months I ended up changing things around a bit, making up my own programs and then finally settling on Stumptuous' All Dumbbells All the Time workout combined with a low-carb diet. I was also doing c25k and had gotten up to I think Week 3, but then took almost a month off after Christmas/New Years. At this time I was working out in a little gym that only had dumbbells and small machines that I didn't know how to use. I was only using dumbbells at this time.

I was still pretty fat tho. Here’s a comparison photo from prior to hcg and me around that time:


2/11/11 I changed gyms and began Starting Strength and got back into doing c25k. I basically had to start c25k over completely after that month off, but since then I've been pretty good with working out & running regularly. I usually do lifting M/W/F and running T/Th/Su. Recently my fiancee and I have begun rock climbing on Thursdays too, which is a lot of fun! I feel like fitness has become a huge part of my life and making my own food instead of eating out is like second nature to me. When I track my daily food stuff I can get pretty crazy about measuring too, and that's not really much of a problem for me either. The lowest I have been within the past few months is 155 on the scale, after two weeks of obsessively tracking my weight. I've just come back from a 2 week vacation and am starting to work my way back into low carb and working out again.

Photo at the time of original post, May 2011