Several years ago, a man named John Stone turned a personal weight loss/fitness journey into a thriving website by taking pictures of himself each day as he transformed his body. Unlike him, at the beginning of my journey, I did everything possible to make sure that my picture was not taken!
I couldn’t avoid the camera all the time, though, and, looking through some old pictures, I found these gems:
These were taken July 4, 1981, and I’d actually lost about 30 lbs. at this point (putting me at 255 lbs). I was nearly two months into my weight loss plan to lose 50 lbs by the beginning of the 1981-82 school year. If I remember correctly, those jeans I’m wearing were probably 46-inch waist (down from the 48 and 50-inch waist pants I’d worn a few months prior to this picture), 32-inch inseam, and the shirt was an eighteen, sleeve length unknown, probably 35/36.
This is me, now, at 165 lbs; pants are 34/32, shirt is 15.5, slim fit, 34/35 sleeve:
I’m posting these to provide readers with a “real life” example of before and after pictures of a big weight loss (135 pounds, total). In this case, weight loss followed by nearly 34 years of learning how to eat, and exercise. During the last 2 years, especially, I’ve come to feel very good about the balance between cardiovascular exercise and weightlifting that I’m doing—and that’s been a journey in itself, with a lot of experimentation and “tinkering.” More about that in future posts.
With all of these posts about health, fitness, weight loss, etc. I’m hoping to provide encouragement and “food for thought” for those who may be about to embark on their own journey to better health. I have always believed that if I can do it, then anybody can do it, and I still believe that today. All it takes is desire, information, persistence, and perspective.