269.4 Pounds of Awesomeness

So, I promised photos of myself in the past when I'd lost weight. I've been busy of late, but wanted to post those. These were taken by Adria Scarborough who has an eponymous photography business she runs with her husband, Jarod. My photo shoot with Adria was on September 25, 2010. More or less, this is about 20 months after my weight loss surgery (I had a gastric band surgery on January 23, 2009.

Let's work out some stats real quick:
On 1/22/2009 I weighed in at 382.5 pounds.
On 10/11/2010 I weighed in at 269.4 pounds.
Total weight lost so far is 113.10 pounds.

Please don't get the impression that this surgery is a cure-all or was easy for me. I've struggled with learning how to recondition myself to eat better and exercise more. I am still highly addicted to ice cream, just like many 0f you. The difference is that I never felt full before having this surgery. Now I have certain triggers that I can sense that tell me I am more or less "full" or satisfied. Also, I have learned (and am still in the process of learning) the importance of chewing my food, getting enough exercise and sleep, and enjoying life as much as possible in the right ways.

One struggle as I've been learning this reconditioning, I've regurgitated more food in the past 20 months than in the 27 years prior to that. I've gone to bed hungry more nights because of being unable to get anything "down," too. So, those that think I took the "easy way out" with this surgery have no idea what they're talking about. Rex Ryan, the NY Jets head coach, has had a similar surgery, and one day I heard Doug Gottlieb speak of Rex Ryan's choice to have the surgery and called him this word for having had it: "WEAK." Doug Gottlieb was trying to promote P90X, a series of exercise DVDs formally called Power 90 Extreme, for which he must be a compensated endorser because if you listen to ESPN Radio at all, then you have to hear him droll on about it ALL THE TIME! Well, to Doug Gottlieb and anyone else that would judge someone else for making one of the most difficult decisions in their lives, this is what I have to say to you:

You are not a real man. A real man does not call people out for issues like that over a radio show in order to promote their exercise video series. Mr. Gottlieb, at one point in time I did enjoy listening to your show, but you are such an insulting individual that I would rather not bother with it. Being that your show is a sports show, you can make fun of the NY Jets all that you want. Make fun of how Rex is as a head coach. How he acts versus how he should probably act, but to make fun of him for wanting to add years to his life and improve his health seems absurd considering that is exactly what you were supposedly trying to promote with the exercise series you were endorsing at that time. I sincerely hope to one day find you in need of a surgery similar to the surgery Rex Ryan had. And if that does happen, I hope to find audio of your own comments to play for you to hear and to see how "weak" it makes you feel to realize that you've torn down another person for what you yourself have also done.

Of course, I doubt that this will go anywhere, but that comment that Gottlieb made has been on my mind since the summer when he made it. I've thought very poorly of Gottlieb ever since.

On a brighter note, I hope you can enjoy these photos of me. I will probably just post them from here on in this specific post.