Friday, May 15, 2009

Poundage in Pictures

On the way up in the elevator this morning, I noticed the photo on my badge for the first time in a long time.  Taken in 2003, when I joined my current company, it shows a very different me.  After a little digging, I found a few other photos that show a slow but fruitful progression of weight loss over the years.  There have been a lot of ups and downs, but overall, this makes me feel pretty darned good.

At my peak, I weighed 260lbs.  This photo is the one on my driver's license.  Sorry for the quality.  Really, I'm not trying to hide my girth through creative photo editing. This was taken with PhotoBooth on my Mac, which doesn't do well with macro photos of small things.  So, it's very blurry.  But, I think you'll be able to see that I could have been called "rotund," if you were in a kind mood.  "Ball shaped" comes to mind, too.


Here's me, the day I joined this company in 2003.  Again, the picture quality is down to PhotoBooth, and the fact that the picture on my badge is already very blurry.  


A little over a year later, I went to my 20th High School reunion.  Looking better, but still quite overweight.


Skip forward three years, to our summer vacation last year.  OK, not a lot of progress over that span of time.  Actually, I went through an emergency appendectomy, got a blood infection as a bonus, spent four days eating and drinking nothing except what came through the IV, and lost a TON of weight.  I think it was thirty-five pounds.  And then I put it all back on again.


And here I am today.  I weighed in this morning at 227.6.  That's down a bit from the holding pattern I've been in for the past week, so that feels terrific.  And I'm heading in the right direction, and enjoying it.  It feels sustainable.  I feel great.


I have a ways to go yet.  I haven't won the war.  But I'm winning battles each day.

4 comments:

  1. Hey brother,

    Very interesting (and enightening, I'm sure) pictoral voyage. You've inspired me to do the same. I am going to start digging and see what I come up with.

    My somewhat hazy recollection of the last 18 years since college graduation is that my weight has fluctuated between 225 and 288 (a frightening high-water mark for my 5'10" frame).

    I was down as low as 231 just a couple months ago after a 50 pounds in 50 weeks weight loss. I have slipped a little back to 235 (the Texas fishing trip didn't help), but am determined to get to my goal of 215 by my 40th birthday this fall.

    It's amazing how much easier it is to work out and how much more I feal like it at this lighter weight.

    Keep on blogging and I'll keep you posted as well.

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  2. Imagine how much better 215 will feel than 235, my friend. I have a similar target for the end of August. We should compare notes when we get there :-)

    Thanks for the encouragement, and good luck to you too!

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  3. All I can say is KEEP IT UP! The transformation is fabulous to see in your photos.

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  4. Thanks, Julia. I found that little bit of photo archeology both difficult, because it made me face the way I've looked for years, and inspiring, because more days I can't feel the change happening. The photos show me that, yes, I'm making great progress.

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