The answer to how I lost the weight is neither short nor easy. I will explain the whole thing, so if it seems I am rambling or my typing gets attrocious, bear with me. It started back in 1995, I was in great shape training every day both MA and body building, for competition. I was an auto mechanic by day and a hardcore MAer by night. One day right before Easter, I was in a Near fatal car accident. I was told, get ready for a wheel chair and lear how to be right handed, if you manage to keep the arm, you will loose 75% use of it. I found that unacceptable at the tender age of 25. I went to the Chancre Mechanic's (Doctor) and to see Olga, the Swedish Terrorist (Physical Therpaist) every day, but it was not enough. I asked for help from my Mentors in the MA community, and got it. I went on the Adkins diet and dropped a lot of fat and began a very heavy regime of weight training and MA, about 4 to 6 hours a day. I was a very trim 213 pounds(I'm 5'8"). As my health returned I slacked off a little on the weights. About a year later I settled down with my wife. I started actually getting dinner in the evenings and most of the weight training went by the side. No worries, I was still in good shape and we were both happy, I put on a few pounds and then got her into Kenpo with me. We both dropped the extra weight we picked up since settling down. Fast forward a little over a year, one day on her way home form work, my wife was in a near fatal car accident (weren't we the lucky ones). Since I had already been this route, I knew what to expect. Her disability checks were erratci at the best. we got one about every 6 months. Ihad to pick up the slackif we wanted to keep our home and eat. I started teaching at the dojo four nights a week instead of two and also taught Saturday mornings, in addition to my full time job, now at WorldCom. It wasn't enough, I picked up four more shifts at the Green Parrot (Security, not bouncer thank you). It came down to me leaving the house at 7:00 am every morning and getting home about 3:00am every day. I was livingout of a fast food bag or bar food. In about a year and a half, I ballooned up to almost 290. Finally, my company offered me a huge raise and promotion to work in Arlington (across the street from the Pentagon) and I accepted. I bid Sensei a tearful farewell and packed up and moved. I knew living down there would be too expensive, so I moved back to WV and had a 90 minute commute each way. No time for MA. I taught private lessons at my house twice a week until my student moved away. I finally got transferred to another site about 30 minutes away from the house and still was at 290 lbs. One day while at work, I was highly stressed and started having chest pains. Turns out the pains were just gas, but I figured it was God's way of telling me to loose the weight or die. I tried the Adkins diet again, and it did not work, i gained 8 pounds. So I talked it over with my wife and embarked on a low fat diet coupled with Slim Fast. I also got a gig teaching MA at Shepherd College. The weight started coming off slowly, a pound or two a week. Then I got laid off from my job and the diet went on hold. I opened the dojo four months later and went back on the diet, doing menial work where I could find it. The weight kept coming off. Over the holidays, I put 15 pounds back on, and it ticked me off. I went back on a strict diet, six days a week. If you don;t treat yourself at least once a week, staying on a diet is hard. I no longer eat junk food, except on Saturday, same thing with any kind of Soda. I drink a lot of water or unsweet Iced Tea. Now I work out 5 days a week, at least two sparring nights a week for extra Cardio, when College is in Session this can mean up to 3 hours of sparring in one night. I'm back down to 225 and have my eye on 210. The point I'm trying to make is this, it isn't enough to NEED to loose weight, you have to REALLY WANT it, just like studying MA. Set small goals for yourself, 10 pounds at a time. That keeps your goals realistic. When you reach a goal, don't stop. Celebrate on your day "off", and thenpick another goal, and so on. It has taken almost a year and a half, but I have taken off over 70 pounds.
My belt is finally starting to grey, hope it doesn't shred for a few more years.
