About Me Page Update

     So the other day I was thinking of what I was going to write about now that I have no races coming up and I am still trying to figure out my new goals for the rest of this year.  I was flipping through my page and I realized I haven't updated my "About Me" page since I started Running in the Fat Lane back in February of 2014.  So I read through it and made a few corrections to the first half and pretty much totally rewrote the second half of the story, so I figured I would go ahead and post the entire thing.

     Yep, that's me to the left, when I was that size I never felt like I was that big.  I enjoyed life like I was "thin" and never felt like it was a problem.  My wife loved me, I had a good job and no one ever made a big deal about it.  Well something finally clicked.  My story isn't a page turner or filled with personal tragedy that could be considered an acceptable reason for why my weight became such a problem. I AM LAZY pure and simple and this is my story...       

     

     Over my entire childhood I was always considered the chubby one, a little bigger than most but it never really got out of hand.  Pretty much like every other kid I played football, baseball, soccer and basketball, I was always doing something.  If I had to put my finger on the main reason for my size would say my diet had a lot to do with it.  I was "addicted" to sugar, candy, Pop, cookies, donuts, etc. along with burgers, fries, pizza, fast food and having no concept portion control you can see why this is where I ended up.  

    

     When I started in high school I was right around 200 pounds, I know this because I decided to go out for freshman wrestling and when I was a freshman weighing 200 and up was the heavyweight class.  After a month of getting my ass handed to me by 6 foot 300 plus pound kids I talked with my coaches about cutting weight.  A month later I was weighing in at 175 and was actually winning a few matches.  The summer prior to my sophomore year I turned 16, I traded my bicycle and skateboard in for car keys, gave up wrestling for what I look back now as stupid reasons, to which I now mark as the exact moment my current struggles with weight began.  All through high school and college I continued my eating habits that I am sure was coming in around 3-5000 calories a day combined with little to no exercise.

     By the time I married my wife in 2004 I was probably hovering around 250-260, and that is when the proverbial shit hit the fan, and before I new it I was tipping the scales at 317 pounds.  2007-2012 was a weight roller coaster for me, I tried every fad diet in the book from protein shakes for breakfast & lunch to Atkins to the HCG plan. The lowest I ever got down to was 247lbs while on HCG, but the minute I stopped and had one cheat day then another and then another which snowballed back into my old ways of candy, fast and fried food, late night nachos and donuts I ballooned back to 293 by the end of 2012.

     What was my aha moment? well I claim there really wasn't one. Not even after I went to see my doctor for a routine check up and blood work. Those test came back with some red flags and he ordered more tests. By the time all the tests were done my pocket was $1200 lighter and I was standing with one foot off the edge of the diabetes cliff and the need for medication.  

     My Doc gave me two months to try and change my diet and start exercising to reverse the damage or he would recommend medication. So for the first month while feeling depressed, I did what most anyone in my position would do, NOT A DAMN THING.  I blocked it out and acted like there was nothing wrong with me.  In the second month I finally got around to getting a gym membership and going a couple of days a week.  Just going to the gym was a huge accomplishment for me, but I wasn't really putting in a ton of effort while using the weight and elliptical machines. 

     Now if you believe that there is that one moment in everyone's life when God intervenes in your life and points you in the direction that will forever change your life, then this was it.  The gym has an indoor track and one day while on the elliptical, I was watching the runners and walkers through the glass, I thought screw this, I'm gonna give jogging a try. Even though I couldn't even make it anywhere close to a mile I enjoyed it and for the first time felt like I had a quality workout, so 2 days later I did it again and continued every other day.

     The indoor track takes 9 laps to make a mile, and as I was making progress towards achieving that first mile, I started to get really interested in the topic of running, and when I get interested in something I research it to death. While in the Itunes store I came across an awesome podcast called Runner Academy, and found the host Matt Johnson to be very informative and helpful. The episode I have listened to the most and I think really kicked me into high gear is #8 which was all about two of the Fat to Finish line documentary teammates. That episode gave me the inspiration and the confidence that I could lose the weight, and do it with running. My plan was simple, to run for exercise and reduce my caloric intake to around 2000 calories.

     I tracked everything I put in my mouth with the My Net Diary App on my phone.  I started out by setting a large goal that I would break down into smaller chunks.  I set my first goal to break 247lbs, which was my lowest weight I had been able to reach.  I then broke my goal down into 10 pound increments.  Once I hit that goal I set my next to hit 225lbs.  As I reach goal then I move on to the next and so on. It sounds easy enough, but I won't lie to you, it was a long struggling journey filled with highs and lows. My original goal was to stop when I reached 193lbs, but that seemed to still be a little to heavy so I decided that my finish line is my freshman year wrestling weight of 173lbs. Two years, three months and 8 days after I began this journey I had finally reached my goal.  A number that I had not seen since sometime in 1994.  I have since re-evaluated how I look and feel and I decided that I don't need to drop anymore weight at this time even if my BMI is technically still considered overweight.

Here is where the update begins

     As my weight began to fall simultaneously my running journey began to grow.  Like I said earlier, that gym track was nine laps to a mile, I was lucky if I could run three before I felt like I was gonna die.  I continued to slowly add laps till I hit a mile, then two before I set my sights on trying a 5K.  Once I completed my 5K goal I continued to push myself towards my next goal of a 10K.  I spent every evening looking for races to run.  As time went on my weight went down and my mileage continued to grow.  Several 5Ks, a 10K and a few half marathons later I set the biggest challenge in my life to date, a full marathon.  I spent all summer of 2014 training for the Columbus Marathon, it consumed my existence.  On October 19th, 2014 not only did I complete my first marathon, I did it in under four hours.  Recently I celebrated my 3rd run-aversary  running the same 5K race that started it all for me.  My outlook on running hasn't changed much, I still am looking for ways to challenge and push myself despite a minor injury that sidelined me for a couple of months.  

     Whether I am going for a goal time, contemplating a new distance or just continuing to maintain my weight I now live with the mantra “Only the Committed Will Survive”, and for me to succeed I must stay committed to the desire to be the man I have now become. Throughout this journey I have heard several time the phrase "you never know where running will take you" and I can't say enough how freaking true that statement really is.  For example, without running I would not be writing this blog in the hopes to pay it forward as the Fat to Finish Line crew did for me or met some of the nicest most inspiring people along the way.  And I cannot forget the 11 strangers that formed a Ragnar Relay team and became more than friends, we became Sole Mates.

     Currently I am hovering around at 171 pounds and have gone from a comfortable 48 waist to a snug 32 waist and now wear a medium to large size shirt down from a 3X.  Below is my latest comparison photo when I reached my goal weight of 173 pounds that I created for my friend and Ragnar Relay teammate Katie Foster, who writes the very inspiring blog Runs for Cookies.  She asked to share my story and progress for one of her Motivational Monday posts on her blog.  I now use it to remind myself of how far I have come and that I will always be a "Fat Guy" fighting everyday to be the best healthy fat guy I can be. 

2 Years, 3 Months & 8 Days In The Making

     Today started as any normal day off for me.  I never thought April 8th 2015 would have been the day of all days for me.  In my mind I always thought this day would be an epic tale to tell, but I think because I wasn't expecting it, I am still in shock.  This morning the scale read 172.8, a number that I haven't seen since 1994 when I was in wrestling my freshman year.

4/8/15 official weigh in

173 lbs

Total loss from heaviest:  144 lbs

Current BMI:  27.1 (overweight)

     You may be wondering why this was my goal weight, and the answer to that question is because it was the last time in my life when I was truly healthy.  I started my freshman year right around 200 pounds and when I went out for wrestling, do to my weight, I was put in the heavyweight weight class.  I was getting my ass kicked all over the mat by those that were much larger and heavier than me.  I worked my butt off to drop to the next weight class of 175.  I stuck right around 173 for the rest of the wrestling season.  Once the season was over I made the decision not to go out for the team next year and the long slow upward march to 317 pounds began.

     After years of roller coaster fad diets, failed attempts at exercise and just plain old laziness, the beginning of October 2012 was when my life would forever be changed.  2 years, 3 months & 8 days later, I am at goal weight, healthy and happier then ever, hell I am eating an apple almost every day now.  

     This is just the first step in continuing a life long commitment to stay the course.  I am now entering what I have read and been told is harder than the weight loss itself, maintenance.  I have read that as low as 50% and has high 95% gaining most if not all their weight back.  Now I can't imagine that it is even that high, but even if it is, I am determined to go against and beat the trend.  Its a battle that will only end when I take my last breath, but when that time comes nothing will make me happier than at that moment to smile and give this demon the finger.

I thought I would share a few pics from over the last two years.  Just some different shots of some milestones and fun times I have had.  They are in no particular order, enjoy!

Half Size Me Podcast

     Well I can finally let the cat out of the bag and tell you that I was interviewed for a show called the Half Size Me podcast.  It is a weekly show dedicated to sharing stories of those that have struggled with weight loss and obesity and what they have done to over come it.  I was introduced to the podcast when my friend Katie, who writes the blog Runs for Cookies,  was a guest on the show.  It is a wonderful podcast with a lot of good and useful nuggets of info that can help you in your weight loss journey.

 
      As I mentioned Katie had been a previous guest of this podcast and after she had a follow up interview a few months back, you can listen here, she had suggested to Heather, the show's host, that she should contact me for a possible interview candidate.  Well, I think it was back in early October I received an email from Heather's assistant that she wanted to set up a time to interview me.  Needless to say I was excited, but I was also pretty nervous as well.  I accepted the offer, but with the available recording time slots and my work schedule early January was the earliest that we could hook up to do the interview.

     When we were all done Heather stated that she thought that with her release schedule it should be available to the public sometime in February.  Well after my workout this morning I checked all my podcasts I like to listen to to see if any new ones were available, and sure enough my interview was up on her site.  So if you wish, you can go to Heather's site www.halfsizeme.com or if you are like me you can download it on iTunes to listen to it.  The interview is episode 158 of her show.

When a fat guy isn't a fat guy anymore!

     For those of you that didn’t already know, I work at a Harley-Davidson Dealership, and the other day a customer was asking me some questions about the Sportster 72 model he was interested in.  He asked a question that I can’t really remember anyone ever asking me, at least about a Sportster.  His was asking what the weight limit or load limit was for the motorcycle; basically how much weight can be safely loaded on the bike.  As much as I know about these bikes and that is one question I didn’t know the answer to so I called my buddy Mark, who is a salesman, over to see if he knew the answer.  As the three of us were talking the customer said he wanted to know because he was concerned that he and his wife might exceed that limit.

     Now before I go on let me describe this gentleman for you so you can have a mental picture of the situation.  If I had to guess he was probably in his mid to late 40s, somewhere between 5’7” and 5’9” and was quite large.  Now let me give you a little more detail, the majority of his weight was in his midsection “beer gut” if you will, while the rest of his body wasn’t in shape but wasn’t overly large either.  He reminded me of me quite a bit with how he was carrying his weight.  My friend Mark, who also has had a life long battle with his weight, currently is trying to rebound from his last up swing in his scale.  So if you were standing from a far and couldn’t hear the conversation you would see two larger men and one smaller man talking.  Now I really really hate having to describe and talk about other people solely based on their size, shape and weight, but I have to so you can understand the context of the story and the comment which the customer had made.

     Now back to the story, the customer stated he was around 300 pounds and that his wife was not to skinny herself and he was concerned that the bike would not be able to handle the two of them safely.  Mark says to the customer that he is a big guy and when he owned a Sportster, he didn’t have any issues with the bike handling him or when he had a passenger.  Mark stated to the customer that he shouldn’t worry about it; the motorcycle would handle him and his wife just fine.  That’s when I chimed in and said, I rode a Sportster for five years and it handled me with or without my wife no problem.  He turned to me and said “of course not.  A little guy like you wouldn’t have a problem.”  I immediately smiled, laughed and stated that I wasn’t always this small, and that I use to weigh over 300 pounds.  Mark also piped up and stated the same thing.  We had a laugh and Mark continued on with customer, answering all of his remaining questions. 

     It wasn’t till a little while later the impact of what happened really sunk in.  I am sure this is completely common among those that have lost a significant amount of weight, but I still see and think of me has a large person.   The majority of my life has been spent as an overweight or obese man, which means all the life experiences and wisdom I have learned and acquired to this point has been as a fat man.  So as in this situation I talked as if I am 300 pounds and the man I was dealing with of course had no idea and felt like I couldn’t relate to him.  Now that is my fault for not stating that info at first so the customer would understand the context of my comments, but I don’t wanna go around saying that all the time.  I will feel like all I am doing is bragging to people when that is not my intention.  Part of me feels like I need to constantly wear a shirt with my before picture on it so people will understand some of my comments and why I make them. 

     I am constantly making choices based on the fact I think I am bigger than I am.  For example, when I ran my last 5K, at the registration table they asked me what size shirt I wanted and without a thought I told them XL.  I am a freaking size large now not an XL, why do I continue to do that.  On the flipside I don’t really want to have my mindset change.  I feel like if I start to think I am “thin” or a “little guy” I might get to comfortable and let my guard down.  Maybe I will start to feel like I don’t need to worry about eating this or that, skip a few runs for no good reason or I don’t have to put forth any effort anymore.

     I keep having these episodes where one morning I’ll look in the mirror and still see a fat guy that needs to keep going, while other times I look and go holy shit I’ve lost a lot of weight.  The crazy thing is, that when I weighed 300 pounds I would look at myself and see a guy that carries his weight well and think I am good I am not that big, and other times go W.T.F. I AM FREAKING HUGE (#).  It is so crazy how your mind and eyes can play tricks on you.  You think of yourself one way, but your mind sees something else.  You are almost never sure of who you really are and a lot of times people aren’t going to really tell you either.  When I was heavy, no one really said anything about my weight, it seemed like it wasn’t a problem and was no big deal.  At least that is what was said to my face anyway.  For example, when I couldn’t ride the roller coasters at Cedar Point, it wasn’t my fault for being to fat; it was just despicable and degrading that CP would make the seats and belts so small.  How could they treat people this way?  Now I get comments like I am getting to skinny, I need to gain weight, where did Dean go, are you sick.  WTF!!! I finally tip the scale in my favor in this battle with my weight and food demons and now I am to skinny and need to eat.  When will this bullshit stop! Which is it people? Somebody please tell me!

The Loss & The Heartbreak

 You left my life,

But you will never leave my heart!

     It is a sad time in the Running In The Fat Lane household.  We were faced with the decision that no parent of a furry four legged child ever want to have to make.  I know this blog is geared toward my running and weight loss journey, but sometimes life throws you a curve ball that really can affect you.  I thought this would be a nice way to remember our little Stinka and give you all a little window into the family side of my life.

     Back on Valentine's Day of 2003 I asked Mandy to marry me, obviously she said yes, but that was the genesis to where Stinka would eventually enter our lives.  At this point we were not living together and we had decided to have our wedding in June of 2004, so we were trying to decide between renting our buying a home.  At this time the rates were pretty good and it made a lot more sense to buy, so we started looking for our home.  One day we were out shopping and stopped into a Petland store to look around and play with the puppies.  Now I know what your thinking, a fucking pet store, but when we saw Stinka we fell in love with him.  We were young, stupid and didn't know any better, but even those poor dogs deserve loving homes too.  Anyway, we bought him and Hemi became part of our lives.

     To explain the name thing, we originally named him Hemi and stuck with it for a while.  He was trained on it and all his vet papers and his original ID tag had that name.  Well as time went on Hemi became pretty known for; well his stinky farts!!  We were constantly commenting on how bad they were.  Mandy and her family are known for giving their pets all kinds of little nicknames, and one night Mandy called him Stinka.  Over time we were using Stinka more and more and Hemi less and less.  Before we new it, Hemi was a lost cause and Stinka would forever be his name.

     

     In October of 2003 Stinka, Harley (my black domestic short hair cat), Mandy and I moved into our new home.  It wasn't long after that that we felt like Stinka needed a friend and we brought Chopper, who through the same nickname process is now named Mr. Widdle, into our home.  The next 11 years Stinka has been nothing short of pure joy in our lives.  Dogs always seem to know when you need a pick me up and Stinka was always there to give us kisses, I mean A LOT OF KISSES, even when we didn't want any.  Stinka sure didn't like other people a whole hell of a lot, but he did love other dogs.  He would always wanna play with the neighbor dog and bark at every little noise he heard outside, which annoyed the shit out of Mandy and me, but today I miss it terribly.

     I am not going to get into the details of what led us to this decision because frankly it doesn't fucking matter.  It is a hard and painful decision and I don't envy anyone who has to do it.  All that matters to us is that we had 11 wonderful years with him and that we were able to give him what all dogs want, a home with parents that love him.  He was our child, our first child and we loved him every day of his little life. 

RIP Stinka

Mommy & Daddy love you and miss you

Paying it forward

       Hello to all and welcome to Running in the Fat Lane.  I created this blog with the intention of "paying it forward" for all the help and inspiration I have received over the last 16 months in my weight loss and running journey.  

Let me begin by introducing myself.... 

      My Name is Dean.  I am 35 years old, married for almost 10 years to my lovely and supportive wife Mandy. Our children consist of two chihuahuas, Stinka and Widdle and a big old fat kitty cat named Harley. I am the Parts Department manager for a Harley-Davidson Dealer in North West Ohio and have been with Harley-Davidson for 12 years. When I am not working, the wife and I love to go for rides on our motorcycle (a Harley of course), watching movies, reading sci fi novels, getting tattoos and cooking on the grill are just a few joys in my life. When it comes to sports I love hockey and football, I follow the Detroit Red Wings and the Cleveland Browns.  I know, why the Browns, I always say that I can never be accused of being a fair weather fan when you pick to root for the Browns.  I have other interests but we'll save those for another time.  

So the genesis for this blog was the thought that this would be the best way to keep myself committed to my own goals and help inspire others who need to know they are not alone in their weight loss struggles.  The main thing I have learned is there are no short cuts, no fad diets and no magic pills that can achieve sustainable success.

This is me when I thought I was happy!

This is me actually happy!

     So what can you expect from Running in the Fat Lane, well currently I plan to bring you progress reports of my weight loss and how my weekly eating habits effect it, my training to prepare myself for races, race reports and any other info that I feel is worth sharing.  But to be honest, I really don't know where this blog is going to go and how it will evolve, but I feel this will be my best outlet to give back to the community that has helped me.

     I also created a Facebook page to go along with my blog, Click Here to stop over and say hi!