Elbows and Water Coolers

Thank you so much for viewing my blog. My name is Joshua, I’m twenty years old, and I’m currently a sophmore in college. I’m planning on double majoring in nutrition(dietetics), and computer science. I want to focuse on adolescent children and help as much as possible to fight this silent epidemic called obesity. I’m currently getting my AA degree then planning on going to some university outside of Missouri. I’ve lost a total of one hundred pounds. Maybe a little more, but I’ll just keep it there for now. I’m very proud of myself and it has changed everything about me. From my physical apperience, attitude, to a whole new outlook on life. I can thank noone but God and my drive to do something about my weight problem. It’s been four years since I started my journey and I’ve learned so much. I’ve tried blogging but never found a sense of community I’m hoping 3fatchicks can provide.

Here’s a little background on my journey up til now. Feel free to email me or leave comments if you have any questions or thoughts to share. I’m very open and love talking to new people. Either to make a new friend, or to give some sort of advice :)

In between 10th and 11th grade I decided to start dieting and exercising because I hated the way I looked. Not only did I hate the way I looked, I hated everything about me. From my hair, to my gigantic man breasts, to my guilty eating habits. I hated it all. I was depressed, I had few friends, and most importantly I wasn’t happy. I played a game called counter-strike professionally for awhile and that added to my problem. That lead to MMORPG’s and other games. That summer I decided to go to summer school for P.E. In that class I learned the basics of how to lose weight, and opportunities to stay active. Something I not necessarally wanted, but something I needed to do for myself. The most I ever weighed was 270 pounds. I’m currently 170 at 9% body fat.

My first step was no more soda. I drank about 2-3 twelve packs a week, including weekends. After a month I lost twenty pounds alone. I didn’t change the way I ate, or increase my physical activities. It just showed me how awful soda is for your body. After my summer class I started eating less. I actually really enjoyed SlimFast shakes. I would have one in the morning with nothing else, and one for lunch with something small. However, when I was at my prime of losing weight I would sometimes just have a shake for lunch. I highly DONT recommend this because it’s not healthy for you what so ever. Looking back now I guess I starved myself little by little. It was a very low calorie diet, very low.

 During my junior year in high school I still played computer games, had no physical activities but my eating habits were getting better and better every week. I was measuring everything I ate, and counting calories to stay at a 1,500-2,000 range. I would eat every 3-4 hours tiny meals. Sometimes they weren’t even healthy meals/snacks but my metabolism was increasing every day like I had imagined.

By my senior year I had lost a total of 60 pounds. I was feeling great, loving life, and had the urge to keep going. I enrolled in two weight lifting classes and a basic sports P.E. class. Talk about a good edjucation haha. Every morning I would wake up at 6:00 and run 2-3 miles on my father’s treadmill in his garage. Cold or hot I didn’t care, I just wanted to run my little heart out. During classes I was basically just working out. So I had my cardio, lifting, and diet under control. By the end of my senior year I had lost a total of 85 pounds. Where I hit a wall.

My first year out of high school I took a break from losing weight. Mostly just so I could enjoy myself and my new look, and my new everything. Not to say I stopped my new eating habits. I’m excited to say I kept the weight off very easily and I had little to no problems doing so. After a year of that I decided to go for the big one hundred. All I did was increase my diet that was more lean and started running and exercising more often. December of 2008 I hit 170 pounds and hear I am now, 100 pounds thinner. 

I’m hoping with this blog I can inspire, help, or just be a friend to those that have either been through a journey of a lifetime, or are currently on that journey. I also made a commitment to stop eating fast food entirely for the summer, and hopefully forever.