I was asked to tell my story here rather than post my website... so here is the text copied from my website
Hi, My name is Dave Borgman. I'm 45 years old and live in Roseville, MN.
I decided to start this website to document my weight loss journey. A lot of what I am going to write here is embarrassing, but it needs to be done. If this website will help one person in their journey, or motivate one person to start their own journey, it will be worth the money spent.
I wish I had started from the beginning, but when I started I had no idea it would end up like this.
I was always a big kid and weighed over 200 pounds in high school ( I think). I never really weighed myself because I just did not want to know how much I weighed.
I did hop on the scale I'm guessing in 1998 or so and remember it being 264 pounds. I was still active and able to do things, even though I found myself wanting to do less and less because of my weight.
In 1998 I quit my job as a baker and went back to school to become a computer technician. I moved out of my roommates house and got an apartment closer to school. This was when it all spiraled out of control. Living alone I was able to eat what I wanted because no one was watching me.
As the weight piled on I kind of withdrew socially because of the embarrassment. So I would sit at home and eat because it made me feel good mentally, even though it was destroying my body.
In 2004, I was having trouble sleeping. I would fall asleep at work, have trouble staying awake while driving. It was becoming dangerous. I went and had a sleep study done and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I was given a bi-pap machine and put on supplemental oxygen while I slept.
This helped tremendously. I was able to stay awake at work, and driving was a snap. This was just a band-aid however, and I did not take care of the underlying issue which was my weight gain.
I used to do a yearly golf tournament and bocce ball tournament that my friends put on. In about 2007 I just quit doing these things. The golf tournament was memorial day weekend, and the bocce ball tournament was in July. I just could not handle the heat anymore. They would ask and I would make excuses not to go. Finally I just pretty much told them that I was too fat and couldn't handle it anymore. Unfortunately these friends just quit asking me to do things, and I don't blame them. I was not at a good place in my life.
Why I didn't do anything about this then, I have no idea. I was just plain idiotic.
I do computer tech support and customer service for Nor-tech in Burnsville, MN. While work gave me some social interaction I needed throughout the day, I found myself withdrawing further and further socially. I pretty much hated myself.
I kept needing to buy bigger clothes, I hated going to work. Walking was becoming difficult and i couldn't walk more than 10 feet without getting winded. Part of my job is going on-site to fix computers. I hated it and would try to avoid it whenever I could. Another part of my job is sending replacement parts to customers. For this I would need to go to the warehouse and pull the parts. I found myself saving them all so I could just take one trip out to the warehouse. I would need the help of the cart I was pushing (leaning on it) so I could make that trip to the warehouse. It was becoming really bad.
I knew if I didn't do something soon, I would not be in this world much longer. But yet I did not do anything about it. I won't go into details about how much I would eat, but I'm sure you can imagine. It was just absurd.
In 2010 my brother and his wife went on Weight Watchers. I saw them a few times in summer and noticed a difference. Then I saw them on Thanksgiving and they looked great. My brother had lost 60-70 pounds, I'm not sure how much Melissa lost (you don't ask a woman about her weight) but she also looked great. This got the wheels turning in my head.
My brother had Christmas at his house in 2010 and that day I made a commitment to myself that I was going to try Weight Watchers. I signed up for Weight Watchers Online For Men that day when I got home and set a date of January 3rd 2011 to start my journey. Did I think it would actually work? No, I had tried many diets before and nothing worked. With the help of my brother I prepared the week before with groceries and healthier food.
Then the morning of Jan 3rd came. They don't make a normal scale that could register my weight so I used the shipping scale at work. I was scared to see how much I actually weighed, I was expecting over 500 pounds. I made sure no one was around except for our shipping guru Chad. I made him swear not to tell anybody what my weight was as I was pretty embarrassed about it. So I stepped on the scale and got my starting weight. It was better than I thought it would be. 456 pounds was the reading. So I was off on my journey!!
I've never been a big vegetable or fruits guy and I'm still not. It was all about finding alternatives to what I liked that was healthier for you. The first week went by and it wasn't that bad. I wasn't hungry at all. Like my brother said, it was kind of a game to see how much you could eat within the point values that Weight Watchers sets for you based on your age, height, and weight.
The first week I only lost one pound, and thought to myself, well just like all the others it doesn't work. But I was determined to keep going. The second week I lost 5 pounds. I was feeling really bloated but just kept going. It must have been my body reacting to the change in diet. The third week I lost 9 pounds and this is when it clicked in my head, that this really may work.
The fourth week I lost 20 pounds in one week. WOW!! this is really working. The fifth week I also lost 20 pounds. Holy crap!! Even just losing 50 pounds I was feeling so much better. People at work were noticing, it was getting easier to walk. By March 28th I had lost 100 pounds.
The weight wasn't coming off as easy now but I was still doing 3 to 4 pounds a week, and the more I lost the more it motivated me. I was able to handle the heat better (I still hate the heat and humidity but not as much as I used to).
By December 9th, 2011 I had lost 200 pounds. WOW!! What a difference a year made. Everything was just so much easier. At this time I booked a flight to Monterey, California for March. My cousin had always bugged me to come out and see him and hang out. I signed up for golf lessons, as I wanted to get back into golf. I bought new clubs.
March 16th came around. It was 80 degrees here in MN and maybe 60 in Monterey. Not what I was expecting when I booked the trip, but I was off to the airport finally with my suitcase and golf clubs. a year and a half earlier I would never have thought of doing this, and I was excited. Even just getting on the plane and being able to use the lap tray was amazing to me. I didn't need a seat belt extender. The trip was AMAZING. I am so glad I went. I went golfing for free thanks to my cousins neighbor who works in the IT department for Pebble Beach. I didn't get to golf Pebble but was able to walk the cart path along the famed 18th hole at Pebble Beach and the the facilities. We also visited Spyglass before we went to Pebble's 4th best course, The Old Course at Del Monte, and golfed 18 holes.
The whole trip was amazing. Golf, the drive down to Big Sur, the visits to Carmel, the Carmel Highlands resort, Mission Ranch (Clint Eastwoods restaurant), the Sardine Factory, the Monterey Bay aquarium, whale watching trip, the drive we took on 17 mile drive, deep sea fishing, and to top it off, a half hour helicopter tour from Monterey down the coast to Carmel and back. Simply amazing!!!!
Best time I've had in my life. It would not have been possible if I had not started on this weight loss journey.
As of today, July4th, 2012, I have lost 241 pounds and weigh 215 pounds. I have went from a size 8X shirt to 2X. I used to wear size 6X pants (not sure what the waist size was), I can now wear a 36 waist Wrangler Jeans.
As far as other things that have changed. I have dated again, I'm going out more, I joined a golf league and golf every Thursday night, bought a new car and there is a lot more room between my belly and the steering wheel. I joined a gym and am going daily, (once even went twice in one day). There will be a sky diving trip sometime this summer!!! I'm just enjoying life again.
I have contacted the local school district to see if they have a program for overweight teens that I would like to help. They have asked if I would also be interested in speaking to their staff wellness program, so I'm kind of excited for those possibilities to help other people.
If you stumble upon this website, and are looking to change anything in your life. Whether it be weight, alcohol, drugs, parenting, anything you think that needs changing in your life. My hope is that my story will show you it can be done. You just need to make that step!!!!
congrats on a job well done!!
