An Explanation

First off, welcome!  Thank you for taking the time to look at this blog.  I have no idea what your motivation is for doing so, but here's mine:

My name is Trace.  I have been fat and happy for most of the 22 years of my life.  I say most because for one glorious year, when I was 17, I was actually at a decent weight.  Unfortunately, I went through that freshman 70 - we all do, after all - and now I am how I am.  In particular, I am 6'0" and, at the start of all of this, 324.8 lbs.  I say at the start of all of this because I am starting this blog about a month into this plan and am currently 308.4 lbs (as of 8/15).  Despite the stares, broken chairs, and a combination of man boobs and hair that make me look like a woman, I have always kept up a reasonably happy front due to my knack for bad jokes.  Hey, whatever keeps you going.

I lost a lot of weight when I was 17 by doing DDR (Dance Dance Revolution).  I lost about 60 lbs over the course of a few months, in fact.  Towards the beginning of this summer, when I realized how important it was that I start to lose weight, I tried it again, only to have joint pain stop me.  That was scary.  I even considered surgery, but I wanted to try it the "legit" way first.  One good thing that came out of my brush with weight loss surgery was a little pamphlet detailing all of the side effects of obesity.  The ones that applied to me were migraines (I have headaches almost daily), shortness of breath, eating disorders (I have horrible acid reflux), and general lower quality of life.

But!  The good thing is that this is all reversible, and I am determined to reverse it.  This blog will document my attempt at lowering my weight.  I haven't determined a lower bound that I am aiming for, since a.) I have an athletic build anyway (so a normal weight for my height wouldn't be healthy for me), and b.) I will also be putting on muscle.  One thing I have learned after researching diets over the summer is that your weight doesn't really matter.  That is to say that the number you see on the scale is irrelevant and can be entirely a secret.  What matters is how you look and how you feel.  There are healthy people at 270 and sickly people at 90.  However, I would like to get to the low 200s if not the 190s.  I have no specific long term goal in mind, but I do have a short term goal that I'll elaborate on in the next post.

And you!  You who think you might want to come with me on this trip.  Thank you!  You made the right choice, I assure you.  I know you have a lot of choices when it comes to where to spend your valuable Blog Dollars, and I appreciate that you have chosen to spend them with me.  Now on with the show!