As most of you are aware by now from my recent Facebook picture. I have been dropping some pounds since the beginning of 2014. This all started when I realized that this was my last year before I turn 30. Yes, I have had a wonderful 29 years here on this Earth, but in the past few years a lot of my thought process has changed with having 2 children. I want to live and be a good example for my children in all aspects of my life. I show and teach them as they grow to be the best that you can possibly be! Having Brinley and Landon has also made me want to experience as much as life has to offer with them. I knew that this meant that I needed to get my health under control so that there would be nothing that would keep me from experiencing life with them. I knew that this was a time in my life where I could make a lifestyle change and I would still have the ability to turn things around before my health got worse. I felt that at the rate I was going I was not going to be around, or at least not in good enough health, to enjoy Brinley and Landon's lives when they got older. I want to be there for all their milestones in life - every graduation, their wedding, and most importantly I want to meet my grandchildren someday (a long time from now). So, all of these thoughts, plus a lifetime of being overweight finally led me to decide that 2014 was going to be the year that I took control of my health.
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| Left picture was taken Christmas 2013 and right picture was taken on July 2, 2014. |
Many of you may not truly know how bad my weight had become because I seem to not look the part so to say. I am always astonished as to how much people think that I weigh and believe me I have talked about this with many different people. When I tell people how much I actually weigh they have a hard time believing me. On January 1 of 2014 I weighed in at 292 pounds, which is the weight that I am at in the above picture to the left. A little over 6 months later on July 2 I finally got to a milestone of 50 pounds lost, which put me on the scales weighing 242. This was a huge accomplishment for me, but I still have a lot of work to do.
I don't want you to think that I put all this weight on in the past few years because this has been a culmination of 29 years of eating poorly and not exercising. So, I decided to let you in on some of my past and show some pictures of when I was younger and how I progressed to where I am today.
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| Here I am in my first year with my cousin Mark and sister. |
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| Family photo when there were only 4 of us. This also looks like it is my first year. |
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| Dressed up for Halloween in my frog outfit and pictured with my Grandpa. |
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| Celebrating mom's birthday. I have a candy necklace on and Andrea looks thrilled. |
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| Nothing like celebrating Christmas morning in your undies and a sweatshirt! |
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| Andrea and I patiently waiting to meet our little brother. |
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| My first day of Kindergarten. |
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| Visiting Mammoth Cave. |
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| The Heflin Men |
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| Sunday best for Easter |
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| Andrea and I posing in our good clothes. |
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| Most of you don't know, but I actually did a little modeling growing up. Not really. Please don't ever take pictures of your children that they will be embarrassed about one day! |
For my entire life, that I can remember, I have also been a bigger kid. This in turn made me into a larger teenager and then an obese adult. Our culture (at least the one I grew up in) puts a lot of focus on food. I can remember the phrase growing up "clean your plate", which might just be the absolute worst thing that you can tell a child. I never had a problem with cleaning my plate as long as it was something that I liked. Some people even promise a child dessert for cleaning their plate which makes it that much worse.
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| Posing with my cousin Kenneth. Some family will tell you that growing up I was his mini me. |
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| Family photo at Mamaw's house. |
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| Dad looks tired! (Nice green sports coat, too!) The three of us with Whitney. |
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| The three of us with Aunt Mildred. I also seemed to be in a sour mood when she came to visit from New York. |
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| With our Mamaw. |
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| Family picture. I like that I have my hands around McKinley's neck like I am choking him. |
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| Two Indians and Davy Crockett for Halloween one year. |
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| We all got to be a part of our very good friends Christella and Jon's wedding. |
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| With our Uncle Michael (my mom's youngest brother) and our cousin Gretchen |
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| With a bunch of our cousins: Kelsey, Kasey, Kyli Jo, Amanda, Whitney, Jonathan Jr, and Morgan. |
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My first love of sports started with baseball. I mainly played first base and wore number 35 for my favorite player Frank Thomas who played for the Chicago White Sox.
I can also remember people saying terms to me like husky, big boned, and well fed instead of just saying that I was an overweight child. I know that self esteem is being developed in younger years, but sometimes children and their parents might just need to be told sometimes how things really are. Because believe you me their peers are sure to tell them that they are fat and pick on them. I can remember many times growing up when kids in my class poked fun of me because of my size. Yes this was very hard to hear and I can remember many times when I was in elementary school when I went on a "diet" because I no longer wanted to be made fun of. Parents are doing their children a disservice by not telling them that they are overweight. Parents are supposed to be the responsible individuals and do what is best for their children. Many health problems can be directly related to unhealthy eating habits.
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| Family vacation to Disney World. |
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| McLean County Middle School Academic Team: Laura C, Tabitha H, Brad H, Ryan W, Eric B, Cassidy W, Nick J, Daniel H, Andy B, and Ryan W. |
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| First time playing football was in middle school. |
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| Family trip to Florida where we visited the alligator farm. |
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| Universal Studios with Hercules and Xena. This was my style growing up with the long socks pulled up to my knees. |
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| Celebrating my birthday one year. |
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| Picture with our family pet Hopper. It was a rabbit that we found in the yard that had been abandoned by its mother. We kept it in the upstairs bathtub for a few months before letting it go in the backyard. To this day every rabbit that my mother sees she calls it Hopper. |
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| Senior Prom 2003. This was time in my life when I got to the heaviest I have ever been. I weighed 300 pounds one day and decided that I needed to get to work before heading off to college. |
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| We have given ourselves the title of "The 3 best siblings that anyone could have." |
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| In college I got into the best shape of my life because I was on the football team and working out almost everyday helped offset the amount of food that I was eating. |
A big pet peeve of mine is when people tell me that they are going on a "diet". I am glad that people are trying to do something to better themselves, but I feel that when people begin and are sometimes successful that they often end up going back to their old ways after reaching their goal. This is why over the past 6 months I have never once started myself on a diet. I have eaten all the foods that I would normally eat but I have just eaten in moderation and I have tried to limit the amount of snacks that I consume. I know that after I reach my goal I want to be sure and maintain a healthy lifestyle. I want to be a positive role model for my children and want to see them grow up and be healthy too. Some people even do calorie counter apps on their phones, and have great success, but I have refrained from that as well because I know that it is something I don't plan on using the rest of my life.
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My fiancee after graduation from Georgetown College
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| Our wedding day with my family. |
After I finished playing football at Georgetown I really didn't have much motivation to continue working out on a regular basis. This wouldn't have been that bad of a problem if I had cut back on eating. However, I continued to eat the same way that I did when I was practicing, running, and weightlifting 6 days a week as a member of the Georgetown Tiger Football team.
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| On a cruise to Mexico that we took on my last spring break ever. |
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| This was our last vacation before we knew that we were going to be parents. We really enjoyed our 2 weeks in Australia. |
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Maternity pictures that we had done a few weeks before Brinley was born.
Our first family photo session.
Brinley's 1 year pictures. |
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Landon's newborn picture session.
I actually came in 3rd place in my age group of 21-29 year old. |
With my lifestyle change I have also started running and biking. I have actually enjoyed running more than ever because I am able to take Brinley and Landon with me. This serves as a constant reminder of why I am trying to get in better shape and live a healthier lifestyle. Running has also been a way for me to stay competitive as I am always trying to beat a previous best time or run further than I ever have. This year I actually competed in my first ever 5K and a few weeks ago I participated in my first 5K with both kids in the jogging stroller. They were a lot of fun and challenging at the same time. I actually told Jennifer the other day that I might be signing up for a half marathon. Ultimately I would love one day to complete in a mini triathlon.
Don't think that it is ever too late to start. By getting up and doing some form of activity you are doing more than you had been. You just have to remain self motivated and to not get down on yourself when you have a bad day, but to make the next day an even better one. Set small goals for yourself to help you reach your bigger goals in life. Good luck as you start on your lifestyle change. Thanks for reading and God Bless!
